Special Feature

Gross Social Feel-good Index—Social Impact
Assessment for ICT Services
Masayuki Tsuda†, Minako Hara, Yasue Nemoto,and Jiro Nakamura
Abstract
We have developed a sustainability index that indicates the improvement in social sustainability related to information and communications technology (ICT) services. It is called the Gross Social Feel-good(GSF) Index. With the GSF index, we can quantitatively assess the social impact of ICT services taking
into account both positive and negative effects. Such assessments will help us to introduce ICT services
effectively and create a sustainable society.

1. Introduction
One of NTT’s missions is to create a sustainable
society by introducing information and communications technology (ICT) services. ICT services haveboth positive and negative effects on the environmental, social, and economic aspects of our lives, which
are known collectively as the triple bottom line*1.
On the positive side, they can reduce environmental
burdens by promoting dematerialization (the conversion of physical products to digital information),
reducing the need for people to use transportation,and increasing efficiency. In addition, they help usperform various types of activity perfectly and eliminate various kinds of adverse conditions from ourlives. These positive social effects will also help toreduce social costs such as disposal costs. In terms ofnegative effects, ICT services may cause environmental burdens to increase as a result of the use ofadditional electrical equipment. New social issues,
such as information leaks and the digital divide, andeconomic issues, such as the cost increases incurred
when the services are introduced, are other examplesof the negative effects of ICT services.
If the negative effects exceed the positive effects
when a particular ICT service is introduced, that ser† NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories
Atsugi-shi, 243-0198 Japan
Email: m-tsuda@aecl.ntt.co.jp

Vol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

vice will not contribute to the realization of a sustainable society; on the contrary, it would be counterproductive. Therefore, we have to assess ICT services
quantitatively taking into account their positive andnegative effects in order to introduce them effectivelyand create a sustainable society. However, although
the social effects of ICT services have been discussed
qualitatively, they have not been assessed quantitatively.
In this article, we describe a new sustainability
index that we have developed to assess the improvement in social sustainability achieved by introducing
ICT services. There are some indexes for assessing
social sustainability at the national level, for example
HSM (human satisfaction measure)*2, but a servicelevel index is new.
2. Sustainable society
To enable us to propose a new sustainability index
for evaluating the contribution of ICT services to therealization of a sustainable society, we first defined*1 The triple bottom line is a policy for improving all aspects of theenvironment, society, and economy from the viewpoint of sustainability. The phrase was coined by John Elkington of SustainAbility (UK) in 1994.
*2 HSM is one of the indexes that indicate social sustainability at thenational level. It was developed by Professor Terue Ohashi ofReitaku University.

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Happiness

People’s feelings

Environment

EconomyBasis: triple bottom lineSocietyFig. 1. Sustainable society.

an ideal sustainable society. To be sustainable, a society must satisfy the requirements of the triple bottomline. However, that alone is not sufficient: the feelingsof people living in the society are also important.
Even if the triple bottom line requirements are satisfied, the society is not sustainable if people feel
unhappy. Therefore, we defined a sustainable society
as one that satisfies the triple bottom line requirements and makes people happy (Fig. 1).
3. Gross Social Feel-good Index
We developed the new sustainability index inaccordance with our definition of a sustainable society. Because the society aspect is rather abstract andbroad, we subdivided it into three sub-indexes related
to safety, health, and comfort. Therefore, our newindex is composed of six sub-indexes, namely environment, safety, health, comfort, economy, and happiness. We called it the Gross Social Feel-good (GSF)
Index (Fig. 2). Its framework including evaluation
items for each sub-index is shown in Fig. 3. The subindexes are described in detail below.
3.1 Environment index
The environment index shows the reduction in environmental impact resulting from the introduction ofICT services. We estimated the environmental impact
of ICT services using LIME (life-cycle impact
assessment method based on endpoint modeling [1],44[2]), which was developed by the Japanese LCA Project. LIME evaluates the damage to four safeguard
subjects caused by eleven impact categories. We
selected this method because the results are integrated as a single index expressed as a monetary value.
3.2 Safety index
The safety index shows the degree to which people
and/or their belongings are safe. We define people’ssafety in terms of accidents, disasters, and crime. Thesafety effects of ICT services are determined as amonetary value by using statistical data, such as thenumber of accidents and amount of damage. For
example, the reduced amount of accidental damage isevaluated as the safety index for an ICT service that
leads to fewer accidents. Information security is an
important issue because the evaluation target of theGSF index is ICT services. Therefore, we consider
the risk of information leaks to be a negative safety
effect.
3.3 Health index
The health index shows the degree to which people
live healthy lives. There are three steps to maintaining
our health, namely health care, prevention of illness,and medical treatment. Health care is a fundamental
step towards maintaining health. To avoid illness, it isimportant to detect any physical disorder as soon as
possible. If we become unavoidably ill, then effective
and efficient treatment will be needed. In addition toNTT Technical Review

