Sui, Daniel Z.Phillips, Don T.Hilty, Lorenz M.Gilgen, Paul W.2019-09-162019-09-162001https://dl.gi.de/handle/20.500.12116/26705This paper reports the initial findings of an on-going interdisciplinary project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The project expands conventional industrial ecology with the goal of making a ground-breaking development in information ecology a new conceptual and analytical framework that can be operationalized in practice to systematically examine the environmental impacts of the emerging digital economy. We want to unpack the paradoxical relationship between the digital economy and the environment by addressing three key questions: 1. To what extent and under what circumstances, is the electronic delivery of goods and services going to substitute, complement, or synergistically integrated with traditional ways of doing business? 2. What are the environmental consequences, measured in terms of energy/material consumption and waste production, of using the Internet to deliver information-based products and services? 3. What are the environmental consequences, measured in terms of energy/material consumption and waste production, of using the Internet to facilitate the retailing of tangible goods and products? By extending previous works in industrial ecology, this project develops an informational ecology approach as the guiding analytic framework that incorporates both production and consumption elements in the new economy. Our information ecology approach aims to establish links between industrial metabolism and information processing. Using the analytical framework embedded in SmartCostTMdeveloped at Texas A&M, detailed life-cycle analysis (LCA) of electronic commerce are being conducted at the company level for Internet-based businesses.Text/Conference Paper