ATIS Releases ICT Sector Environmental Sustainability Report
June 13, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) released its "Report on Environmental Sustainability," which assesses areas of sustainability in relation to the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
The report evaluated various sustainability aspects including:
- The ICT sector's definition of "sustainability."
- A review of the ICT sector's green initiatives.
- An examination of energy efficiency practices and alternate energy sources.
- An outline of the business drivers behind the ICT sector's sustainability actions.
- A demonstration of the ICT industry as an enabler of applications and services that improve energy efficiency in other sectors.
The report also includes considerations and recommendations that, if applied, can enable the ICT community to achieve sustainability vis-à-vis network facilities, enterprise and home networks, applications and services and corporate operations, according to ATIS.
For instance, the report concludes that consideration should be given to:
- Educating policymakers and legislators on the ICT industry's position to help develop greenhouse gas (GHG) reducing solutions.
- Developing and implementing internal sustainability policies and programs.
- Enacting simple energy saving practices to reduce the consumption of energy, such as performing energy audits on a per facility basis and outlining actions toward reducing energy consumption, such as retiring and depowering obsolescent or underused equipment.
- Proactively seeking ways in which ICT solutions can be adopted in reducing the carbon footprint of industries including transport, power, logistics and others.
The report was developed by the ATIS Exploratory Group on Green (EGG), on behalf of the ATIS Board of Directors.
Chaired by Harald Braun, president/CEO, Harris-Stratex Networks, companies represented in the EGG include: Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, BT, Bechtel, Cisco Systems, Ericsson Inc., Juniper, NetTraffic, Nortel, Qwest Communications, Verivue and Verizon Communications.
The EGG will continue its work in sustainability in a second phase assessment of issues, according to ATIS.
Source: Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS).