Miljöpåverkan av Digitalisering i Byggnadar : Livscykelanalys av ett energi monitoreringssystem

Households are responsible for approximately 25.4% of total energy consumption in Europe, with space heating and hot water accounting for nearly 80% of this use. As energy efficiency and climate neutrality is an important goal for cities, digital technologies are increasingly integrated into building energy systems to optimize performance and reduce emissions. While these systems are promoted for their energy-saving potential, their own environmental impacts—across manufacturing, use, and end-of-life—are often neglected. This master’s thesis evaluates the environmental impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in the energy system of a residential complex in Stockholm, Sweden. The energy system was digitalized by the real estate company that owns the complex, with the aim of system monitoring. Through a cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the research examines the environmental impacts of ICT tools integrated into the energy system of a residential complex as a case study across manufacturing, use, and end-of-life phases. The LCA is conducted using SimaPro 9.6 with the Ecoinvent v3 database to assess four impact categories particularly important for ICT, including Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Mineral Resource Scarcity (MRS), and Fossil Resource Scarcity (FRS). A break-even analysis was also conducted based on the LCA results to determine the point where the system compensates for its own environmental impacts. Findings show that the use phase is the most significant contributor to both CED and GWP, driven mostly by the power supply device, embedded PC, and router. On the other hand, the manufacturing phase is the biggest contributor to MRS and FRS. A break-even point analysis was also conducted for both electricity and heating energy in terms of GWP. The results showed that the system needs to save approximately 2937 kWh electricity or 758 kWh heating energy in order to offset its climate impact. Scenario analysis was conducted to evaluate the context dependency of the findings. Sweden’s low-voltage electricity mix was replaced with the global low-voltage electricity mix in the use phase of the model to evaluate how the system’s environmental impacts would differ if it was operating in other countries. The results suggest that the GWP associated with the global electricity mix is approximately 18.8 times higher than that of Sweden. In another scenario, a global electronic and electrical waste process from Ecoinvent v3 was used for the disposal phase, instead of the scenario based on data from the case study’s recycling site. The GWP for the Ecoinvent scenario was 3.46 kg CO₂ eq, while the site-specific data resulted in 0.78 kg CO₂ eq for this phase. This study concludes that digital energy systems can provide net environmental benefits under the right conditions. It also underscores the importance of context, as broad regulatory frameworks may overlook critical life cycle trade-offs depending on system design, energy source, and user behavior.