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Carbon Emissions Embodied in Imports of Information Technology and Consumer Electronics

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Salman Farmanfarmaian and Shui Bin

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This spreadsheet provides some calculations and notes related to our piece entitled: "Carbon Emissions of Information Technology and Consumer Electronics More Than Meets the Eye"

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Coverage of our study

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Our analysis here is focused on the Information Technology, Telecom and Consumer Electronics sectors.

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As a result, the import NAIC codes we have chosen basically fall into four categories - the first two, computer and computer parts are obvious given our focus on the Information Technology Industry.

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The third category covers telecom, audio, video, radio, and TV. We have included these in our analysis because of the convergence of these sectors with Information Technology. Just as Apple produces telephones, Sony computers, Dell flat screen televisions, and HP music players, companies like CISCO produce consumer IT gear as well as telecom equipment.

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Fourth, we have also included all semiconductor and printed board circuit categories in our analysis. Although we recognize that there are many semiconductors and circuit boards being used outside of the realm of information technology and consumer electronics products, we did not have a way to separate out the intended use of these imports. As such, this category may be more loosely related to our focus of 'technology' products than the others.

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At the same time, there are many imports we did not include in our analysis, namely various communications and electric wires, batteries, instrumentation and other components. Although these products would be used in the Information technology industry in general, their primary use would not be for those markets.

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Calculations

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As seen in the following spreadsheets, to calculate our estimates of "embodied emissions" we have used the EIO-LCA model to first determine a "Coefficient" representing the amount of CO2 that would be emitted in the United States to produce one million dollars of goods.

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We then apply these coefficients to the dollar value of imports of the same category of goods for the years 1997 to 2006 with the consideration of purchasing power parity and fuel structure of import countries.

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Given the EIOLCA data is from 1997, we have adjusted our numbers based on the relative change in prices (PPI) over the years (as suggested by EIOLCA itself.) Note that this assumption relies on the PPI and so, given the massive technological advances in manufacturing such products, it could potentially skew the associated carbon emissions as more value gets derived from similar manufacturing processes.

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The EIOLCA model

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The Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (www.eiolca.net) model, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, estimates the aggregate environmental impacts, including CO2 emissions, for goods and services produced in the US.

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More information about the model can be found in the following locations:

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http://www.eiolca.net - The primary web site

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http://www.eiolca.net/methods.html - An excellent summary of methods and FAQs

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http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/gd/education/Eio.pdf - A good overview of the model.

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Further more, the web site has a very good (and humble) discussion of the potential weaknesses of the model here: http://www.eiolca.net/methods.html#expert.

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Potential for model underestimation

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Our model may be under-estimating the carbon emissions related to the manufacturing of products because of one of its critical characteristics: it assumes that such production is taking place in the United States. To the extent that these goods are produced in countries where power sources use 'dirtier' fuels, our estimates would have to be adjusted to account for that. We are working towards assessing the impact of this factor on our numbers (though this spreadsheet does not take any such impact into account) and we would expect that our estimates would have to be adjusted upwards once we account for this factor.