Digital Environmental Footprint

Our goal is to measure environmental impact of digital resources

We selected the relevant environmental impact indicators from the Life Cycle Assessment framework for Digital resource primitives from the standard EN15804 +A2:

Environmental Impact Indicators

Resource Usage Indicators

Waste Indicators

Output flow indicators

A summary of our thesis

Summary of SDIA's Digital Environmental Footprint.pdf

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Summary of SDIA's Digital Environmental Footprint

Creating a digital environmental footprint: a Life Cycle Assessment approach Abstract With the Digital Environmental Footprint, the first activity on the Roadmap of the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA), we aim to bring together experts and make fruitful connections to develop an...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ubto-MAuxdS5G-ZKXwMEdxxIHHreBRdQUZO3i7YQ9EU/edit

Summary of SDIA's Digital Environmental Footprint

State of Conversion Formulas

Based on our thesis, the formulas are intended to be used in environments where there is no access to physical measures, e.g. RAPL or IPMI and serve as a best-effort estimate. Each formula makes transparent assumptions

To focus on few priority indicators right now, we further boiled down the list from above to these:

Climate change – total, fossil, biogenic and land use in CO2-eq (kg)

Depletion of abiotic resources – minerals and metals in Sb-eq (kg)

Use of fresh water in m3

Energy use

Primary renewable energy (energy) in MJ
Primary non-renewable energy (energy) in MJ

Energy use

Draft formula’s for energy use are here:

DEF Formulas - Formula.pdf

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Tooling

Overview Tools & APIs

In depth information

🎯Our approach to validation 🌿Why Life Cycle Assessment?DEF verification system 📓Responsibilities across value chain 🥅Goals 1️⃣Principles 📚Literature review 💼Research paper on an applied LCA of a webpage (WIP) ⬅️SDIA’s previous work on the DEF 🗒️Information for steering group participants | DEF

Climate change – total, fossil, biogenic and land use	kg CO2-eq	Indicator of potential global warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases to air. Divided into 3 subcategories based on the emission source: (1) fossil resources, (2) bio-based resources and (3) land use change.
Acidification	kg mol H+	Indicator of the potential acidification of soils and water due to the release of gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides
Eutrophication – freshwater	kg PO4-eq	indicator of the enrichment of the fresh water ecosystem with nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen or phosphor containing compounds
Eutrophication – marine	Kg N-eq	Indicator of the enrichment of the marine ecosystem with nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen containing compounds.
Eutrophication – terrestrial	mol N-eq	Indicator of the enrichment of the terrestrial ecosystem with nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen containing compounds.
Depletion of abiotic resources – minerals and metals	kg Sb-eq	Indicator of the depletion of natural non-fossil resources.
Depletion of abiotic resources – fossil fuels	MJ, net calorific value	Indicator of the depletion of natural fossil fuel resources.
Human toxicity – cancer, non-cancer	CTUh	Impact on humans of toxic substances emitted to the environment. Divided into non-cancer and cancer related toxic substances.
Eco-toxicity (freshwater)	CTUe	Impact on freshwater organisms of toxic substances emitted to the environment.

Primary renewable energy (materials)	MJ	Use of renewable primary energy resources as raw materials
Primary renewable energy (energy)	MJ	Use of renewable primary energy, excluding renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials
Primary renewable energy (total)	MJ	Sum of the two values above
Primary non-renewable energy (materials)	MJ	Use of non-renewable primary energy resources as raw materials
Primary non-renewable energy (energy)	MJ	Use of non-renewable primary energy, excluding renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials
Primary non-renewable energy (total)	MJ	Sum of the two values above
Use of fresh water	m3	Freshwater use in absolute values
Use of renewable secondary fuels	MJ	Renewable fuel recovered from previous use or from waste which substitutes primary fuels
Use of non-renewable secondary fuels	MJ	Non-renewable fuel recovered from previous use or from waste which substitutes primary fuels

Hazardous waste disposed	kg	Hazardous waste has a certain degree of toxicity that necessitates special treatment
Non-hazardous waste disposed	kg	Non-hazardous waste is non-toxic and similar to household waste. It consists of inert waste and ordinary household waste

Components for re-use	kg	Material or components leaving the modelled system boundary which is destined for reuse
Materials for recycling	kg	Material leaving the modelled system boundary which is destined for recycling
Materials for energy recovery	kg	Material leaving the modelled system boundary which is destined for use in power stations using secondary fuels (minimum energy efficiency 60% or 65% for installations opened after 2008)