PMID: 15224723Jul 1, 2004Paper

Environmental implications of wireless technologies: news delivery and business meetings

Environmental Science & Technology
Michael W Toffel, Arpad Horvath

Abstract

Wireless information technologies are providing new ways to communicate, and are one of several information and communication technologies touted as an opportunity to reduce society's overall environmental impacts. However, rigorous system-wide environmental impact comparisons of these technologies to the traditional applications they may replace have only recently been initiated, and the results have been mixed. In this paper, the environmental effects of two applications of wireless technologies are compared to those of conventional technologies for which they can substitute. First, reading newspaper content on a personal digital assistant (PDA) is compared to the traditional way of reading a newspaper. Second, wireless teleconferencing is compared to business travel. The results show that for both comparisons wireless technologies create lower environmental impacts. Compared to reading a newspaper, receiving the news on a PDA wirelessly results in the release of 32-140 times less CO2, several orders of magnitude less NOx and SOx, and the use of 26-67 times less water. Wireless teleconferencing results in 1-3 orders of magnitude lower CO2, NOx, and SO2 emissions than business travel.

References

Jan 11, 2003·Environmental Science & Technology·Eric D WilliamsMiriam Heller
Sep 5, 2003·Environmental Science & Technology·Erasmia Kitou, Arpad Horvath

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Citations

Nov 24, 2011·Environmental Science & Technology·Daniel R Williams, Yinshan Tang
Aug 11, 2012·Environmental Science & Technology·Kyo SuhMichelle Linhoff
May 11, 2007·Environment International·Lan Yi, Hywel R Thomas
Feb 22, 2011·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·David I Stern
Jan 13, 2006·The Science of the Total Environment·Coby S C WongMing H Wong
Jul 11, 2006·Environmental Pollution·Coby S C WongMing H Wong
Sep 26, 2017·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Michael Ackah
Dec 7, 2017·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Burcu Ozcan, Nicholas Apergis
Nov 4, 2015·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Mohammad SalahuddinIlhan Ozturk
Jun 23, 2019·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Rouhollah Shahnazi, Zahra Dehghan Shabani
Oct 24, 2009·Environmental Science & Technology·Sarah B BoydDavid Dornfeld
Jun 22, 2021·Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering·Okunola A AlabiAdekunle A Bakare
Aug 6, 2008·Environmental Science & Technology·Pedro Santos Vieira, Arpad Horvath

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