How sustainability can shape the telecom industry and its impact on the environment and climate change

The telecommunications industry, a pivotal force in today’s interconnected world, is at a crossroads where technology, sustainability, and climate change intersect. As global awareness of environmental issues intensifies, the industry faces both challenges and opportunities in shaping a sustainable future. This article delves into how sustainability can reshape the telecommunications sector, examining its environmental impact and potential contributions to combating climate change.

As a world and as an industry, we are perhaps at an inflection point in terms of generational wireless technology, amid increasing demand by enterprises, governments and end consumers for better energy efficiency and overall sustainability. Many telecom service providers have responded to those demands by beginning to measure their environmental impact and take concrete steps to reduce it, including adopting net-zero emissions goals, optimizing their fleet of vehicles and transition most of them to EVs, increasing their use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind, and more. Overall, the telecom service providers account for about 2-3 percent of global energy demand. According to GSMA, energy consumption constitutes anywhere between 20-40 percent of network operational expenditure. Almost two-thirds of network power consumption happens in the Radio Access Network (RAN), and hence many operators and equipment vendors are focusing a lot on how to make the RAN more energy efficient – because it guzzles up a lot of power, and in the 5G era, that is generally expected to increase as data traffic continues to grow exponentially, and cellular sites continue to proliferate. The GSMA has estimated that mobile networks will at least double their power consumption between 2023 and 2025. This isn’t a sustainable situation for power use or operators’ profitability, either, given ever increasing energy prices and the higher cost of capital due to high interest rate regime that we live in today and hence reducing energy usage is an economic imperative, as much as it is an important corporate responsibility.

Climate trends
Lets look at the some of the current climate trends. During the World Economic Forum held in Davos in the mid- January 2024, the Global Risks Report 2024 was released and the number 1 risk that came out from the results of the survey was “Extreme Weather”. We have seen so many extreme weather events over the last decade. As per the European Union’s Copernicus Climate change service, 2023 was the hottest on record, and likely the warmest in 100,000 years. Regions such as Europe, North America, China experienced record-breaking heat waves. In India, we witnessed unusual weather events as well with extreme heat in many states leading to drought and extremely heavy rainfall in a few states. The earth in 2023 was 1.4 degrees Centigrade warmer than what it was during the pre-industrial days and it looks extremely unlikely if we can meet the UNs target to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels by 2030. If the planet continue to burn at this rate, it will definitely impact livelihoods of people, their health and their overall well-being. The emissions impacting climate change come from every part of the world and affect everyone, but there are some countries that produce much more than the others, for example the seven biggest emitters alone are China, the United States of America, India, the European Union, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and Brazil that accounted for about close to 50 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 as per a UN study.

The Scope 3 emissions impact
Scope 3 which are indirect emissions including those from the production, use and disposal of purchased goods and services – are by far the biggest source of GHG emissions for most communications service providers (CSPs). They are also on the rise, according to 53 percent of 68 sustainability executives, working for 50 large telecoms operators worldwide, who took part in a TM Forum survey in 2023. Scope 3 accounts for more than 90 percent of GHG emissions, according to more than one third of those who were surveyed, and more than 75 percent by almost a third more. Some of the world’s largest CSPs hope to achieve net zero by 2040, but it will only happen if they can get to grips with Scope 3 emissions. For example, AT&T has set a target of getting to carbon neutral by 2035. This will be difficult to achieve without changes in how CSPs procure, build and operate networks. Many emerging tools that help telecom operators reduce power consumption and realize system-level energy efficiencies hinge on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and closed-loop intelligent automation.

Telecom’s energy-intensive nature, particularly data centers that power a lot of the computing and storage infrastructure as well as network operations, significantly contributes to its carbon footprint. Usage of renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, and adopting energy-efficient technologies can go a long way to mitigate this impact. Computing is still a big contributor to problems such as carbon emissions and is responsible for between 1.8 percent and 3.9 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. Thus, the carbon footprint of IT operations directly impacts a company’s GHG emissions with enterprise technology responsible for approximately 1 percent according to a study by McKinsey.

Let us look at some examples of the sustainability initiatives of a few telecom service providers and equipment manufacturers.

E-waste management
The rapid upgrade cycle of telecom equipment contributes to growing e-waste. Effective e-waste management strategies, such as take-back programs, sustainable design principles, and promoting recycling, are essential.

Example: Nokia’s recycling initiatives and efforts to design more sustainable products.

Sustainable infrastructure development
Developing infrastructure that is both environmentally friendly and resilient to climate change is crucial. This includes green data centers and sustainable materials for network equipment.

Example: Ericsson’s focus on building energy-efficient and sustainable network equipment.

Digital inclusion and its environmental relevance
Expanding digital connectivity in an environmentally conscious manner can contribute to greater awareness and solutions for climate change. This includes using telecom platforms to spread environmental awareness.

Example: Many Indian based telecom service providers have initiatives in place to provide affordable digital services with a focus on sustainability.

Connectivity can be a very powerful tool in the fight against climate change. It enables telecom service providers to access near real time data to measure the resources that contribute to climate change, like electricity, fuel and water, while also playing an important role in Smart & Connected Climate Solutions that help support the transition to a cleaner future, such as EVs, renewable energy and Smart & Green buildings. Technology must go hand-in-hand with collaboration and here I wish to highlight the example of how AT&T in collaboration with other organizations were able to find new Smart Climate Solutions that can increase their impact far beyond their own operations through their Connected Climate Initiative (CCI). Through CCI they are collaborating with technology leaders, Enterprise business customers, universities and non-profit organisations to find new ways to use this connectivity with the goal of eliminating a gigaton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2035. This is something many global telecom services providers including the Indian telecom providers can emulate.

