Considerations for macro-level studies of ICT's enabling potential

Abstract

This paper explores how companies and other stakeholders could assess the macro-level enabling potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in other words, the ability of ICT to reduce the negative sustainability impact of other industry sectors at a society level, and identifies some important considerations for such assessments including impact trends, addressable emissions, boundary setting and ICT solution categories of particular interest. To illustrate the complexity of performing macro-level estimates of ICT's enabling potential, this paper also discusses the 2020 enabling potential proposed by GeSI in their SMARTer2020 report. In addition, it investigates how organizations present GHG emissions reductions in different sectors where such reductions have already been achieved and finds that the claimed GHG emission reductions and energy savings would often need more details on calculations, methodology and background data.