In the debate on sustainability, the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) is becoming ever more prominent. On the one hand, ICT is a key technology to be used for achieving sustainability by making better use of resources and encouraging efficiency (
In the debate on sustainability, the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) is becoming ever more prominent. On the one hand, ICT is a key technology to be used for achieving sustainability by making better use of resources and encouraging efficiency (greening using ICTs). On the other hand, the sustainability of the technology itself is important (green ICTs) in terms of, for example, energy use and the disposal of equipment (electronic waste or ewaste). In the process towards a greener society, creating awareness is an important step, 1 as is assembling reliable data to make decisions. One instrument that can be used for both is benchmarking countries on their achievements and actions in arriving at a more sustainable use of ICTs. Benchmarking can provide insight into the relative position of countries regarding their progress, but more importantly it can provide examples and best practices from countries that are ahead of the game. The scope of this chapter will be limited to green ICTs; however, greening ICTs is included in the benchmarking framework to some extent, as this is necessary to provide the right context for the first.
Thinking on green ICTs
There are examples available where sets of indicators are used to benchmark “greenness” in general, but quite often these 