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Happiness

EconomyBeing happy

Good cost-benefit performance

Environment
Few environmental
burdens

Comfort
Comfortable life

HealthSafety

Free from disease

People and/or their belongings are safeFig. 2. Gross Social Feel-good Index.

Environment

Environment index

Estimation of environmental impact as monetary value with LIME
Accidents (e.g., fewer accidents)

Safety index

Disasters (e.g., less damage)
Crime (e.g., less crime)
Information security (e.g., lower risk of information leaks)
Health care (e.g., improved physical capability)

TriplebottomlineSociety

Health index

Disease (e.g., fewer lifestyle-related diseases)
Medical treatment (e.g., reduced treatment time)
Stress (e.g., fewer patients with stress-related illness)
Various opportunities (e.g., new tourism opportunities)

Comfort index

Barrier free (e.g., elimination of digital divide)
Simplicity (e.g., more service users)
Ubiquitous (e.g., expansion of service coverage area)

People’sfeelings

EconomyEconomy index

Cost-benefit performance

Happiness

Happiness index

Subjective evaluation with questionnaires and interviews

Fig. 3. Framework of GSF index.

physical health, it is also important for us to care forour mental health because stress often causes illness.
The health effects are evaluated in monetary terms byusing statistical data, for example, the number of sickpeople and medical expenses.
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3.4 Comfort index
Achieving a comfortable life is a fundamental purpose of introducing ICT services. The comfort index
shows the degree to which people live comfortable
lives. In a sustainable society, people can obtain45

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information whenever they require it. This obtained
information provides various opportunities. For
example, we can find somewhere to go sightseeing byaccessing information about an attractive tourist spot.
ICT services must be simple and easy so that everyone can use them equally, and we should be able touse them anytime and anywhere. The comfort effects
are calculated as a monetary value by using statistical
data such as mean income, tourism expenses, leisuretime, number of tourists, and number of users.
3.5 Economy index
Even if a particular ICT service has a strong positive social influence, the service is not sustainable if
its cost is excessive. The economy index indicates thecost-benefit performance of ICT services. The costs
of ICT services consist of the initial, running, and disposal costs such as system price, communication
expenses, and maintenance costs. The benefit of ICT
services is the economic impact brought about by
their introduction. We measure them as the life cycle
cost and estimate the cost-benefit performance.
3.6 Happiness index
The happiness index indicates people’s degree ofsatisfaction with society. The other five sub-indexes
are evaluated objectively using statistical data. However, it is impossible to evaluate people’s feelings
objectively, so a subjective estimation must be used.
Therefore, the happiness index is evaluated throughuser questionnaires and/or interviews and is estimated as a monetary value by conjoint analysis or thecontingent valuation method.
4. Indication of results
Evaluation results are indicated in two ways using aradar chart and a single indicator. An example ofusing a radar chart to indicate evaluation results for acertain ICT service is shown in Fig. 4. The dashedhexagon represents the state of society before theintroduction of the ICT service. Points outside it indicate that the ICT service had a positive effect onsocial sustainability, while points inside indicate thatit was counterproductive with respect to social sustainability. In Fig. 4, this particular ICT service
improved social sustainability in terms of the environment, safety, and happiness indexes. However, it
had no clear effect on the health index and had a negative effect on the comfort and economy indexes. The
radar chart allows us to understand which aspects
have been improved by ICT services and to identify
the areas that still need to be improved.
The single indicator is calculated by integrating thesix sub-indexes with a weighting factor for each subindex. This single indicator makes it easy to compareevaluation results.
Conclusion
With the GSF index, we can quantitatively assess
the improvement in social sustainability achieved byintroducing ICT services. Such evaluations of ICT
services provided by the NTT Group will support ourEnvironment

