Contributions published at Informatics and Sustainability Research (Lorenz Hilty)

Quite often information of energy consumption provided by electrical device producer companies is not always complete. Consumers can not always be sure about the total energy consumption of a device. Also standby energy consumption is in most cases not mentioned in the product description. Within the scope of this master thesis, a prototype of a web platform for user generated energy consumption data has being developed. The idea behind this is to provide a possibility to share energy consumption information within a large community. Any user who has an electrical device at home has the possibility to describe the energy consumption behaviour of the device and make it public using the platform.The developed prototype is available in a desktop and mobile version for smartphones and tablets.

Abstract The steady spread of Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) in business process management implies an increased demand for suitable software products that provide a simulation of the processes. While many software vendors have already developed†broad simulation environments, these are not always compatible with BPMN. Although BPMN was not originally designed to run simulations, many software vendors have tried to close that gap. For this reason, this study points out the providers in the market and analyzes their products. As has been seen in the past, not every software tool has considered the aspect of simulation and implemented it correctly this work should help to highlight compliant solutions in the simulation process.

Newer development in ICTs in combination with the internet creates new possibilities to solve environmental problems. In search for actual measures in this new field, concepts like crowdsourcing and environmental monitoring play a big role. However, there has not been any detailed research concerning their connection and the resulting benefits or problems. This paper investigates the possibilities of merging the two concepts together in order to improve environmental protection. Therefore it defines three categories of crowdsourcing on the new criteria of the degree of the stakeholder's involvement. It then proceeds to merge these categories with different kinds of environmental monitoring into a two-dimensional classification scheme, which can be used to classify existing projects.

It is helpful to develop agent-based model based on a structured procedure. The chosen traditional software engineering approach is mainly composed of five phases: 1) the analysis of the observed system; 2) the model development; 3) the detailed design; 4) the actual software implementation; and 5) the model's evaluation. The different phases are briefly described by the respective goals, tasks and expected results. This contribution shows the development of a Swiss forest wood fuel market with specific examples for each phase. The essential work steps and intermediate results are demonstrated from the start to a fully developed agent-based model. Finally it is demonstrated how to carry through scenario analyses for the modeled forest wood fuel market. The simulation example shows first that, as is to be expected, a reduction of the wood supply leads to increasing forest wood fuel prices. Second, it shows how the decision behavior of wood suppliers can additionally modify the price of forest wood fuel in a situation of scarce supply, whereas this effect is smaller in a situation of balanced supply and demand.

The aim of this study was to determine the requirements for a software system for closer cooperation between training in VET, to compare them with the already existing system Sephir. My interest was to find out the requirements for a software system for closer cooperation between training in VET. For this first I had to develop how the education in Switzerland is built up, what Closer cooperation between training means and why it occurs. To understand however, as a software system should look for closer cooperation between training, the requirements must be developed for this system. for this was I discussed the theory of requirements engineering so that i specified requirements collect a software system for VET. Subsequently I compared the already developed software system SEPHIR with the developed requirements for their benefits and checked their improvement. I found out that Sephir supports closer cooperation between training in VET at the level of information exchange, but to support the claim that closer cooperation between training is not entirely fair.

Today many technologies are being used that involve information on the location of objects or persons. In addition to the widely known geo-location by satellite via GPS, today at least 12 more technologies are being used that make it possible to determine the location of devices, and indirectly that of their users. This may happen in real time or after a delay depending on the technology; it may happen with a degree of precision ranging from a few kilometers to a few centimeters, and either with or without the knowledge of the persons affected.The book reports (in German) about a technology assessment study on social opportunities and risks brought about by geo-location technologies with a focus on the situation in Switzerland, considering the development in the European Union and the Council of Europe as well.

There is a growing consensus that ICT can make an important contribution towards the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, both by increasing the efficiency of existing processes, and by enabling substitution effects in an effort to implement more energy efficient paradigms in production and consumption. While, however, many studies based on theoretical reduction potentials have been presented, in practice, it has only been possible to cite a few examples of such reductions thus far. This paper presents the results of a first field experiment for one particular domain in which ICT can be substituted for more carbon-intensive technologies: using advanced videoconferencing technology to reduce intercontinental conference travel and thus travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. We organized a large resource management conference simultaneously on two continents and assessed the emissions caused by the attendees’ travel and by the Internet traffic and the additional equipment needed to connect the two venues. We further assessed, based on a survey, the emissions in the alternative scenarios of holding the conference at either one of the places, and the satisfaction of the participants with the two-site conference format. The results show that reductions of 37% and 50% in travel-related greenhouse gas emissions were attained as compared to the one-site alternatives, although more people took part than in any of these alternatives. At the same time, the attendees' experience has been overwhelmingly positive, showing that the multiple-site paradigm can serve as an acceptable alternative to the traditional one-site paradigm of holding an international conference.

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This paper takes the life cycle inventory database ecoinvent as an example of the integration of ERP and environ-mental information systems. A reference model describes the ERP-integrated creation of life cycle assessments based on ecoinvent data. The main challenges to implement the reference model from the viewpoint of ecoinvent are identi-fied and approaches for a solution presented. First, an outline for an ontology enhancing ecoinvent metadata is given to help bridge the so-called semantic gap. Second, the basic web services needed to attach to a service-oriented archi-tecture are described.

The talk will give an overview on sustainability issues of ICT, starting from the Green IT perspective and extending it in several directions: Life-Cycle thinking, issues beyond energy (scarce metals), enabling effects of ICT, and systemic effects of ICT. Based on a review of studies assessing the potential of ICT to reduce the carbon footprint of the economy, the conditions will be discussed under which ICT could substantially contribute to sustainable development.

