Comparison of different methods of sending messages on the basis of Life-Cycle Analyses

Comparison of different methods
of sending messages on the basis
of Life-Cycle Analyses

Han Remmerswaal Design for Sustainability, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands Phone+ 31 15 2785041, Fax +31 15 2782938, Email: j.a.m.remmerswaal@io.tudelft.nl	Chris Klok Institute for Advanced Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands
Patrick van Rijckevorsel Institute for Advanced Industrial Design Engineering Delft University of Technology Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands	Nicole Schaffroth Institute for Advanced Industrial Design Engineering Delft University of Technology Jaffalaan 9, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands

The Life-Cycle Analyses approach was used, to establish the energy consumption of sending a message by E-mail, telephone, fax and letters by mail. The functional unit was: a non-urgent message to be sent over a distance in the range of typically 50 km; e.g. from Delft (NL) to Utrecht (NL). The message is simple, approximately 500 words and without graphics.

In this investigation only the main effects where considered, second order effects are ignored. This study revealed the telephone as the least energy using method to transfer a message. E-mail and (hand-written) mail are slightly more demanding, but of the same order of magnitude, with short messages e-mail uses the least energy, as with long messages hand-written mail consumes least energy. The energy requirement of fax is strongly dependent on the frequency of use, but is the most energy consuming method.

Last updated: 13 November, 2008