Special Feature

Formulation of Guidelines for ICT Eco-efficiency
Evaluation at the Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency
Takeshi Origuchi†, Takashi Sawada, and Shiro Nishi
Abstract
Guidelines for evaluating the eco-efficiency of information and communications technology (ICT)have been formulated at the Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency (JFEE) by a working group that includes
NTT. They provide the first uniform standard for evaluating environmental impacts and eco-efficiency
achieved by the introduction of ICT. They enable objective evaluation of the environmental load, ecoefficiency, and environmental impact reduction effect of various ICT services.

1. Introduction
In recent years, the rapid spread of information andcommunications technology (ICT), such as the Internet, broadband access, and mobile communications,has accelerated the paradigm shift from an industrial
society to an information society. ICT has a large
influence on the environmental, economic, and social
aspects of our lives. Accordingly, increased transparency and objectivity is being sought regarding
ICT evaluation. Against this background, in March
2006, the “Guideline for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Eco-Efficiency Evaluation”[1] (hereafter called the Guidelines) was published by
the Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency. This document
aims to provide an objective and practical tool forevaluating the ICT-related eco-efficiency of individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. This article
provides an overview of these Guidelines and discusses the ideas behind them.
Eco-efficiency is expressed as the value of products
and services divided by the environmental load. A
more eco-efficient system provides greater value fora given environmental load or the same value for alower environmental load or ideally both more value
and less environmental load. Eco-efficiency embodies the idea that reducing the environmental load cancreate more value. As an indicator for environmental† NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group
Musashino-shi, 180-8585 Japan
Contact: kansuip@lab.ntt.co.jp

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management and for managing the development of
products designed taking the environment into
account, eco-efficiency is coming to be introduced
and applied by an increasing number of companies.
2. ICT and its environmental impacts
The environmental impacts of ICT can be divided
into negative and positive factors, as shown in Fig. 1.
Negative factors result from the environmental loadcaused by ICT. They include energy consumption due
to the electricity used by ICT devices and networks,
the use of natural resources for producing ICT
devices and constructing facilities, and the generationof waste from the disposal of ICT devices and dismantling of facilities. Positive factors are associatedwith the reduction in environmental load achieved by
ICT services. These include dematerialization, whichrefers to the replacement of physical production anddistribution of music and video in the form of CDs
and DVDs by the delivery of digital information overthe network, reduced movement and transportation
through the use of videoconferencing, and intelligent
transport systems, as well as more efficient industry
and living through supply chain management systems, information appliances, etc. We can also expect
ICT to be used to enhance environmental awarenessand environmental education and to play a role in
reducing the environmental load through the use ofenvironmental sensors and environmental monitoring. When thinking about the impact of ICT on the
global environment in this way, it is necessary to
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Environmental loadcaused by ICT

Negative environmental impacts• Consumption of energy• Consumption of natural resources• Generation of waste

Environmental load
reduction achievedby ICT services

Positive environmental impacts• Dematerialization(digitization of information)• Reduction of movement and transportation• More efficient industry and lives• Enhanced environmental awarenessand environmental education• Environmental sensors andenvironmental monitoring

Fig. 1. Environmental impacts of ICT.

quantitatively evaluate which of the two sides—negative or positive—has the greater impact. To date,however, there has been no uniform standard for
doing so. Instead, companies have performed trial
calculations and presented results by themselves.
3. Formulation of the Guidelines
The Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency (JFEE) wasestablished by the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI). The current chairman is Professor
Ryoichi Yamamoto of the University of Tokyo andthe secretariat is the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (JEMAI) [2]. To further its aim of expanding the application of eco-efficiency, JFEE published the Guidelines to provide thefirst uniform standard for evaluating the environmental load and eco-efficiency associated with the implementation of ICT. The Guidelines were drafted by aworking group headed by Dr. Yasunari Matsuno,
associate professor, University of Tokyo, and eight
ICT corporations (Fujitsu, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi,
Matsushita Electric, Canon, Fuji Xerox, and NTT)
participating in JFEE. As a leader in research on technology for evaluating the environmental impact of
networks and ICT services, NTT has played an activerole in this working group. The Guidelines are divided into four main sections, as described below in sections 4–7.
• Framework for Evaluation of ICT Environmental
Impact• Outline of ICT Eco-efficiency Evaluation• Framework of ICT Comparative Evaluation• Examples

