Standards for ICT - A green strategy in a grey sector

This paper takes the recent process towards standardizing the mobile phone charger in the EU as a starting point to consider the role that compatibility standards might play in mitigating the negative impact of ICT on the environment. Building on insights gained from the economics of standards literature, we explore how the inherent effects of compatibility standards - such as reducing variety, avoiding lock-in, and building critical mass - can have positive implications for the environment. While there is growing interest in how performance standards initiatives with an explicit environmental purpose can contribute to sustainability, we argue that current standardization literature and policy have overlooked this important (side) effect of compatibility standards. Having first illustrated how excessive diversity and incompatibilities in ICT generate e-waste, discourage re-use, and make recycling economically unviable, we develop an economic-environmental framework for analyzing the sustainability effects of compatibility standards and apply it to the case of mobile phone chargers. We conclude that compatibility standards are a form of ecodesign at sector level and should be recognized as a relevant complementary strategy towards greening the IT industry.