The digitalization trend in buildings is accelerated with advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT). These technologies enable many opportunities in buildings to achieve resource and energy efficiency based on either monitoring or advanced control of buildings. The ICT solutions’ overall impacts on the environment are often presumed positive without an assessment based on life cycle thinking. The research on ICT solutions in buildings is mainly related to occupancy, energy, and indoor environmental monitoring with the focus on technical performance and potential benefits while the environmental impacts are often overlooked. This paper analyses two case study buildings in Sweden with building monitoring systems (BMS) based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The two cases were chosen to represent a range between simple and more sophisticated. The results show that sensors and wires contribute significantly to several impact categories and the impacts of electronics used for data acquisition are also important. The climate impact of the production phase is significantly higher than the use and waste management. Depending on the energy mix, the minimum required energy saving to offset the climate impacts of the BMSs are 5% (standard BMS) and 24% (extensive BMS). This is comparable to the energy savings that often are assumed when building monitoring systems are introduced. Thus, the direct impacts of the enabling technologies for digitalization might be significant and it is crucial to employ a life cycle perspective when assessing the environmental benefits of digital solutions in buildings.

Cloud computing's expansion creates a significant carbon footprint from data center energy consumption. Standard location-based accounting attributes cloud emissions to countries where data centers are located, potentially obscuring where actual demand lies when services are consumed across borders. This study develops a consumption-based accounting approach to estimate cross-border cloud emission flows among the EU's three largest data center hubs: Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands, from 2017 to 2022. Using electricity consumption and emissions for data centers and telecommunications networks, we classify cloud activity as domestic (hosted and consumed within one country), export (domestic hosting, foreign consumption), or import (foreign hosting, domestic consumption). The analysis reveals distinct profiles: Germany's cloud footprint is predominantly domestic (75%), Ireland's is export-dominated (85% serves foreign consumers), and the Netherlands exhibits balanced flows. Consumption-based metrics can complement territorial accounting by revealing cross-border emission flows relevant to national climate planning and infrastructure policy decisions.

Digital technologies are profoundly influencing all economic sectors and have potential to contribute towards a sustainable society. At the same time, the production, use and waste management of these technologies, which lie at the core of the economic sector of information and communication technology (ICT), are causing environmental impacts. Previous studies have applied life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and life cycle thinking to assess current and future direct energy use and climate impact of the global ICT sector. These studies frequently arrive at contradictory results regarding future impacts. Calculation approaches applied differ significantly, the consideration of key aspects varies, fast-growing digital technologies are seldom included in future scenarios and uncertainty analyses are typically limited. The aim of this study is to develop guidelines for assessments of the current and future direct energy use and climate impact of the global ICT sector based on LCA methodology and life cycle thinking. The guidelines have been developed based on literature reviews, the authors’ aggregated and broad expertise in this topic and in workshops. Key aspects in influencing the current and future direct energy use and climate impact of the global ICT sector, covering its three subdomains of end-user devices, networks and data centres as well as all life cycle stages, are identified. These include, for example, the number of end-user devices, number of subscriptions and the annual electricity use of networks and data centres. The guidelines address challenges for practitioners and can contribute towards more transparent and coherent future studies.

This study aims to evaluate various waste-to-energy conversion scenarios in terms of their potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve sustainability based on economic and environmental outcomes. To achieve this, a comprehensive waste management model was developed using the system dynamics approach in the Vensim software to predict waste generation and composition and compare pyrolysis, incineration, gasification, and sanitary landfill scenarios with the baseline scenario over 25 years (2025–2050). The analysis of different waste management scenarios highlights the superior performance of pyrolysis in terms of energy recovery, economic profit, GHG emissions reduction, environmental outcomes, and long-term sustainability. Results show that the pyrolysis scenario generates the highest electricity, with a cumulative net electricity output of 10,469 GWh. Although pyrolysis has GHG emissions due to energy consumption and direct process emissions, it results in the largest net reduction in GHG emissions, primarily due to avoided emissions from increased electricity generation, leading to a 346% reduction compared to the baseline scenario. Furthermore, the pyrolysis scenario demonstrates the highest economic profit at 354 million USD and the highest sustainability index (SI) at 499 million USD. The cumulative SI from 2025 to 2050 shows a 503% increase compared to the business-as-usual scenario, highlighting its superior sustainability performance. This study highlights the importance of strategic waste-to-energy planning in reducing GHG emissions and promoting sustainability. It also offers valuable insights for policymakers and researchers, supporting the development of sustainable waste management strategies and effective efforts for climate change mitigation.

