The Internet Microscope: Assessing the energy and environmental Impact of online services, and their role in everyday life

Information technology consumes about 9% of electricity in Sweden and globally, and contributes about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The growth of data traffic and online services is exponential.

This ambitious, interdisciplinary project will gather a large, new primary data set on online service use and related household activity in Sweden.

This will be accomplished by mailing a small network monitoring device and time-use survey to thousands of Swedish households.

We will use the dataset to (1) estimate the energy and carbon impact of online devices and services; (2) link these impacts to how the devices and services are used in households; and (3) interrogate possible alternative policies and designs for services which are sustainable and better support daily life and well-being.

In an evidence-based way, society will thus be able to debate the extent to which different online services are justifiable, given their energy and environmental impacts, and the utility and meaning that they achieve for people in everyday life; and compare these to alternative trajectories for digitalisation in Sweden.