The Energy and Carbon Footprint of the Global ICT and E&M Sectors 2010–2015

This article presents estimations of the energy and carbon footprint of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Entertainment & Media (E&M) sectors globally for 2010–2015 including a forecast to 2020. It builds on three previous global studies (2007, 2011, and 2018) and a Swedish study (2015) by the same authors. The study is based on an extensive dataset which combines primary and secondary data for operational (use stage) energy consumption and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) for the included sub-sectors, including energy and carbon footprint data from about 100 of the major global manufacturers, operators, and ICT and E&M service providers. The data set also includes sales statistics and forecasts for equipment to estimate product volumes in addition to published LCA studies and primary manufacturing data to estimate the embodied carbon footprint of products. The result shows that the ICT and E&M sectors have turned their previously growing footprints into shrinking ones despite a continuous increase in subscriptions and data traffic. Furthermore, the results of this study are also indicating that these footprints are significantly smaller than previously forecasted

The electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of ICT network operators 2010-2015

This report is built on a large primary data set for operational energy consumption and carbon footprint, collected from telecom operators in different countries, and complemented by publicly available data from other operators. The purpose of the study is to estimate the current magnitude and trends for the electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of telecom operators globally, and the primary data was collected with the support of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO). In this report, the electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions of telecom operators are investigated, to calculate the ICT network (i.e. fixed and mobile telecom networks) operations´ share of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector impact globally,  historically (2010 and 2013) as well as currently (2015). The study covers the ICT networks, defined as fixed and mobile telcom networks, and related operator activities, but excludes enterprise networks, data centers and end-user equipment. The study draws from a similar study of ICT in Sweden 2015 [1] and uses measured and collected data. End-user equipment is outside the scope of this study. Several other studies in the past predicted that the ICT sector, in particular the ICT networks, would increase its electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions in line with the growth in data traffic which was discussed in the previous study [1]. In the present study telecom operator data representing approximately 15% of the global fixed subscriptions, 40% of global mobile subscriptions and more than 35 countries in all regions except Oceania have been collected as input data. This represents a significant statistical foundation for further assessments and for extrapolation to the overall ICT networks. Approximately data for 10% of the global fixed and mobile subscriptions have been collected directly from operators, the remaining dataset is based on publicly reported data by some of the world’s largest telecom operators.  The keyfindings of this study are: The total annual operational electricity consumption of the overall ICT networks globally is estimated to 242 TWh for 2015 including both grid (215 TWh) and on-site generated electricity (27 TWh). The total corresponds to 1.15% of the total electricity grid supply. The total annual operational carbon emissions of the ICT networks are estimated to 169 Mtonnes CO2e for 2015. This corresponds to 0.53% of the global carbon emissions related to energy (about 32 Gtonnes), or 0.34% of all carbon emissions (about 50 Gtonnes). Between 2010 and 2015 the electricity consumption of the ICT networks grew by 31% from a level of 185 TWh which corresponded to 0.97% of the total electricity grid supply. During the same period the operational carbon emissions grew by 17%. This could be compared to the increase in number of subscriptions from 6.7B to 9.0B during the same period. Per subscription, the average annual operational electricity consumption, including on-site generation, has decreased slightly from 27.6 kWh to 27 kWh per subscription between 2010 and 2015. For the operational carbon emissions, the emissions per user have reduced from 21,5 kg CO2e to 19 kg CO2e.  The annual emissions per subscriber of 19 kg CO2e corresponds to driving about 100 km on the highway including the fuel supply chain emissions. Seen in the light of earlier estimates this study shows a result which is 24% lower than the operational carbon emissions estimated by the Smarter 2020 report for 2020. The result shows an approximately linear increase trend in annual electricity consumption and operational carbon emission. The fixed and broadband part is almost unchanged over time, so the increase is mainly associated with the expansion of mobile networks. Still the data traffic increase is in magnitude many times higher compared to the electricity consumption and operational carbon emission increase and the impact per subscription is actually decreasing in most cases. To understand the total ICT sector´s electricity consumption and operational carbon emissions, including all user equipment and the full life cycle, further studies are needed. However, this study brings a unique data set and insights regarding one of the key components – the operations of the network part of ICT.  QC 20180125</p

Electricity Consumption and Operational Carbon Emissions of European Telecom Network Operators