Vol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

4. Framework for Evaluation of ICT
Environmental Impact
The Guidelines state that the ICT environmentalload should be assessed based on life cycle assessment (LCA) conforming to the ISO14040/
JISQ14040 series. The LCA technique quantitatively
evaluates the environmental impact at each stage inthe life cycle of a product or service, from the gathering of raw materials to production, use, and disposal.
4.1 Life cycle stages of ICT
The Guidelines describe the life cycle stages shownin Fig. 2 as stages particular to ICT that need to beevaluated.
4.2 Activities targeted for evaluation
For each life cycle stage, the Guidelines classify theactivities to be evaluated, that is, the activities thathave an impact due to the use of an ICT service, into:(1) goods/energy consumption, (2) use of ICT
devices, (3) use of network infrastructure, (4) use ofsoftware infrastructure, (5) shipping-transport substitution, (6) traveling-transport substitution, (7) storage, and (8) work force. For item (1), we evaluate
activities related to materials and energy such as
information publications, CDs, fuel such as gasoline,
and electricity, excluding materials and energy related to items (2) to (8). For item (2), we evaluate activities related to devices that make up the system thatruns the ICT service. Items (3) and (4) are describedin detail in sections 4.3 and 4.4. Items (5) and (6) concern the evaluation of activities related to the meansof transporting goods and people, respectively. Item(7) concerns materials and energy needed for storing
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Design, development/
production

Shipment

Distribution

Procurement

Installation

Setup

Operation

Disposal/recycling

Collection

Fig. 2. Example of life cycle stages.

SwitchSwitchLine switching system

Packet communication system

Fig. 3. ICT systems.

goods (e.g., in a warehouse) in a state that maintains
their quality. Item (8) concerns materials and energy
needed to allow people to perform work in an officeor elsewhere.

AP

AP

···

AP

Information sharing platform

4.3 Approach to evaluating environmental loadof network infrastructure
The Guidelines state that the following ideas should
be applied when evaluating the environmental load of
the network infrastructure.
4.3.1 Units of evaluation
As shown in Fig. 3, there are two types of telecommunication systems: circuit switching and packet
communication. They have different formats fortransferring information, which results in different
units for evaluating the environmental load. In a circuit switching system, the circuit is occupied for theduration of the call, so the unit of evaluation is time.
In a packet communication system, information to betransmitted is divided into small packets, whichmeans that information from different sources can be
carried on the same communication line. In otherwords, a particular user does not occupy a circuit. For
this reason, the unit of evaluation here is the quantityof information.

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Network infrastructure
AP: application

Fig. 4. Hierarchical layers of ICT.

4.3.2 Evaluation period
The network infrastructure consists of many communication facilities having different lifetimes. This
makes it difficult to evaluate the life-cycle environmental load of the network infrastructure as a single
system. Under these circumstances, the method
described in the Guidelines is to divide the environmental load of each facility by the number of years in
its service life to give the environmental load per year
and then to sum up the values for all facilities toobtain the environmental load of that network infrastructure.
4.3.3. Allocation
Referring to Fig. 4, the environmental load of the
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Subscriber station

Access network equipment

Transfer facilities

Cable
Protector

Terminal
equipment

Terminating
equipment

Telephone
pole

Local
modem
ConduitRouterFig. 5. Example of communication facilities making up the network infrastructure.

lower-layer network infrastructure must be evaluatedwith respect to the application that drives the ICT service in question. Thus, while it is necessary to allocate to the infrastructure that portion of the wholeapplication load generated by the target application, it
is impossible to determine the total number and scaleof applications on the application layer above the network infrastructure. The solution to this problem is tocalculate the environmental load of the network infrastructure per unit time or unit quantity of information,
which corresponds to (1) in section 4.2, and then to
multiply that value by the total time of communication or amount of information used by the application
for the ICT service. This gives the environmental loadof the network infrastructure corresponding to that
ICT service.
This approach to load allocation evaluates that portion of the network-infrastructure environmental loadcorresponding to the application that drives the ICT
service. The next step is to allocate to the facilities
making up the network infrastructure their portion of
the environmental load corresponding to that application. This is done for each of the facility types shownin Fig. 5, as described below.
a) Subscriber station
Facilities belonging to a subscriber are allocated aload on the basis of time or quantity of information inaccordance with the usage conditions of the ICT service being evaluated.
b) Access network equipment
For landline access facilities as in fixed-line telephone services and IP services, a subscriber always
occupies the facilities regardless of the type of use.
Vol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

