Supply chain environmental assessment of the telecommunications sectors

Abstract

This paper presents an assessment of the environmental effects of three sectors of the US telecommunications industry: telephone and telegraph communications and services, cable and other pay TV services, and radio and TV broadcasting. Nonrenewable and renewable resource inputs, as well as environmental outputs through an analysis of the telecommunications industry's supply chain are quantified. While these sectors generate comparably little pollution at the point of generation, through their extensive supplier chain purchases of manufactured goods and services from other sectors of the economy, telecommunications services are responsible for substantial environmental effects.