Chairs: Anna Furberg   Birgit Brunklaus   Kari-Anne Lyng   Reinout Heijungs    

The production, use and waste management of hardware and software are associated with significant environmental and social direct impacts. At the same time, digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) can promote sustainability, for example by the optimization of processes leading to indirect effects like reduced energy demand. Uncertainties are extensive for this rapidly changing sector, as exemplified by contradictory results in future projections for the global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector’s direct climate impact (Bieser et al., 2023) and the scarcity of LCAs on AI systems (Ligozat et al, 2022). Several key aspects in influencing the impacts of digitalisation, such as number of devices, data traffic and energy efficiency improvements, have been identified (Furberg & Finnveden, 2023) but further research is needed on how to model these aspects in future LCAs. The main focus of this session is on methodological developments and case studies for LCA of digital technologies.As digital services and AI systems often are multi-functional by nature, LCA of such services require special attention when it comes to definition of the functional unit (Shi et al., 2022). The functional unit and the system boundaries must be appropriate to the scope of the system: Is the study intended to give decision support on what to digitalise and what to use AI for, or to optimise an existing or planned system?Submissions that address and provide recommendations related to methodological challenges while considering direct and/or indirect impacts are highly suited for this session. Examples of expected case study areas for submissions include LCAs of currently fast-growing digital technologies, such as AI and the Internet of Things, and LCAs of software.

Bieser et al (2023). A review of assessments of the greenhouse gas footprint and abatement potential of information and communication technology. Environ Impact Assess Rev, 99, 107033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2022.107033Furberg, A., & Finnveden, G. (2023). Towards the identification of key aspects for future scenarios of the information and communication technology sector’s climate impact – Extended abstract. Joint Proceedings of ICT4S 2023 Doctoral Symposium, Demonstrations & Posters Track and Workshops. Rennes, France.Ligozat et al (2022) Unraveling the Hidden Environmental Impacts of AI Solutions for Environment Life Cycle Assessment of AI Solutions. Sustainability, 14, 5172.Shi et al (2022) Functionality‐based life cycle assessment framework: An information and communication technologies (ICT) product case study. Journal of industrial ecology, 26(3), pp.782-800.