This means, for example, that the environmental loadof access facilities can be divided by the number ofsubscribers to give the load per subscriber, i.e., a fixedenvironmental load unrelated to the usage conditionsof the ICT service being evaluated. Furthermore, if
the facilities are being used for multiple purposes, theload can be allocated according to the conditions inquestion. On the other hand, wireless access facilities
as used for mobile-phone services and hotspot services feature two key functions: one for registering
the subscriber’s location and the other for carrying
information over radio waves. The location-registration function requires that the channel be occupied,which means that the environmental load in this casecan be evaluated as a fixed value, the same as forlandline access facilities, regardless of the usage conditions of the ICT service being evaluated. The function for carrying information over radio waves, incontrast, allows communicating users to share thesame channel, which means that the environmentalload can be evaluated in terms of either time or quantity of information.
c) Transfer facilities
Since facilities of this type are occupied only when
they are being used, they are allocated a load on thebasis of either time or quantity of information.
4.4. Approach to evaluating environmental
impact of software
The environmental load of software can be evaluated in terms of personal computers, servers, and otheritems that are needed to design and develop the software.

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Table 1. Classification of ICT software and allocation of environmental impact.
Classification
Individual software(for individual part)

Software type
Custom software
Business packages(e.g., electronic application system)

Software infrastructure(for general purpose)

Middleware(e.g., information system management, databases, and others)
OS (operating system)

4.4.1 Software classification and allocation ofenvironmental impact
The Guidelines classify software in the mannershown in Table 1. Individual, customized software isdesigned for a specific customer and can therefore be
evaluated simply in terms of the total environmental
load. A software infrastructure, however, implies theuse of multiple copies by a number of customers,
which means that the environmental load can bedivided by, for example, the number of copies
shipped. According to this reasoning, the environmental load is generally larger for individual software, so particular attention should be given to thistype of software when evaluating the environmentalload of software running an ICT service.
4.4.2. Software evaluation method
The Guidelines state that the power consumption orother characteristics of the personal computers,
servers, and other devices used for designing anddeveloping various software programs to be evaluated should be surveyed, that the environmental load
should be evaluated in conformance with actual conditions (called the process-sum method), and that thevalues so obtained should be summed up to evaluate
the environmental load of the entire system for running the ICT service. However, for software in thesoftware-infrastructure class for which such surveys
are difficult, the Guidelines include a method for calculating the environmental load from the price of thatsoftware.
4.5 Calculating the potential increase/decrease
in ICT environmental load
The Guidelines include a section on evaluating thepotential increase/decrease in the ICT environmentalload for the purpose of determining the latent capabilities of ICT. To explain this concept, we take as an
example the elimination of business trips resulting
from the introduction of a videoconferencing system
in place of traditional meetings that require partici22

pants to travel (corresponding to activity (6) in section 4.2: the movement of people). If an automobile isnormally used as the means of transportation for thebusiness trip, the consumption of gasoline can beeliminated by holding a videoconference. If public
transportation such as a train or bus is normally used,
there will be no immediate energy saving. However,if videoconferencing becomes popular and many
people stop using public transport as a result, then the
public-transportation companies will revise theirtimetables and cut back on services. Thus, a substantial reduction in the amount of movement is possible
in an ICT society in the future.
This calculation of the potential increase/decreaseor “apparent effect” of the ICT environmental load
and the evaluation of what kind of impact would be
generated when using ICT in a certain way should
lead to an ICT society that takes the environment into
account. Other activities that relate to this ICT apparent effect are storage and workplace activities (items(7) and (8) in section 4.2). The Guidelines point out,
however, that attempting to achieve a paperless officeor labor savings through the application of ICT services will not necessarily result in an immediate
reduction in storage facilities for storing documents
or in personnel. It will, however, provide an opportunity for changing the way business is performed andfor achieving a substantial reduction in the future.
4.6 Necessary entries
The Guidelines also state that, to improve the transparency of an eco-efficiency evaluation, the following items should be clearly described: outline/
overview of ICT service, purpose of evaluation, functional unit, system boundaries, relationship between
evaluated life cycle stages and activities, evaluation
method, reference data, and evaluation results. Here,the functional unit refers to the performance of the
ICT service in quantitative terms as a criterion for
performing an evaluation. For example, the functionNTT Technical Review

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al unit of an e-learning service might be “100employees each receiving four lessons at their desktop computer over a period of one year, where one
lesson takes two hours”. System boundaries are settings that define the range of evaluation.
5. Outline of ICT Eco-efficiency Evaluation
The eco-efficiency of ICT can be calculated by thefollowing expression:
Eco-efficiency =Value provided by ICT
Environmental impact of ICT

