Impacts of ICT on the natural ecosystem: A grassroot analysis for promoting socio-environmental sustainability

As human beings are becoming increasingly dependent on technology, the relationship of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with the natural environment is continuously degrading. In the past, ICT was often regarded as a low-carbon enabler but its widespread adoption has adversely turned it into a power drainer. The negative consequence is climate change, which is a complex social problem with rebound effects on human beings. Taking cognizance of this problem, it is becoming vital for each and every computer user to contribute and reduce the growing carbon footprint of ICT. This work identifies and analyses the key contributors in diminishing the carbon footprint of ICT before investigating into the adoption process by end users via a proposed Knowledge-Implementation-Effect Cycle. The relationship between the key contributors and the adoption process by end users is studied via nine research questions to identify key limitations and finally recommend potential solutions to further help in reducing the ICT carbon footprint.

[1]  Thomas Way,et al.  Methods, metrics and motivation for a green computer science program , 2009, SIGCSE '09.

[2]  Joost Breuker,et al.  A cognitive science perspective on knowledge acquisition , 2013, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[3]  P. Linares,et al.  Energy Efficiency: Economics and Policy , 2010 .

[4]  J. R. Barrett,et al.  Knowledge engineering in agriculture , 1989 .

[5]  Ernst Worrell,et al.  Technology transfer of energy efficient technologies in industry: a review of trends and policy issues , 2001 .

[6]  Bertram C. Bruce,et al.  Educational Technology: Media for Inquiry, Communication, Construction, and Expression , 1997 .

[7]  George Siemens.  Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age , 2004 .

[8]  Beñat Bilbao-Osorio and Soumitra Dutta and Bruno Lanvin.  Global Information Technology Report 2014. Rewards and Risks of Big Data , 2014 .

[9]  Melody E. Schuhwerk,et al.  Green or Non-Green? Does Type of Appeal Matter When Advertising a Green Product? , 1995 .

[10]  E. Ostrom,et al.  The Struggle to Govern the Commons , 2003, Science.

[11]  S. C. Ehrmann.  IMPLEMENTING THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES: Technology as Lever , 2004 .

[12]  Bob J. Wielinga.  Reflections on 25+ years of knowledge acquisition , 2013, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[13]  David H. Jonassen,et al.  Learning to Solve Problems with Technology: A Constructivist Perspective , 2002 .

[14]  Azizah Abdul Rahman,et al.  Energy efficiency and low carbon enabler green it framework for data centers considering green metrics , 2012 .

[15]  J. Houghton,et al.  Climate change 2001 : the scientific basis , 2001 .

[16]  Wynn Calder,et al.  INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO PROMOTE HIGHER EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT , 2003 .

[17]  Alemayehu Molla,et al.  Organizational Motivations for Green IT: Exploring Green IT Matrix and Motivation Models , 2009, PACIS.

[18]  Jing Zhang,et al.  Promoting green ICT in China: A framework based on innovation system approaches , 2012 .

[19]  K. Trenberth,et al.  Modern Global Climate Change , 2003, Science.

[20]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[21]  Carol Baroudi,et al.  Green IT For Dummies , 2009 .

[22]  Lorenz M. Hilty,et al.  The future impact of ICT on environmental sustainability , 2004 .

[23]  Shi-Kuo Chang,et al.  An Interactive System for Chinese Character Generation and Retrieval , 1973, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern..

[24]  Friedemann Mattern,et al.  ICT for Green – How Computers Can Help Us to Conserve Energy , 2010 .

[25]  M. Wolsink.  The research agenda on social acceptance of distributed generation in smart grids: Renewable as common pool resources , 2012 .

[26]  Urs Hölzle,et al.  High-efficiency power supplies for home computers and servers , 2006 .

[27]  Erol Gelenbe,et al.  Energy-Efficient Cloud Computing , 2010, Comput. J..

[28]  G. Griffa,et al.  Energy consumption trends in the next generation access network — a telco perspective , 2007, INTELEC 07 - 29th International Telecommunications Energy Conference.

[29]  H. Herring,et al.  Technological innovation, energy efficient design and the rebound effect , 2007 .

[30]  Edmundo Tovar Caro,et al.  The IT Crowd: Are We Stereotypes? , 2008, IT Professional.

[31]  Aseem Prakash,et al.  GREEN MARKETING, PUBLIC POLICY AND MANAGERIAL STRATEGIES , 2002 .

[32]  Teresa A. Myers,et al.  The Polls—Trends Twenty Years of Public Opinion about Global Warming , 2007 .

[33]  Kurt Squire,et al.  Environmental Detectives—the development of an augmented reality platform for environmental simulations , 2008 .

[34]  Peter Goodyear,et al.  Educational design and networked learning: Patterns, pattern languages and design practice , 2005 .

[35]  Horace Herring,et al.  Energy efficiency—a critical view , 2006 .

[36]  N. Miller,et al.  Does Green Pay Off , 2008 .

[37]  Didier Colle,et al.  Overall ICT footprint and green communication technologies , 2010, 2010 4th International Symposium on Communications, Control and Signal Processing (ISCCSP).

[38]  Bruce Nordman,et al.  User guide to power management for PCs and monitors , 1997 .

[39]  A. Cortese.  THE CRITICAL ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE , 2003 .

[40]  Jonathan Wareham,et al.  Harnessing the Power of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Innovations Case Narrative: Specialisterne) , 2008, Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization.

