A lifecycle environmental study of the impact of e-commerce on electronic products

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) will truly affect every sector of the economy in ways that today we can only imagine. Certainly, the electronics sector-its products, business strategies and technologies-will be at the forefront of this change. But, what will be the impact of e-commerce on the environment? This paper begins to explore this question from the product perspective examining the environmental lifecycle impacts of e-commerce on electronics products, using desktop personal computers as a case study. The study identifies specific changes which may occur to each of the product lifecycle stages and quantifies these impacts using traditional lifecycle assessment tools and methodologies. Since the real scope and depth of future business changes are uncertain, two impact scenarios are modeled and analyzed to provide upper and lower impact limits.