Some other areas where telecom service providers can fuse sustainability into their network operations and also in architecting their products and services with sustainability at the centre are as follows:

Network reliability and efficiency
Achieving network sustainability requires using energy-efficient hardware, optimizing power hungry data centers, adoption of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, reducing e-waste through constant recycling, and designing of telecom networks with energy-efficient protocols.

SD-WAN – Sustainable network solutions
Energy efficient. SD-WAN can optimize network traffic and thus reduce the need for excessive data routing, leading to more efficient use of the network infrastructure. This can result in reduced energy consumption for expensive and power hungry network equipment, such as LAN and WAN equipment such as switches and routers.

Reduced hardware. SD-WAN architecture ensures a consolidation of network hardware and the use of virtualized network functions (VNFs), thus reducing the need for physical equipment. This not only saves space but also significantly reduces the environmental impact associated with manufacturing, shipping, and disposing of hardware.

Optimized data traffic. SD-WAN network when architected well can intelligently route traffic over the most efficient and cost-effective network paths and this can go a long way in minimizing the use of high-carbon footprint connections, such as those that are powered by fossil fuels (oil and gas), in favour of more environmentally friendly options like fiber or renewable energy-powered networks.

Disaster recovery and network resilience. SD-WAN can significantly improve network resilience and disaster recovery capabilities and thus reduce downtime in the event of major network outages. With high uptime of the network, this not only enhances business continuity but also minimizes the environmental impact of network disruptions.

Centralized management and control. SD-WAN provides centralized control and monitoring of all network resources and this ensures better optimization and reduces the need for IT staff and their travel for network maintenance.

Thus, by adopting SD-WAN technology and optimizing network infrastructure, organizations can significantly reduce their energy consumption and lower their carbon footprint. It’s important to understand that the extent of these benefits will vary and depend on the specific implementation, architecture and usage of SD-WAN by each organization.

5G and MEC
5G networks are designed to be more energy-efficient than the previous generations of cellular technologies particularly on a per-bit basis. As a result, they can handle higher volumes of data at a lower energy cost, resulting in a significant reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions associated with mobile data transfer. Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is a network architecture concept that brings computational capabilities closer to the source of data generation which could be a user or a thing in context of IoT. By decentralizing the processing tasks from the central data centers to the network edge, MEC offers significant benefits that can contribute to sustainability, including lower energy consumption in data transport, enhanced utilization of renewable energy & efficient resource utilization, infrastructure longevity, smart city integration with IoT, improved resilience and reliability and support for environmentally sustainable applications. With clear benefits especially in lowering carbon footprints and enhancing the efficiency of data processes, work is advancing to evolve challenges around cumulative cooling needs, the increased number of edge nodes needed and the issue of handling e-waste.

IoT
IDC estimates there will be close to 56 billion connected IoT devices by 2025, generating almost 80B Zettabytes of data—a growth rate significantly higher than for traditional IT equipment. This would enable efficient collection of data and taking the right actions, for example to monitor and optimize energy use in order to lower carbon footprints. With the UN sustainable development goals (SDG) under pressure and amidst the ongoing energy crisis that we are living in, IoT-enabled smart energy management will play a highly critical role in minimizing energy waste and maximizing sustainability, and at the same time lower costs. By tight integration of IoT sensors and analytics, water management tools can be developed that allow for better monitoring and conservation of water resources. Smart water metering solutions enables greater conservation through quicker identification of water leakages alongside providing users with real-time data.

New materials
From material engineering and design and synthetic biology, through to digital fabrication and computational design, the field of materials science innovation is rapidly revolutionizing sustainability technology. Most recent examples reflect the diversity in scope which include ground-breaking energy-efficient chip designs and the advance of Smart Membranes whose fluid connections afford eco-friendly innovation, supporting industries to transform for a more environmentally sustainable future.

Repurposed technology
When we think about sustainable technology it’s important to stress that often we can do more with less resources, or more with what we have and thus optimal use of resources is an imperative. According to a McKinsey study, taking immediate action to advance the sustainability of data and software can result in a reduction of approximately 5 percent in carbon emissions by 2030 alone. Developments in environmentally sustainable software engineering, environmentally friendly app development, and ecoCode plugins are of relevance here. Other examples of repurposing include turning waste into fertilizer or bio fuel and a battery harnessed from agricultural waste.

Conclusion
The telecom industry has to both offer accountability and innovation in its own operations as well as answers for other industry sectors who ultimately depend on telecom services in order to meet their own ESG targets. This is an enormous challenge, but one that the industry is attempting to address, that balances the needs of the present and at the same time preparing for a sustainable future. The need for the entire ecosystem to work together with governments providing a conducive regulatory framework and perhaps offer tax incentives for sustainability initiatives, academia to work closely with industry with sufficient funding provided for R&D and innovation initiatives and ensuring the technology providers including the leveraging of the startup ecosystem in designing and developing cutting edge digital solutions that are at the forefront of climate action.

This article is authored by Sunil David, Digital Technology Consultant; Ex-Regional Director (IoT)-AT&T; Co-Chair of Digital Comm. Group of IET Future Tech Panel; and CII National AI Forum Member. Views expressed are personal.