Environmental impact of information and communication technologies including rebound effects

Information and communication technology (ICT) services are attracting great interest because they have the potential to overcome many of the complications of conventional systems and to save money and/or time. Moreover, ICT services are expected to reduce burdens on the social environment. We have reported the environmental impact of some ICT services and clarified the potency of our approach to its reduction. However, ICT services are said to generate rebound effects such as inducing greater demand for merchandise or new activities. These rebound effects can lead to new environmental impacts. This paper presents a new concept for the evaluation of ICT environmental rebound effects. This concept includes model analysis, which was based on a user questionnaire, and the LCA method. As an example this method was applied to a videoconference. The environmental rebound effect was estimated to be smaller than the total environmental burden. We believe this approach provides a convenient method for evaluating the total environmental impact of ICT services.