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Seminar 3 - Sustainability

Reflection submission deadline: see "Submission and seminar dates..."

Seminar date and time: see  "Submission and seminar dates..."

Background

All technology has an impact on the sustainable environment. Obviously, this is a huge topic area involving environmental, economical, political and several other aspects. Here, we will scratch the surface a bit, both on general aspects to consider but also on some specific aspects of the technology that is the focus in our master program.

Watching and reading before the seminar

[1] Log in to KTH and Bilda, select the EES Miljöutbildning event and complete The Environment and Sustainable Development short course, including a quiz: https://bilda.kth.se/courseId/12271/content.do?id=23106706

Pass the quiz at the end of the course, before the reflection submission deadline. Then, please fill in the survey https://bilda.kth.se/courseId/12271/content.do?id=23136552

[2] Read Elisabeth Hochschorner, György Dán, Åsa Moberg, Carbon footprint of movie distribution via the internet: a Swedish case study, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 87, 15 January 2015, Pages 197-207.

Written reflection

Select an emerging system or service in the area of networked services and systems, something that you are interested in. Analyse it from the view of sustainability and environmental impact. Build on what you have learned from [1], and get inspired by the study in [2].

  • How important do you think that sustainability issues will be in your future role as an engineer? Motivate!
  • Describe the technology you would like to evaluate. Identify the stakeholders that are connected to this technology, and therefore affect its environmental impact, including for example designers, equipment and service providers and users.
  • Discuss how to evaluate the environmental impact of new technologies in general, and provide a detailed evaluation of your selected technology, considering its entire life-cycle, and the role of the stakeholders. Are there alternative solutions? How do they compare from sustainability point of view?

General advice:

  • Write a reflecting text of at least 500-600 words (about a page).
  • Read/watch the assignment thoroughly; use the material extensively in your reflection text.
  • In your reflection text, be specific. Give arguments, and support your arguments with references or examples.
  • Write a continuous text, use the questions as guidelines.

Submission

Go to Course wiki, find your group, Seminar 3 and your name. Upload the pdf with your name. If you can not access the wiki, please send the reflection to me (vfodor@kth.se), with informative file name and subject line: seminar3-groupA(B,C)-firstname-familyname.pdf,  subject: seminar3-groupA(B,C).

Before the seminar

You will find the reflection texts in the course wiki. Read all the reflecting documents of your group mates. Mark the sentences that you find particularly interesting or important.

During the seminar

Take active part in the discussions!