Towards sustainable ICT

Abstract

While information and communication technologies (ICT) can play a crucial role in tackling issues related to sustainability, and reducing resource consumption in every sector, they also consume huge amounts of energy, andthis, combined with the predicted rapid growth of demand for communication services, is expected to make the whole sector more and more energy-hungry in the coming years. The sustainability of ICT itself is also becoming an urgent challenge. Actions can be taken in several directions: i) introducing a massive and pervasive use of renewable energy sources, a step that requires the design of communication services to be revised; ii) enforcing rules and policies that induce the provisioning of sustainable services and promote the adoption of proper attitudes; and iii) involving the users who will become conscious consumers and participate in crowdsourcing projects tomonitor consumption and foster energy-aware behaviours.