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

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Madon, Maël. 2021. “Developing a Parameterized Embodied Emissions Calculator for Telecommunication Networks Equipment (PEEC).” Masters, Stockholm, Sweden: KTH Royal Institute of Technology. http://kth.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1540115&dswid=4554.

Temperature on the surface of the earth has already increased by 1°C above pre-industrial
levels. To have a chance to keep global warming under 1,5°C, greenhouse gas emissions from
human activities should be halved by 2030, reaching net zero in 2050. Every business sector
is concerned. Although the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector can be
part of the solution by enabling the emergence of more sustainable practices, it remains an
industry with a considerable footprint.
The work in this thesis helps to estimate a part of this footprint. We developed PEEC, a
Parameterized Embodied Emission Calculator, allowing to assess the greenhouse gas
emissions due to telecommunication network equipment. PEEC counts the cradle-to-gate
emissions, i.e. the emissions of all activities happening before the use of the product (mining
and 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 mobile
operators to report their scope 3 emissions, support research projects, and help answering
questions related to embodied footprint of telecom network products in the industry. At this
stage, 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 of
the 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 0,4
tons for Ericsson’s own activities. Detailed conditions behind these numbers are provided in
this report.
Prior to the implementation, user expectations on such a tool have been collected and used
to build the requirements. Usability have also been taken into account through workshops
and discussions with stakeholders. Throughout the project, we tried to balance the trade-off
between 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 of
the embodied emission model, transparently described in this report.
LCAs of complex products such as ICT hardware with dynamic and global supply chains have
high 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 on
material emission factors such as aluminum or gold, and production emission factors such as
the manufacturing of integrated circuits. In general, the user should be careful with the
assumptions used and always co-present the results with details regarding assumptions,
boundaries and data sources as well as a disclaimer.

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