The environmental impact of ICT quantifies theenvironmental load based on the framework for evaluating ICT environmental load described in section 4.
As described in the Guidelines, the value provided by
ICT can be classified into physical, economical, or
emotional value. Physical value refers to the value ofan ICT service that can be expressed in terms of physical quantities such as transmission speed. Economical value means a numerical value like price or added
value that can act as an economic indicator. Emotional value indicates the degree of comfort, understanding, achievement, etc. that a user receives through an
ICT service. There are few concrete examples of thistype of value and it is currently being researched.
While eco-efficiency can be calculated by theabove definition, the Guidelines state that the following points should be considered and clearly describedin the evaluation report as important notes:• Clarify the target (nation, industry, product, andothers) to be evaluated, the intended audience,and the purpose.
• Consider which items appropriately represent thenumerator, together with the system boundary forenvironmental impact evaluation.
• Evaluate the value that corresponds to the functional unit of environmental impact.
6. Framework of ICT Comparative Evaluation
The Guidelines discuss a framework for performing a comparative evaluation of ICT services or acomparative evaluation between an ICT service and a
traditional means based on an evaluation of the environmental load and eco-efficiency, as describedabove. Here, “traditional means” refers to an existingmeans or service that does not use ICT, such as a faceto-face meeting involving a business-trip, that can beevaluated in comparison with videoconferencing. In aVol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

comparative evaluation, we first establish the ICT
service targeted for comparison (target ICT service),and then establish another ICT service or traditional
means (base service). When performing a comparative evaluation of environmental loads and calculating, for example, the environmental-load reduction
effect of an ICT service, we evaluate the difference
between the environmental loads of the target ICT
service and the base service. When performing acomparative evaluation of eco-efficiency, we divide
the eco-efficiency of the target ICT service by that of
the base service. The comparative evaluation of ecoefficiency is also called factor evaluation.
7. Examples
Section 5 of the Guidelines presents examples fromthe participating ICT corporations. Among these is acase study by the NTT Group on FLET’S Service.
8. Future plans
The “Guideline for ICT Eco-Efficiency Evaluation” issued by JFEE constitutes the first set of guidelines for evaluating environmental load and eco-efficiency under a common standard while achieving
objectivity and transparency. Using these guidelines
to perform objective evaluations should lead togreater customer confidence, accelerated deployment
of ICT services, and the creation of a sustainable ICT
society. At the same time, quantification of the value
provided by ICT, i.e., the numerator in the eco-efficiency ratio, is still being researched and further
progress in this area can be expected.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

http://www.jemai.or.jp/JEMAI_DYNAMIC/data/current/detailobj2077-attachment.pdf
http://www.jemai.or.jp/english/index.cfm
http://www.jemai.or.jp/JEMAI_DYNAMIC/data/current/detailobj2001-attachment.pdf
Y. Takeshita, T. Origuchi, M. Yuito, T. Maeda, A. Ishikawa, T. Sawada, and S. Nishi, “Environmental Impact Assessment System for ICT
Services—Development and Application,” NTT Technical Review,Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 17–21, 2006.

Remarks on topics introduced in this article
As an aid to understanding ICT and the environment, JFEE has issued a pamphlet that describes theconvenience of ICT services and their impact on theenvironment. This pamphlet can be downloaded fromthe JEMAI site [3].

23Special Feature

The Environmental Impact Assessment System for
ICT Services [4] developed by NTT Information
Sharing Laboratory Group, which was reported in the
March 2006 issue of NTT Technical Review, facilitates the evaluation of environmental load in conformance with the JFEE Guidelines.

Takeshi Origuchi
Research Engineer, Environmental Management & Provisioning Project, NTT Information
Sharing Laboratory Group.
He received the B.S. degree in physics from
Nihon University, Tokyo, and the M.S. degree inmaterials science from the University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, in 1995 and 1997, respectively. He joined
NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories in 1997. He is currently engaged in R&D
concerning the life cycle assessment of ICT services, the effects of environmental and social
impacts caused by using ICT services, and environmental accounting for promoting environmental management in the NTT Group. He is amember of the Institute of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan.

Takashi Sawada
Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, Environmental Management & Provisioning Project,
NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group.
He received the B.E. and M.E degrees in electronics science from Nihon University, Tokyo, in
1989 and 1991, respectively. He joined NTT
Electrical Communication Laboratories in 1992.
He is currently engaged in promoting environmental management in the NTT Group.

Shiro Nishi
Project Manager, Environmental Management& Provisioning Project, NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group.
He joined NTT Musashino Electrical Communications Laboratories in 1985. Since then, he
has been engaged in R&D of optical and thermal
polymers, optical adhesives, ionic conductive
polymers, polymer recycling, and lifecycle
assessment. His current interest is the environmental assessment of ICT services.

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