ABSTRACT
The past 40 years witnessed the emergence of a totally new industry and services sector: the Information and Communication Technology sector, commonly referred to as the ICT sector. During those decades, government, industry, and consumers have become dependent on ICT to coordinate stocks and flows of people, goods, materials, and services around the world. This growth has been healthy from an economic perspective, creating and replacing many jobs that were lost in other parts of industry. The growth was also motivated by the efficiency improvement generated by ICT. But the other side of the coin is the fact that efficiency improvements lead to higher consumption and further increases in energy and material use. Growth cannot be sustained if we remain producing in a cradle-to-grave fashion.
