Environmental impacts of a digital health and well-being service
9 January 2024
Senior Lecturer Alejandro Gallego-Schmid and Research Assistant Raphael Tarpani have published a paper in the Journal Cleaner Environmental Systems, about the environmental impacts of a digital health and well-being service.
The paper is a result derived from the project "Environmental impacts of digital services for health and wellbeing in the home," where Dr Alejandro Gallego Schmid is a Co-Investigator. The project received funding from the EPSRC Digital Economy Sustainable Digital Society 2020/21 call. The paper breaks down the life cycle environmental impacts of a digital health and well-being service implemented in three different elderly living schemes in the UK. Further, the paper discusses different ways (like using renewable energy and extending the lifespan of the electronic equipment) to reduce the environmental impacts of the digital service.
The digital service's global warming potential was estimated at 718–1509 kg CO2 eq./resident over 20 years. The authors are currently developing a framework to evaluate the circularity of the digital service. Addressing environmental impacts of digitalization is crucial for sustainable healthcare development.