Traditionally, the term rebound effect refers to an effective increase in the
consumption of an energy service after its price decreases due to higher efficiency of the
production of the service. If technological progress makes certain equipment more energy
efficient, less energy is needed to produce the same amount of products or services, thus the
cost per unit of production falls, which leads to increased demand for the product or the
service.”
Dematerialization & Virtualization of Information: ICT are present in our
everyday life with many applications. Some have an interesting potential to trim down the
use of resources and energy. Upon entering the Information Age the economic structure of
the world has undergone a change. We sell and exchange ideas and information instead of
goods and raw materials. Intelligent production processes, an intelligent product design (for
example, the “sleep mode” for computers which are not used for a while) and intelligent
logistics for the supply, production and transport of goods and services tend to de-
materialize the economy. Many of these improvements are possible because of the use of
ICT to manage and transmit the information. For example, the Japanese ministry of