ICT to drive new sustainability

The effective use of ICT could enable businesses to incorporate sustainability throughout their operations, benefiting both the bottom line and the environment.

Donna Young, BT Group's GM of climate change and programme development, says the ICT industry has a great responsibility and opportunity to educate people in doing things differently when it comes to communication and energy efficiency, saving huge amounts in the process.

“By using technology in areas of travel, business processes, buildings, collecting data and so on, the ICT industry could bring a reduction in carbon emissions five times greater than its own carbon footprint,” says Young.

During a time of economic recession, sustainability becomes even more important, according to Young. “This involves two things: driving out inefficiency, which saves costs, and companies innovating more, which opens up market opportunities.”

In a recent statement, BT SA country manager Keith Matthews noted that, for much of the past decade, sustainability has been linked to environmentalism, rather than the hard-headed world of commercial reality.

“In fact, sustainability is as much about commercial pressures as environmental ones, and next year companies will try to highlight where they are able to achieve both.”

“As the demand for high-quality and ever-faster global communications grows, IT and telecoms providers will continue to improve the environmental performance of their networks through strategic investment,” he adds.

Young cites research from The Climate Group that claims smart technology could reduce global emissions by 15%. The ICT industry is by no means squeaky clean, with the 2% it contributes to global emissions set to almost double by 2020. But The Climate Group report says ICT's ability to monitor and maximise energy efficiency could cut CO₂ emissions by up to five times this amount.

This includes incorporating solutions like video conferencing, teleworking, paperless billing and energy monitoring systems. According to Young, a more flexible working environment also cuts down on travel, hardware and property costs.

“Increased mobility and connectivity enables people to work anywhere, meaning you need fewer desks because people don't have to be in the office the whole time.” This translates into smaller buildings, which means fewer overheads, and lowered costs, she explains. “By using ICT infrastructure to set up networks that allow people to work remotely, you create a sustainable and agile way of working.”

Matthews says the trend towards better networked companies allows people from across an organisation to collaborate in real-time, over secure networks. “Although organisations have been enabling their research and management teams to work and collaborate remotely for some time, the need to do more of it and to do it smarter has never been greater given the current economic climate,” he notes.

While these decisions may now be purely commercial - the environmental benefits that come with this way of working are nevertheless significant, adds Matthews.

For this reason, says Young, there have been talks around getting ICT onto the agenda at the Copenhagen climate talks, starting next week. “One of the biggest failings of ICT is that there has been no fully-fledged offering, with most talks not mentioning ICT as part of the solution.”

However, Young believes technology has become a key enabler to achieving government targets. “A lot of people believe ICT is following a path of business as usual, working on a commercial basis and not getting involved. Most people believe the ICT industry is paving its own way forward, but it needs to be integrated into the whole solution.”

She adds that the world's major countries need to sign up consistent legislation for business to operate on a national and global level. “What's killing industry is inconsistency. I'm hoping for significant strides forward in setting global objectives, with much more focus on legislation.

“Companies will have to adjust to compete on a world stage; it's bad for business if you have different targets and operating models in different countries.”