Carbon Footprint of Mobile Devices: Open Questions in Carbon Footprinting of Emerging Mobile ICT Technologies

Abstract

Carbon footprinting is becoming a mainstream practice in product design and marketing. At the same time, consumer products are becoming so complex that their footprinting becomes increasingly difficult. The supply chain of a typical mobile ICT device (i.e., smartphone) contains hundreds of suppliers in several continents and the product itself is composed of several complex subassemblies. The use of the smartphones also has large systemic effects (e.g., cloud computing, server load, increased consumption, and green applications), which are commonly left outside the scope of product carbon footprints. In this chapter, we argue that the parts which are most easily left out of a study are in fact the most significant for the whole product life cycle. The chapter is arranged in subchapters for each topic: components and subassemblies without emission inventory data available, energy consumption of data transfer and storage in clouds, the effect of recycling and consumer behavior, induced consumption, and the potential of green applications.