Understanding the impacts of computing

Digital activities affect the environment in several ways, from impacting ecosystems during raw materials extraction to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with electricity usage. 

Embodied vs operational impacts

For products such as computing hardware, we commonly distinguish between embodied and operational impacts. Embodied impacts include the environmental consequences of raw materials extraction, device manufacturing, distribution, and disposal. Operational impacts occur during the usage phase and are mainly associated with electricity use from using the computer. While the focus of most environmental reporting is usually on operational impacts, embodied footprints are often higher. For example, for devices such as laptops, smartphones, or tablets, between 50% and 93% of their life-cycle footprint is from embodied impacts alone (mostly manufacturing).¹ At the other end of the spectrum, electronic waste (e-waste) also comes with high impacts on the environment and human health. The World Health Organisation reports that over 82% of the 54 million tonnes of e-waste are handled by 12-56 million informal waste workers worldwide², with e-waste predicted to rise by 40% by 2030.³ This highlights why it’s crucial to keep devices for longer (Keep, Repair, Reuse). The embodied share is lower for server hardware (e.g. 20-50% on this model server), mostly because these are used more intensely leading to higher energy usage and operational footprint. Across the board, embodied impacts are still largely underestimated and underreported.

It’s not all about carbon

Most reporting focuses on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint, but computing activities, like all human activities, impact the environment in a wide range of ways. For example: 

• Extraction of raw materials (such as cobalt and lithium used for batteries, or the rare-earth element neodymium for hard drives) for computing hardware. 
• Shipping of equipment.
• Carbon footprint and water usage from electricity generation to power hardware and data centres. 
• Ecological footprint of large-scale facilities, e.g. on local biodiversity. 
• Water usage by data centres (mostly for cooling purposes).
• Pollution caused by e-waste.

A standardised way to assess all the environmental impacts of a product or activity is to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Among the different categories assessed, some particularly relevant to computing are abiotic resource use (minerals and metals), water use, and freshwater ecotoxicity. A full tutorial on LCAs is beyond the scope of this course, but you can consult the one from the European Commission for more info.

Planetary boundaries

Another framework that is useful to comprehend the range of environmental impacts of human activities, and put numerical estimates into context, is the nine planetary boundaries: it establishes a threshold not to cross to prevent destabilising the Earth system at a planetary scale.⁴ Although not directly designed for computing, it is an important aspect of sustainability research. The boundaries include, among others, climate change (linked to the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere), global freshwater use, and chemical pollution. As of 2025, we have unfortunately managed to cross 7 out of 9 boundaries. If you are interested in knowing more about planetary boundaries, look at this article from the Stockholm Resilience Centre.