Environmental sustainability and ICT : a look at impact factors
Montero Terán, Heidy Noelia (2023)
Pro gradu -tutkielma
2023
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2023042839298
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2023042839298
Tiivistelmä
This thesis seeks to determine the potential impact factors from ICT regarding environmental sustainability in ICT and identify the potential metrics that would provide reliable information and serve as evidence. This research was carried out in a real-case scenario from the business context with the collaboration of a Finnish company from the automotive sector.
The study employed interviews and a focus group as methods for primary data collection. The participants are managers and specialists from the ICT department. The analysis technique used is the deductive thematic analysis and pattern matching. The focus group findings served as a triangulation method for the results. The LES model (Hilty and Aebischer, 2015) was chosen as the framework for this research.
Results showed that media substitution is the most present type of resource substitution from both the production and consumption perspectives and that process optimization presents a significant possibility for advancement. Multidisciplinary cooperation between specialists in sustainability, logistics/production, and IT is necessary to take advantage of this impact element. Cybersecurity is the biggest drawback for the externalization of control type of resource replacement. Further, ICT Sector Guidance Reporting Standard, ISO14064, and ISO50001 can be used as benchmarks to assess ICT vendors and resource utilization. Future research should focus on quantification of the environmental impacts of ICT, electricity consumption analytics, and developing a decision-making tool with environmental sustainability as criterion to help managers choose suppliers.
The study employed interviews and a focus group as methods for primary data collection. The participants are managers and specialists from the ICT department. The analysis technique used is the deductive thematic analysis and pattern matching. The focus group findings served as a triangulation method for the results. The LES model (Hilty and Aebischer, 2015) was chosen as the framework for this research.
Results showed that media substitution is the most present type of resource substitution from both the production and consumption perspectives and that process optimization presents a significant possibility for advancement. Multidisciplinary cooperation between specialists in sustainability, logistics/production, and IT is necessary to take advantage of this impact element. Cybersecurity is the biggest drawback for the externalization of control type of resource replacement. Further, ICT Sector Guidance Reporting Standard, ISO14064, and ISO50001 can be used as benchmarks to assess ICT vendors and resource utilization. Future research should focus on quantification of the environmental impacts of ICT, electricity consumption analytics, and developing a decision-making tool with environmental sustainability as criterion to help managers choose suppliers.