Schoen, Kate (2026) Assessing the life cycle environmental impact of Dutch ICT in 2024: baseline and intervention modeling. Design Project, Industrial Engineering and Management.
|
Text
MasterIEMDesignProject2026KateSchoen.pdf Download (6MB) | Preview |
Abstract
ICT is deeply embedded in Dutch society and economy, supported by widespread access to and adoption of digital services as well as the country’s position as a European connectivity hub. While this enables significant value, it also creates environmental pressures. This study establishes a complete environmental baseline of the Dutch ICT landscape in 2024, looking at devices, networks, and datacenters to identify where hotspots lie for potential interventive action. This was done through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with a hybrid approach, which evaluated impacts across six midpoints. Results show that Dutch ICT accounted for 5.5 Mton CO2 eq, or approximately 3.7% of national emissions in 2024. Along with this ICT accounted for 136,900 kg Sb eq of metal resource depletion, directly correlating to critical resource material (CRM) use and 66.77 billion MJ of fossil resource depletion in 2024. Key hotspots include device production, datacenter electricity use, device electricity use and server production. Five targeted interventions were modeled to assess mitigation potential. Device lifespan extension emerges as the most impactful measure. Additional improvements can be achieved through dynamic electricity procurement, increased server utilization and heat reuse by datacenters. Combined, the interventions have the potential to reduce ICT related CO2 emissions by 14.9%, decrease CRM use by 6.5%, and lower fossil resource dependence by 16.5% from the measured baseline values.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Design Project) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Jonker, G.H. and Szirbik, N.B. |
| Degree programme: | Industrial Engineering and Management |
| Thesis type: | Design Project |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Apr 2026 09:15 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Apr 2026 09:15 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/37288 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |