Developing a Parameterized Embodied Emissions Calculator for telecommunication networks equipment (PEEC)

Sammanfattning: Temperature on the surface of the earth has already increased by 1°C above pre-industriallevels. To have a chance to keep global warming under 1,5°C, greenhouse gas emissions fromhuman activities should be halved by 2030, reaching net zero in 2050. Every business sectoris concerned. Although the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector can bepart of the solution by enabling the emergence of more sustainable practices, it remains anindustry with a considerable footprint.The work in this thesis helps to estimate a part of this footprint. We developed PEEC, aParameterized Embodied Emission Calculator, allowing to assess the greenhouse gasemissions due to telecommunication network equipment. PEEC counts the cradle-to-gateemissions, i.e. the emissions of all activities happening before the use of the product (miningand transformation of raw material, production of components, assembly, packaging,transport, and support operations). It is a flexible and user-friendly MS Excel worksheet,intended for users with different level of knowledge on the product. PEEC could assist mobileoperators to report their scope 3 emissions, support research projects, and help answeringquestions related to embodied footprint of telecom network products in the industry. At thisstage, the tool has been trialed at an older Ericsson base station and conditions from 2014.This showcased the functioning of the tool and estimated the embodied carbon emissions ofthe assessed base station at 4,4 tons CO2eq, consisting of 1,8 tons in the raw material phase,1,6 tons in the production phase, 0,7 tons during the transport along the supply chain and 0,4tons for Ericsson’s own activities. Detailed conditions behind these numbers are provided inthis report.Prior to the implementation, user expectations on such a tool have been collected and usedto build the requirements. Usability have also been taken into account through workshopsand discussions with stakeholders. Throughout the project, we tried to balance the trade-offbetween the scientific rigor of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the needs of the industry.Previous LCA models and established standards in the field have provided the foundation ofthe embodied emission model, transparently described in this report.LCAs of complex products such as ICT hardware with dynamic and global supply chains havehigh uncertainties. The results given by a simplified LCA tool like PEEC have even higher ones.The sensitivity analysis reveals a large dependance of the results for embodied emissions onmaterial emission factors such as aluminum or gold, and production emission factors such asthe manufacturing of integrated circuits. In general, the user should be careful with theassumptions used and always co-present the results with details regarding assumptions,boundaries and data sources as well as a disclaimer.