How to reduce the environmental impact of IoT projects?

In just a few years, connected objects have become widespread in many sectors (data centers, home automation, supply chain, industrial sites, water networks, etc.) due to the value-added services they provide. They enable the measurement and monitoring of indicators to create value and optimize operational processes (proactive alerts, anticipation of failures, intelligent diagnostics, etc.), but also to reduce environmental impacts (control of energy, water, and primary resource consumption, waste reduction, etc.).

However, considering their entire life cycle, connected objects themselves are sources of environmental impacts, particularly due to their embedded electronics and their connection gateways to telecommunication networks. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of these IoT devices, from the raw materials (energy and non-energy) required for their manufacture to the management of their end-of-life (WEEE), including transport, distribution, and use, demonstrates that the manufacturing phase has the most significant environmental impact (notably due to the use of rare metals).

Not to mention that these objects have a highly variable lifespan, ranging from one to ten years, with the lifespan of the 'sensor' being directly linked to that of the equipment to which it is associated.

Therefore, any IoT project aiming to optimize a process or reduce the environmental impact of any process whatsoever, must be considered by taking into account its overall environmental impact. To ensure this, it is necessary to measure, on one hand, the potential gains from optimizing the process concerned (avoided impacts), and on the other hand, the environmental costs over the entire life cycle of the connected objects required to achieve these gains (generated impacts).

The goal is to calculate a project's environmental balance. In the case of a significantly positive balance (thus with a final impact on the environment), the project should not be abandoned; rather, appropriate solutions or eco-design levers should be found to make the digital services offered by connected objects as frugal as possible. This would allow achieving a negative environmental balance, meaning one that concretely 'avoids' environmental impacts.

In other words, a comprehensive end-to-end Life Cycle Assessment of an IoT project leads to the implementation of truly effective projects, both in terms of operational performance and environmental impact, built on provable results. This also helps avoid potential 'greenwashing' initiatives.

To reduce the environmental impact of an IoT project, several levers of action are possible. A frugal IoT project begins with work on the equipment itself. On one hand, through eco-design of equipment to improve its durability: energy- and resource-efficient materials, optimized batteries, etc. And, on the other hand, by optimizing the number of communicating objects. Thus, it is generally more effective to deploy a limited number of smarter and more robust objects than a multitude of objects that merely report data.

Still regarding deployment, it is also essential to adjust the volume of connected objects to long-term needs. In other words, do sensors need to remain in place indefinitely, or can they be 'recycled' for other projects?

Finally, to reduce the environmental impact of IoT projects, the centralized part of the solution must also be optimized. Its design must allow for data collection, processing, reporting, and storage scaled precisely to project needs.

In conclusion, given the proliferation of IoT projects, for both personal and professional uses, it is essential to integrate environmental considerations from the design stage of digital services to avoid a massive dispersion of electronic equipment. This equipment requires resources and generates impacts at all stages of its life cycle.