Application of Lifecycle Measures for an Integrated Method of Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Radio Frequency Identification and Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) technology has advanced in recent years, leading to improvements of manufacturing processes. As a result of such improvements, environmental sustainability assessments for technologies have been requested by international control agencies. Although various assessment approaches are widely applied, IoT technology requires effective assessment methods to support the decision-making process and that incorporate qualitative measures to create quantifiable values. In this paper, a new environmental sustainability assessment method is developed to assess radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensors networks (WSN). This integrated assessment method incorporates a modified and redesigned conceptual methodology based on technical project evaluation (IMATOV) and an extension of conventional lifecycle measures. The results shows the most and least important metrics. The most important metrics are the categories “electronic devices disposed of completely” and “decrease in stocks”, with the greatest GWFs (20% and 19%, respectively) and IAVs (127% and 117%, respectively) and moderate consolidated degrees of fulfillment. Relatively low degrees of fulfillment are achieved by categories such as “decrease in numbers of assets”, “supply chain echelons benefiting RFID”, and “tag lifecycle duration”, with IAVs below 10%. This study promotes an integrated method to support decision-making processes in the context of environmental sustainability assessments based on lifecycle measures.