Long-term sustainability is a natural goal of policy makers
and individuals who are concerned with global warming and
long-run ecological development. Economic prosperity is
increasing worldwide, and the global population is growing.
Hence, the amount of goods and services is increasing, and
this implies a rising use of nonrenewable resources and
energy, respectively. At the same time, there will be continuous technological progress, not least in the sector of information and communication technology. The European
Commission has emphasized in its Europe 2020 project
(European Commission 2011)—with emphasis on growth,
employment, innovation, and the achievement of a lowcarbon society—that the field of a Digital Agenda for
Europe (European Commission 2010) will be important;
the commission has emphasized the goal to stimulate online
trade, the role of interoperability and norms, as well as the
crucial elements of innovation and e-skills. In the context of
innovation dynamics and the emphasis on sustainability, it
will be crucial to focus on “green ICT,” namely the potential
of information and communication technology to raise energy efficiency within the ICT sector and in all other sectors
as well.
The ICT sector has a high potential for cutting energy
because it is highly innovative and enabling technology which
affects all sectors; its workforce is relatively young—and
partly influenced by environmental movement (dating back
to the UN Stockholm Summit of 1972). Moreover, the sector
is characterized by high growth, which will raise the absolute
volume of energy use over time—this indirectly creates an
incentive to raise energy efficiency as a means to cut costs and