The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) inbuildings aligns with the vision of smart buildings, offering opportunities toenhance operational, energy, and resource efficiencies. However, theenvironmental impacts of ICT in buildings are often overlooked, with variousbarriers limiting their effectiveness and an incomplete understanding of theirpositive and negative effects. This study examines the perspectives ofprofessionals and decision-makers on the environmental implications of ICT inbuildings through semi-structured interviews with eight decision-makers indevelopment and implementation of ICT in buildings. The motivations foradopting ICT systems and the challenges posed by existing technological andmanagement constraints are investigated. The findings indicate thatenvironmental considerations and energy efficiency are usually not primarydrivers for ICT adoption. Instead, property managers prioritize operationalreliability and streamlined management practices. Decisions on technologychoices, such as selecting between wireless and wired systems and determiningdata management strategies, are influenced by functionality, neglectingenvironmental sustainability. Furthermore, lifecycle environmental impacts of ICTsolutions are overlooked, even when these systems are implemented withsustainability purposes. Nevertheless, there is a growing environmentalawareness among stakeholders, fostering an interest in assessing these impacts.Current business models that aim to control the digital ecosystem often limitinteroperability and impede integration with other ICT systems. This studysuggests that developing open system architectures to facilitate interoperabilitycould encourage broader ICT adoption, resulting in both cost savings andenvironmental benefits. Incorporating lifecycle assessment in the decisionmaking process for ICT system configurations would allow for a balancedconsideration of environmental and technical performance, supporting a moresustainable approach to ICT adoption in buildings.

Problem Definition: The transition towards sustainable consumption patterns in the built environment has gained increasing attention in recent years, driven by the significance of reducing environmental impacts and improving resource efficiency. Recent advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have opened up new opportunities for mainstreaming sustainable consumption in the building sector. Building monitoring systems (BMS), enhanced by IoT, enable real-time data collection and smart management of resources, supporting the optimization of building performance. The BMSs enable various enablement effects such as improved energy efficiency, occupant behavior change, space use efficiency, fault detection and diagnosis and resource optimization. However, there is a gap in understanding the extent to which the enablement effects can lead to long-term reduction in environmental impacts. Furthermore, the lifecycle environmental impacts of these systems, including production, deployment, and maintenance, raise questions about their overall sustainability.

Methodology: A systematic literature review has been conducted, focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and technical reports published over the last 15 years. The review covers several topics including:

· The evolution of ICT and IoT technologies in building monitoring systems; 

· The enablement effects of these systems, including energy efficiency, occupant behavior change, and resource optimization; 

· The environmental impacts associated with the lifecycle of BMS, from production to end-of-life disposal.

· The challenges and strategies for mainstreaming these technologies and their implications for sustainable lifestyles, behavior change, and policy.

Results: The review identifies several primary enablement effects of IoT-based BMS including energy and water use efficiency, space use efficiency, promoting environmentally conscious behavior, decision-making support, fault detection and diagnosis, and predictive maintenance. These effects result in resource efficiency, and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. However, the lifecycle environmental impacts of these systems, such as material use for electronics and the energy required for data storage and processing, present a challenge. The results suggest that while the enablement effects justify the implementation of BMS in certain cases, particularly in high-impact, high-consumption buildings, a comprehensive assessment of lifecycle impacts is essential to ensure long-term sustainability. Furthermore, mainstreaming these systems requires addressing key barriers such as lack of interoperability between systems, and the need for continuous maintenance to ensure the effectiveness and prevent their counter effect on building performance.

