2.2. Defining ICT and E&M sector and boundary

The remainder of this section looks at the global carbon footprint of ICT and E&M, including historic and future trends. We start with some definitions.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is defined by the OECD as “a combination of manufacturing and services industries that capture, transmit and display data and information electronically”1 .

For reporting of GHG emissions this usually relates to the emissions of these three components:

• data centres that store and process data,

• telecommunications networks (including both mobile and fixed) that transmit data, and

• end-user devices that further process and display data.

Defining the boundary of the ICT and E&M sectors is of critical importance when estimating the sector’s carbon emissions, recognising the points of cross-sector overlap and convergence.

Assessments of the global emissions impact of the ICT and E&M sectors typically use quite specific boundary definitions of what equipment is included in ICT vs what is included in E&M. These are purely for the purposes of estimating the global emissions impact, and may not completely align with more general perceptions of the ICT and E&M sectors.

Thus, looking at the global emissions impact, we follow the boundary definitions from Malmodin & Lundén, (Malmodin, 2018a).

ICT emissions boundary

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is broadly categorised as IT services and telecommunications networks, and is categorised by three sub-components: data centres that store and process data, networks (including both mobile and fixed) that transmit data and end-user devices (excluding devices included in the E&M boundary).

E&M emissions boundary

‘The Entertainment and Media (E&M) sector comprises all electronic equipment utilised for media and entertainment purposes, including: TVs, cameras, and other E&M consumer electronics, as well as physical paper media and printing.

Using the Malmodin & Lundén definition, the following Figure 2 relates the components of video streaming to the ICT and E&M emissions boundaries.

Figure 2. Process map showing ICT and E&M boundaries

Data centres

ICT emissions boundary

Transmission

Wired access networks

User media device

E&M emissions boundary

Core networks Home terminals and routers

Cloud storage and encoding Content Delivery Network

Cellular access networks

Internet transmission Subscriber premises transmission Peripherals Screens