Abstract: With the growing pace of tablets use and the large focus it is attracting especially in higher education, this paper looks at an important aspect of tablets; their carbon footprint. Studies have suggested that tablets have positive impact on the environment; especially since tablets use less energy than laptops or desktops. Recent manufacturers’ reports on the carbon footprint of tablets have revealed that a significant portion, as much as 80%, of the carbon footprint of tablets comes from production and delivery as opposed to the operational life-cycle of these devices. Thus rending some of previous assumptions about the environmental impact of tablets questionable. This study sets to answer a key question: What is the break-even analysis point when saving on printed paper offsets the carbon footprint of producing and running the tablet in higher education. A review of the literature indicated several examples of tablet models and their carbon emission impact; this is compared to the environmental savings on paper that green courses could produce. The analysis of the carbon break-even point shows that even when considering some of the most efficient and least carbon impact tablets available on the market with a carbon-footprint production of 153Kg CO2e, the break-even point is 81.5 months; referring to 6 years, 9 months and 15 days of use. This exceeds the life-cycle of an average tablet of five years and average degree duration of four years. While tablets still have the least carbon-footprint impact compared to laptops and desktops, to achieve the break-even point of carbon neutral operations this study concludes that manufacturers need to find more environmentally efficient ways of production that would reduce the carbon-footprint product to a level that does not exceed 112.8kg CO2e.

Fadi Safieddine and Imad Nakhoul. “Carbon Break Even Analysis: Environmental Impact of Tablets in Higher Education”. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA) 7.5 (2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2016.070511

@article{Safieddine2016,
title = {Carbon Break Even Analysis: Environmental Impact of Tablets in Higher Education},
journal = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
doi = {10.14569/IJACSA.2016.070511},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2016.070511},
year = {2016},
publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
volume = {7},
number = {5},
author = {Fadi Safieddine and Imad Nakhoul}
}