The master paper here focuses on the identification of the paradigms within global economic resource simulation models. Based on the view that the paradigms present in models are to be found in the assumptions and the logic structure, a bottom-up approach is pursued: the assumptions and the logic structure of four global resource models are analysed (World3, SARUM, FUGI and the Metal Model), whereas the outcomes of the respective models are only discussed to the extent that the assumptions or the logic applied are the cause of the outcome of simulation models. The models analysed and mentioned here all simulate the long term sustainability of not renewable resources. Special attention was given to all aspect of the sustainability of metal resources, but without limiting analysis only on metals. The paradigms identified in the presented models are discussed under various angles. The finding here is that any sustainable solution for the use of resources stands and falls with the intensity and quality of the future technological progress.

At the EMPA institute in St. Gallen they engineered a sensor box, which collects data during a ride of an electric powered motorcycle. The data are built up of GPS data and of measure data of the accumulator of the electric powered motorcycle. The ride of a motorcycle along a rectilinear driving surface is influenced by various physical forces: aerodynamic resistance, wheel resistance, slope resistance, acceleration resistance and driving force. With the aid of a simulation model, which is based on the System Dynamics approach, the physical forces and their causes, effects and feedbacks are showed and modeled. On the basis of this simulation model an Android application is developed. The application allows on the one hand to process the sensor box data and to compute the physical forces. On the other hand it allows to simulate a ride with different parameters and lets compare it with the real ride.

Lately, we often hear the phrase: „One hundred percent risk for the supplier means zero percent for the client“. The clients want to carry zero risk in the general Terms & Conditions and thereby unlimited liability for the suppliers. In order to continue, expand and not to take any risks from other companies, Siemens Switzerland - Division of Mobility and Logistics (MOL) would like to improve their processes. As part of my bachelor thesis, I analyzed the MOL processes by focusing on traceability in three defined use cases for Order & Change Management in an SAP® environment and modeled these in BPMN. The goal was to find the vulnerabilities that traceability may negatively affect the process and suggest methods to improve them. My research findings show the following weaknesses: a) „No single process definition and Compliance“ b) „Redundancy of information in the same process“ c) „Information system with large media breaks“ and d) „No one to one traceability process of the product and its components, with special attention to purchased materials by foreign suppliers“. In conclusion, the new process definition eliminates the weaknesses that hinder the traceability process and this is also a prerequisite for the newly defined processes and methods of traceability (e.g.: to identify materials as a small total amount). These newly defined processes and methods relate ensures that the material is exactly where it is mounted and can be identified one to one (e.g.: screws). The improvement of today’s weak points is the condition for one to one traceability and with these newly defined processes and methods MOL will overcome the long-term challenge of the market and improve their competitive position.

Sustainable development requires the decoupling of economic growth from environmental impacts and from the use of natural resources. This article gives an overview of existing approaches to using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the service of sustainability: Environmental Informatics, Green ICT, and Sustainable Human-computer Interaction (HCI). These approaches are then discussed in the context of the Jevons paradox, an economic argument implying that technological efficiency alone will not produce sustainability. This consideration leads to the conclusion that a combination of efficiency and sufficiency strategies is the most effective way to stimulate innovations which will unleash ICT’s potential to support sustainability.

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The goal of this project was to develop a web-based tool for the interactive evaluation of biofuels sustainability against the standard of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. In this document we describe the central concepts of the RSB GHG Tool which is one module within the RSB tool. It allows the modular assessment of GHG emissions for numerous biofuel pathways with different methodologies: RSB, EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU RED), Ordinance on mineral oil tax (CH), Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS/USA), and U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2/USA).

With two regulations, 244/2009 and 245/2009, the European Commission recently put into practice the EuP Directive in the area of lighting devices, aiming to improve energy efficiency in the domestic lighting sector. This article presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment comparison of four different lighting technologies: the tungsten lamp, the halogen lamp, the conventional fluorescent lamp and the compact fluorescent lamp. Taking advantage of the most up-to-date life cycle inventory database available (ecoinvent data version 2.01), all life cycle phases were assessed and the sensitivity of the results for varying assumptions analysed: different qualities of compact fluorescent lamps (production phase), different electricity mixes (use phase), and endof- life scenarios for WEEE recycling versus municipal solid waste incineration (disposal phase). A functional unit of “one hour of lighting” was defined and the environmental burdens for the whole life cycle for all four lamp types were calculated, showing a clearly lower impact for the two gas-discharge lamps, i.e. the fluorescent and the compact fluorescent lamp. Differences in the product quality of the compact fluorescent lamps reveal to have only a very small effect on the overall environmental performance of this lamp type; a decline of the actual life time of this lamp type doesn't result in a change of the rank order of the results of the here examined four lamp types. It was also shown that the environmental break-even point of the gasdischarge lamps is reached long before the end of their expected life-span. All in all, it can be concluded that a change from today's tungsten lamp technology to a low-energy-consuming technology such as the compact fluorescent lamp results in a substantial environmental benefit.

This chapter provides the introduction to this 2011 issue of the Politeia journal dedicated to the relationship between sustainability and information and communication technologies (ICT) in the long term. It outlines the content of six papers and examines their similarities and trends. Its main themes are built around how social accountability for sustainability in the information society can be enhanced. Although it is feasible to experiment with many of these proposals today, the ultimate success of the application of these ideas will only be identified over time.