EconomySafetyHappiness

HealthComfortFig. 4. Indication of results with radar chart.

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corporate social responsibility (CSR) management.
This index also lets us express the social contributions of our customers who introduce the services. Itwill enable us to design and introduce ICT services
effectively and thus create a sustainable society.
Although the GSF index can be used to evaluate aparticular ICT service, it needs more development toenable it to be used for any and all ICT services.
Therefore, we will apply it to various ICT services ascase studies to confirm its feasibility, create a database for evaluating the positive and negative effects
especially with respect to the happiness index, andobtain weighting factors for integrating the six subindexes into a single indicator. These attempts are
now underway.
Although the GSF index was designed to assess
ICT services introduced in Japan, we would like toextend its concept and use to the whole world as astandardized index for evaluating the sustainability ofcorporations, autonomous communities, and governments as well as ICT services.
References
[1]

[2]

N. Itsubo and A. Inaba, “A New LCIA Method: LIME has been completed,” International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Vol. 8, No.
5, p. 305, 2003.
N. Itsubo, M. Sakagami, T. Washida, K. Kokubo, and A. Inaba,“Weighting Across Safeguard Subjects for LCIA through the Application of Conjoint Analysis,” International Journal of Life CycleAssessment, Vol. 9, pp. 196–205, 2004.

Masayuki Tsuda
Research Engineer, Environmental Information Systems Project, NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories.
He received the M.E. and Ph.D. degrees inmechanical engineering from Tokyo Institute ofTechnology, Tokyo, in 1998 and 2005, respectively. In 1998, he joined NTT Integrated Information & Energy Systems Laboratories, where
he worked on the development of positive electrode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries. Since moving to his present research department in 2004, he has been engaged in research onassessing the social impact of ICT. He is a member of the Electrochemical Society of Japan.

Minako Hara
Research Engineer, Environmental Information Systems Project, NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories.
She received the B.E. degree in applied chemistry from Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo,
in 1998 and the M.E. and Ph.D. degrees inapplied chemistry from the University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, in 2000 and 2005, respectively. In 2004,
she joined the Japan Science and Technology
Agency, where she worked on the assessment ofenvironmental issues as a postdoctoral researcher.
Since joining NTT in 2006, she has been engagedin research on assessing the environmental burdens of ICT. She is a member of the Society ofEnvironmental Science, Japan.

Yasue Nemoto
Research Engineer, Environmental Information Systems Project, NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories.
She joined NTT Electrical Communication
Laboratories in 1986. She moved to NTT
Applied Electronics Laboratories in 1987, NTT
Interdisciplinary Research Laboratories in 1991,
NTT Integrated Information and Energy Laboratories in 1996, NTT Telecommunication EnergyLaboratories in 1999, NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories in 2002, and NTT Energy andEnvironment Systems Laboratories in 2006. She
has mainly been engaged in research on an indexfor CSR management.

Jiro Nakamura
Group Leader, Environmental Information
Systems Project, NTT Energy and Environment
Systems Laboratories.
He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees
in applied chemistry from Osaka University,
Osaka, in 1987, 1989, and 1995, respectively. He
joined NTT LSI Laboratories in 1989 andworked on the development of microfabrication
technology. In 2001, he moved to NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group. Since moving to
his present research department in 2004, he has
been engaged in the development of environmental sensing systems and analysis of the influence of ICT on the global environment. He
received the MicroProcess Conference Award in1997 and the Photopolymer Conference Awardin 1998.

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