This study presents operational electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for named European telecom network operators during 2015&ndash;2018. These results are also compared to data for 2010&ndash;2015. The study provides an extensive primary data set, collected from European Telecommunication Network Operators (ETNO) members, covering operations in Europe and beyond, providing data with higher granularity than publicly available sources. The collected data set corresponds to roughly 36 percent of European subscriptions and 8 percent of global subscriptions. This data set was used to calculate the aggregated annual electricity consumption for the assessed operators, as well as associated subscription intensities, in total, for Europe and per network type. Moreover, aggregated electricity-related carbon emissions and emissions from other sources were calculated. Finally, estimates were made for the overall network operation in Europe for 2018 and 2020. The study concludes that the electricity consumption and number of subscriptions for the reporting telecom network operators remained nearly constant (+1 percent and &minus;3 percent, respectively) between 2015 and 2018, while data traffic increased by a factor of three. For the extended period of 2010&ndash;2018, the electricity consumption per subscription remained quite stable, slightly below 30 kWh/subscription despite substantial data traffic growth (by a factor of 12)

Electricity Consumption and Operational Carbon Emissions of European Telecom Network Operators

This study presents operational electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for named European telecom network operators during 2015–2018. These results are also compared to data for 2010–2015. The study provides an extensive primary data set, collected from European Telecommunication Network Operators (ETNO) members, covering operations in Europe and beyond, providing data with higher granularity than publicly available sources. The collected data set corresponds to roughly 36 percent of European subscriptions and 8 percent of global subscriptions. This data set was used to calculate the aggregated annual electricity consumption for the assessed operators, as well as associated subscription intensities, in total, for Europe and per network type. Moreover, aggregated electricity-related carbon emissions and emissions from other sources were calculated. Finally, estimates were made for the overall network operation in Europe for 2018 and 2020. The study concludes that the electricity consumption and number of subscriptions for the reporting telecom network operators remained nearly constant (+1 percent and −3 percent, respectively) between 2015 and 2018, while data traffic increased by a factor of three. For the extended period of 2010–2018, the electricity consumption per subscription remained quite stable, slightly below 30 kWh/subscription despite substantial data traffic growth (by a factor of 12)

Using a life-cycle perspective to assess potential social impacts of ICT services : a pre-study

Buying that new mobile phone may make your life easier, provide continuous access to the net and change your image, but what social impact will your action have on others? Different stakeholders along the life cycle of the mobile phone will be affected, in positive and negative ways. Who is responsible and how can we know the impact? Handling environmental impact with a life cycle perspective, for example using life cycle assessment (LCA), is today common practice. A similar technique for social impact, social and socio-economic LCA (S-LCA) is under development (Benoit and Mazijn, 2009). The aim of the current pre-study was to consider the use of S-LCA for information and communication technology (ICT) services to learn more about the product and facilitate consideration of social impact in different decision-making situations. From a company perspective, social responsibility is handled in various ways, often under the heading of CSR, corporate social responsibility. Firstly, the company’s own employees are easily targeted and acted on by providing good working conditions, fair wages and working hours, etc. Considering social impact throughout a product’s life cycle is the next step and here measures and responsibilities are less clear-cut. How is a product distributed (supply chain), how is it used and how is it finally disposed? Different stakeholders are differently affected, positively and negatively. Four companies and organisations, all partners in the Centre for Sustainable Communications, took part in this study. They currently have different experiences and degrees of activity regarding social responsibility. The telecommunications companies, Ericsson and TeliaSonera, have started to consider social aspects in their supply chain and for their consumers. Social aspects are not only considered in terms of impact of the company management but also of impact related to products (goods and services). The media organisations (Bonnier Group and the Swedish Media Association) have not handled social aspects to the same extent as the telecommunications companies, but of course their products also give rise to social impact throughout their life cycles. To enable a discussion on the usability of S-LCA, a simplified test was carried out, inspired by the ongoing work on including social aspects into LCA within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative (Benoit and Mazijn, 2009). This screening test was based on a selection of published and readily available information on potential social impacts along the life cycle of two defined ICT services. The goal was not to provide an assessment of social impact, but rather to give a rough sketch and reflect on possibilities and limitations with the method. The two ICT services in the test were mobile news and video conferencing, provided by a newspaper company and a telecommunications company respectively. An interesting feature of both these services was that the company providing the service was not providing the electronic device, the hardware platform of the service. This gives one more dimension in the consideration of who is responsible for social impacts with a life cycle perspective. There was a lot of information available on potential social impact for parts of the respective life cycles. This kind of information is gathered by scientists, NGOs and others. A small share of the information was compiled for the selected stakeholder groups: worker and consumer. This information indicated that there are social impacts all along the life cycle and that these may be positive or negative and of differing magnitude. As stakeholders become aware of the possible negative social impact, increasing engagement from organizations and companies in social responsibility will be requested. When companies start to consider social impacts in the supply chain, it is expected to be easier to reach the first and second tier of suppliers. However, ILO (2007) has established that the workers at the beginning of the supply chain (farthest away from the end-product) are generally the most disadvantaged. In some cases, handling e-waste is also leading to major negative social impacts. Raw material acquisition and waste management may have large implications on the social impact related to a product, with best case or worst case possibly leading to significantly different results. A life cycle perspective would facilitate identification of improvement potential. A key question is who is responsible, or rather who will accept responsibility. As there is information available for parts of the processes and stakeholders throughout the life cycle of the ICT services studied, the question remains how this information can be used by companies providing products for end-consumers. This pre-study indicates that it can be useful to apply a life cycle perspective and compile data in relation to a specific product also when considering potential social impacts. This would facilitate the inclusion of processes and stakeholders for example at the beginning of the life cycle, where impact may be considerable and negative, and make these more visible. Development of S-LCA is thus interesting in order to provide transparent and ‘standardised’ assessments of potential social impact. By providing guidelines or standards, the assessments of social impact could be interpreted and criticised more easily. The possibilities for using S-LCA to increase knowledge and ultimately improve social conditions should be further studied and developed. In the field of S-LCA there is plenty of future research to be carried out, examples of which are provided by Benoit and Mazijn (2009). One important way of getting more experience and enabling further development of the method and its practice is through performing case studies. ICT products would be an interesting field for this.QC 20101013Development of sustainability assessment tools for IC

