Guidelines for Environmental Sustainability for the ICT Sector

1. Guidelines for Environmental Sustainability for the ICT Sector Sustainable Products Thomas Okrasinski (Alcatel-Lucent) Shailendra Mudgal (BIOIS) Contributors: Alcatel-Lucent, BIOIS, BT, Climate Associates, Datec, Dell, Ernst & Young, ETNO, Huawei, Imperial College, IRCPhoNeT, ITU, MicroPro Computers, Microsoft, PE International AG, RIM, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Pisa), StEP Initiative, Thomson Reuters, UNEP Basel Convention, UNU, Vodafone Ghana

2. Sustainable ProductsBest Practices Guidance Standard • Provides technical guidance on environmentally conscious design principles and best practices as to how ICT companies can provide products that are more “environmentally conscious” throughout their full life cycle • Initial version focuses on the environment. Future input will need to encompass social and ethical aspects for sustainable design. • Standard covers 3 main areas: • ICT network infrastructure equipment (NIE) • ICT customer premises equipment (CPE) • ICT life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies, standards, life-cycle thinking approaches, estimators, tools, databases • Key criteria used to select the guidance principles and best practices: • Designer-based: the principle / practice is within the scope of a product designer • Actionable: the principle / practice proposes a means for improving the design • Broad-ranged: the principle / practice applies to a broad range of products within the ICT sector • Best-in-Class: the principle / practice focuses on creating the best solution possible

3. Sustainable ProductsBest Practices Guidance Standard

4. Sustainable ProductsBest Practices Guidance Standard Document layout: • Scope • General References to Other Standards / Work Streams • Best Environmental Practices • General Principles and Guidance • Specific Guidance • Product Value / Lifetime Extension • Energy Efficiency • Substances and Materials • Emissions • Batteries • Product Packaging / Packing • Designing for End-of-Life Treatment • Checklists • Metrics

5. Sustainable ProductsBest Practices Guidance Standard International Standards: • ECMA-341 (4th Edition, December 2010) - Environmental Design Considerations for ICT and CE Products • ETSI – Environmental Engineering (EE); Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of ICT equipment, networks and services: General methodology and common requirements (finalized on 7 October 2011). • IEC TC-111 – “Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems”. • ISO 14044:2006 - Environmental management - Life cycle assessment – Requirements and Guidelines • ISO 14062:2002 - Environmental management - Integrating environmental aspects into product design and development • ISO 14067 – Greenhouse gases – Carbon footprint of products (under development). The standard will consist of two parts: Part 1 for quantification of carbon footprint; and Part 2 for harmonization of methodologies for communicating the carbon footprint information. • ITU L1410: Methodology for environmental impacts assessment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) goods, networks, and services (pending finalization in late 2011). • ITU L1420: Methodology for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment of Information and Communication Technologies in organizations (pending finalization in late 2011).

6. Sustainable ProductsBest Practices Guidance Standard General guidance: • Ensure inputs and outputs in the product life cycle do not cause environmental degradation or adversely affect human health by: • specifying the cleanest source of energy • specifying non-hazardous and otherwise environmentally “clean” substances, especially in regards to user health • specifying clean production processes for the product and in selection of components • installing protection against release of pollutants and hazardous substances • ensuring that wastes are water-based and biodegradable Specific guidance: • Product Value / Lifetime Extension: improve durability of the product and components by: • improving aesthetics and functionality to ensure the aesthetic life is equal to the technical life • ensuring minimal maintenance and minimizing failure modes in the product and its components • specifying better materials, surface treatments, or structural arrangements to protect products from dirt, corrosion, and wear

7. Sustainable ProductsBest Practices Guidance Standard General Energy Efficiency Measures: • Be aware of the product life cycle phase that will consume the most energy. The intended use patterns of the product, including its typical system interactions, need to be considered. Where possible, the designer should strive for improving the overall system performance with respect to energy efficiency. • The designer should enable the most energy efficient “on-modes” and transitions to “energy saving- modes” as the default modes. The end-user should be made aware of this and instructions on proper use of available energy saving controls and/or settings should be provided to the end-user. • Software is highly relevant for the overall energy efficiency of a system. The designer should balance the flexibility of software running on multipurpose devices and the energy efficiency of special purpose hardware. Consider power saving modes and peak energy shaving opportunities. The key will be to make sure that service and/or functionality is not adversely affected when the system goes into and later recovers from sleep or peak-shave mode.

8. More information • Additional partners and contributors are needed and encouraged to become part of the project • Contact: Cristina Bueti (cristina.bueti@itu.int) • http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/ess/index.html