Significance and conclusion: ICT and IoT in buildings offer strong potential as supporting infrastructures for sustainable consumption by enabling significant reductions in energy and resource use. The study highlights the importance of integrating BMS with broader policy and governance frameworks that support sustainable consumption lifestyles, such as Energy Performance Certificates (EPC). Mainstreaming these systems will require overcoming barriers for their interoperability regarding technology and business model. Developing policy packages that encourage system developers following industry standards and the building managers use these systems in both residential and commercial sectors can play role in mainstreaming sustainable consumption in buildings. IoT-based BMS can play a critical role in achieving low-carbon lifestyles, but their deployment must be guided by a comprehensive understanding of their lifecycle environmental impacts and benefits.

Recent advancements in occupancy and indoor environmental monitoring have encouraged the development of innovative solutions. This paper presents a novel approach to room occupancy detection using Wi-Fi probe requests and machine learning techniques. We propose a methodology that splits occupancy detection into two distinct subtasks: personnel presence detection, where the model predicts whether someone is present in the room, and occupancy level detection, which estimates the number of occupants on a six-level scale (ranging from 1 person to up to 25 people) based on probe requests. To achieve this, we evaluated three types of neural networks: CNN (Convolutional Neural Network), LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory), and GRU (Gated Recurrent Unit). Our experimental results show that the GRU model exhibits superior performance in both tasks. For personnel presence detection, the GRU model achieves an accuracy of 91.8%, outperforming the CNN and LSTM models with accuracies of 88.7% and 63.8%, respectively. This demonstrates the effectiveness of GRU in discerning room occupancy. Furthermore, for occupancy level detection, the GRU model achieves an accuracy of 75.1%, surpassing the CNN and LSTM models with accuracies of 47.1% and 52.8%, respectively. This research contributes to the field of occupancy detection by providing a cost-effective solution that utilizes existing Wi-Fi infrastructure and demonstrates the potential of machine learning techniques in accurately classifying room occupancy.

Information communication and technology (ICT) services and solutions can improve resource efficiency in a variety of sector, but also result in direct environmental impacts. This study assesses the direct environmental impacts of an ICT service that improves vehicle fuel efficiency using a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA). This is one of the first studies to examine the entire life cycle of an ICT service from development to use and maintenance, with a focus on software—an aspect that is typically neglected in previous studies. The results suggest that software development and maintenance and the use of in-vehicle communicators for data transmission have the largest environmental impacts across multiple categories. Deployed across a fleet of 150,000 vehicles over 5 years, we estimate that the ICT service is responsible for 174 tCO2e. However, this is negligible compared with the total emissions of the fleet and the potential savings from the service, given a single diesel vehicle in this fleet emits around 130 tCO2e over the same period. We explore several scenarios to reduce the footprint of the ICT service. The largest potential reduction of around one-third is achieved by replacing in-house servers with cloud computing in a data center located in a region with low-carbon electricity. The study demonstrates how LCA can be used to assess the environmental impacts of ICT services and the importance of considering software in these assessments.

Digital solutions based on information and communication technologies (ICT) provide many opportunities in buildings to achieve resource and energy efficiency. In general, these solutions enable either monitoring or advanced control of buildings. The ICT solutions' overall impacts on the environment are often presumed positive without a holistic approach based on life cycle thinking. The research on energy and indoor monitoring systems usually focuses on system performance and potential benefits rather than the entire system and it thus misses the life cycle impacts of the system itself. To address this limitation, the aims of this study are to assess life cycle environmental and resource impacts of a building monitoring system (BMS) and to identify hotspots in this system. The case study of KTH Living Lab represents an extensive BMS. It was applied and assessed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The results show that wires, sensors and data acquisition equipment constitute hotspots for all the environmental and resource impacts assessed in this study. Thus, the impacts of these devices are important to consider by, e.g, building managers.