Company's Ltd. "Vasara" Financial Reporting Data Analysis

Ekonomiskā, politiskā un sociālā sistēma, kas vērsta uz privātkapitālu piesaisti un tās radītie peļņas gūšanas taktiskie gājieni, pieprasa izglītotas personības, lai spētu pareizi uzturēt un palielināt savus aktīvus. Lielāks potenciālais ieguvums vienmēr saistās ar paaugstinātu risku tā iegūšanai. Atšķirībā no ierindas patērētājiem tikai skolots naudas pārzinātājs spēj novērtēt, cik svarīgi ir veidot iegribu robežas, lai beigās nepazaudētu ilga laika darbu. Šā rezultāta iespaidā darba autors izvēlas mudināt, ieinteresēt lasītājus būt aktīviem rīkojoties ar naudu. Darba mērķis ir uzņēmuma finanšu pārskatu analīze. Finanšu koeficientu teorētikskais raksturojums, pielietošana, analīze, pārbaude, secinājumi, priekšlikumi ir darba uzdevumi, kas darbā tiek vadīts par pamatuzdevumu. Ir jācenšās paraudzīties kā objektīvi iespējams novērtēt pieņemto lēmumu kvalitāti, lai mazinātu un saknē izskaustu risku zaudēt ieguldītos aktīvus, kas arī ir pamatuzdevuma izvirzītā problēma. Tas viss apkopots kā pētījums, kas palīdz netikai individuāliem investoriem, bet arī visai sabiedrībai kopumā. Darba noslēgumā apkopoti secinājumi un priekšlikumi, lai uzlabotu trūkumus un parādītu kopējo ainu, kas reizēm aiz emocionāliem aizspriedumiem paliek nepamanīta. Informācija tika ņemta no kvalitatīviem un uzticamiem avotiem. Darbs veidots, neskopojoties ar improvizācijas, inovācijas pieskaņu no autora puses, kas lielākoties saistīta ar mazu sākotnējo pieredzi darba tēmā. Tika ielikti naudas līdzekļi, laiks, emocījas, kas kopā tika mutēts par ļoti vērtīgu pievienoto vērtību darba autora personībā.Economic, political and social system, that focuses on attracting private capital, and the resulting profit-making tactical moves require educated personalities to be able to properly maintain and increase their assets. The larger potential benefit is always associated with an increased risk in its acquisition. Unlike ordinary consumers only schooled cash custodian can appreciate how important it is to build whims border, to not loose a long time job. In the influence of this result the author chooses to urge, interest readers to be active in dealing with money. The aim of the work is the company's financial statement analysis. The theoretical characteristics of financial ratio, application, analysis, testing, conclusions and recommendations are the tasks, which are the basic objectives of the work. You should try to look how it can be objectively possible to assess the quality of decision making, to reduce and eradicate the root of the risk of losing the invested assets, which is also a core problem raised. This is all summarized as the study, which helps not only individual investors, but also the society as a whole. In the conclusion of the work, findings and recommendations are summarized, to improve the weaknesses and show the overall picture, which sometimes remains unnoticed beyond the emotional bias. Information was taken from qualitative and reliable sources. Work was designed, without the stint in improvisation, touch of innovation from the author, which are mostly associated with low initial experience in the work's topic. Money, time, emotions were used, which together were mutated as a very valuable added value in the author's personality