Information Infrastructures and Sustainability

Today sustainability is a basic demand. It often contradicts with the need of an affluent society. The life quality of industrial countries could never lower, if trading of extended artefacts (products-services) will be based on exchanging information-intensive deliveries. The wealth build-up will follow in the knowledge society, fostering eco-consistent behaviours by balancing tangibles decay by intangibles increase. The idea is described by the KILT model, which characterises by the TYPUS metrics. The paper discusses some topics of the prospected scenario, underlining supply chain issues, showing that the ICT options are critical aids to create the required information environment. Some basic trends are sketched, focusing on products-services trading, supplied by extended enterprises, under supervision of independent certifying bodies.