AN APPROACH TO THE ASSESSMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Governments started e-government strategies to renew the public sector and eliminate existing bureaucracy and therefore reduce costs. Plenty of electronic services were developed in order to meet these targets. Nowadays, organizations, governments, and cross-national bodies are turning their attention to the question of how we can create a sustainable society. So far, there was no effort on this direction but now there is an imperative need for governments to take into account this aspect during the configuration of their strategies. A first effort on this direction could be implemented either by informing citizens about the aspects of this problem and the alternative ways to contribute to its solution or by reengineering the services of public agencies. However, there is limited research on the environmental impact of e-government services. This paper assesses the environmental impact of e-government services by using a process based method and the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The results indicate that e-government services have different environmental profile and that this parameter should be taken into account by governments for setting priorities towards the enhancement of sustainability and the reduction of environmental impacts