[41]  Jens Rasmussen,et al.  Skills, rules, and knowledge; signals, signs, and symbols, and other distinctions in human performance models , 1983, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[42]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  It's not all about "Green": energy use in low-income communities , 2009, UbiComp.

[43]  Bruce Paton,et al.  The economics of energy efficiency: insights from voluntary participation programs , 2000 .

[44]  Paul Johannesson,et al.  The State of IT Governance in Organizations from the Public Sector in a Developing Country , 2009 .

[45]  S. Owens.  ‘Engaging the Public’: Information and Deliberation in Environmental Policy , 2000 .

[46]  Jane Seale,et al.  Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design , 2004, Comput. Educ..

[47]  A. Hochschild.  Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure , 1979, American Journal of Sociology.

[48]  H. Nakagami,et al.  Stand-by Electricity Consumption in Japanese Houses , 1999 .

[49]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  Mathematics and geometry education with collaborative augmented reality , 2003, Comput. Graph..

[50]  Hepu Deng,et al.  An International Comparison of Green IT Diffusion , 2009 .

[51]  Bradford F. Mills,et al.  What's driving energy efficient appliance label awareness and purchase propensity? , 2010 .

[52]  San Murugesan,et al.  Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices , 2008, IT Professional.

[53]  K. Green,et al.  System Innovation and the Transition to Sustainability: Theory, Evidence and Policy , 2005 .

[54]  Ana Maria Bojica,et al.  Knowledge acquisition and corporate entrepreneurship: Insights from Spanish SMEs in the ICT sector , 2012 .

[55]  S. Yousefi,et al.  Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs): Challenges and Perspectives , 2006, 2006 6th International Conference on ITS Telecommunications.

[56]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  Wake on wireless: an event driven energy saving strategy for battery operated devices , 2002, MobiCom '02.

[57]  Tony Cornford,et al.  Creating knowledge for sustainability: using SSM for describing knowledge environments and conceptualising technological interventions , 2002 .

[58]  Vladas Griskevicius,et al.  INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Going Green to Be Seen : Status , Reputation , and Conspicuous Conservation , 2010 .

[59]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[60]  Richard E. Brown,et al.  Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers , 2002 .

[61]  A. Mansoor,et al.  Active mode power supply efficiency: key issues, measured data and the design competition opportunity , 2004, Nineteenth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2004. APEC '04..

[62]  Vinod Namboodiri,et al.  Energy Consumption of Personal Computing Including Portable Communication Devices , 2011 .

[63]  William R. King,et al.  Motivating knowledge sharing through a knowledge management system , 2008 .

[64]  Andrius Plepys,et al.  The Grey Side of ICT , 2002 .

[65]  Graeme G. Shanks,et al.  Organizational Motivation and Interorganizational Systems Adoption Process: Empirical Evaluation in the Australian Automotive Industry , 2007, J. Electron. Commer. Organ..

[66]  Stephen E. Deering,et al.  Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification , 1995, RFC.

[67]  Atul K. Jain,et al.  Stability: Energy for a Greenhouse Planet Advanced Technology Paths to Global Climate , 2008 .

[68]  C. Ringler,et al.  Adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia and South Africa: options and constraints. , 2009 .

[69]  Franklin Wabwoba,et al.  International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research Barriers to Implementation of Green Ict in Kenya 2. Green Ict , 2022 .

[70]  Aaron M. McCright,et al.  Challenging global warming as a social problem: An analysis of the conservative movement's counter-claims , 2000 .

[71]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Charting past, present, and future research in ubiquitous computing , 2000, TCHI.

[72]  Paul Johns,et al.  It's not easy being green: understanding home computer power management , 2009, CHI.

[73]  D. Greene,et al.  Energy efficiency and consumption — the rebound effect — a survey , 2000 .

[74]  Mark Weiser.  The computer for the 21st century , 1991 .

[75]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Information Systems and Environmentally Sustainable Development: Energy Informatics and New Directions for the IS Community , 2010, MIS Q..

[76]  Pål Strandbakken,et al.  Identification of households' barriers to energy saving solutions , 2008 .

[77]  Erik Duval,et al.  Technology Enhanced Learning , 2017 .

[78]  Paramvir Bahl,et al.  Somniloquy: Augmenting Network Interfaces to Reduce PC Energy Usage , 2009, NSDI.

[79]  R. J. Brennan,et al.  System-Level Display Power Reduction Technologies for Portable Computing and Communications Devices , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Portable Information Devices.

[80]  Matthew E. Kahn.  Do greens drive Hummers or hybrids? Environmental ideology as a determinant of consumer choice , 2007 .

[81]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Institutional Factors in Information Technology Innovation , 1994, Inf. Syst. Res..

[82]  Ernest Foo,et al.  Barriers to information technology governance adoption : a preliminary empirical investigation , 2011 .

[83]  Mirghani Mohamed,et al.  The role of information and communication technology (ICT) in mobilization of sustainable development knowledge: a quantitative evaluation , 2010, J. Knowl. Manag..

[84]  Marilyn A Brown.  Market failures and barriers as a basis for clean energy policies , 2001 .

[85]  Franco Davoli,et al.  Energy-aware performance optimization for next-generation green network equipment , 2009, PRESTO '09.

[86]  Jason Anderson,et al.  Climate change and natural disasters: Scientific evidence of a possible relation between recent natural disasters and climate change , 2006 .

[87]  Weihua Zhuang,et al.  Infotainment and road safety service support in vehicular networking: From a communication perspective , 2011 .