Abstract
Measuring the true impacts of ICTs, as tools for sustainable development and a means for realizing a low environmental impact society, is a difficult task that is being vigorously debated both at the practitioner and academic levels. However, no one doubts the potential for ICTs to leap-frog social, economic, and political development.
For the realization of a sustainable and low environmental impact society, ICTs are exerting both positive (increase in efficiency, reduction of resource usage, reduction of green-house gas emissions, etc.) and negative (growth of E-waste, growth of electricity usage, etc.) impacts. The complexity of this relationship between ICTs and the environment is even more greatly compounded with the advent of social media and mobile devices, which are transforming traditional geography-bound societies by democratizing information creation, distribution, and exchange. These transformations are having a great impact on human activities and the environment.
This paper examines the impacts of ICT usage on the environment using global examples and also explores the possibilities and challenges of using ICTs as tools for low-environmental impact (sustainable) development.
