Climate Action - Assisting business towards carbon neutrality

Dennis Pamlin, Global Policy Advisor, WWF, co-authored with Katalin Szomolanyi, Magyar Telekom (Hungary), ETNO

The possibility to provide new and better services with the help of information and communication technology (ICT) is well known. Less known is the significance of these new services to reduce carbon emissions. This discrepancy in understanding has resulted in a situation where focus has been on ICT’s internal emissions and the energy efficiency of equipment. While these two areas are important, their contributions to global emissions are not the most significant. Solutions provided by ICT can and must play an important role as we move towards a low carbon economy if we are to reach carbon reduction targets set by scientists and policy makers.

Midway through the first decade of the 21st century, the world is rapidly approaching a situation where, for the first time in human history, more people will live in cities than rural areas. 2008 will mark this historic moment and the future of this urban millennium very much depends on the decisions made today in preparation for such continued growth. By 2030, approximately two billion additional people will live in cities with a resulting increase in demand for urban solutions that can improve quality of life without consuming excessive natural resources. Parallel to this trend, global energy and natural resource use is increasing rapidly, with energy demand expected to increase by more than 50 per cent by 2030 if current trends continue.

ICT AND THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET

For too long the environmental agenda has been dominated by a reactive and negative approach. The focus has been to identify what’s wrong and how to stop things. The language and approach to our global challenges has been developed in a context that has often failed to incorporate the perspective of innovation and global development. From a long term perspective, this makes little sense. It is time for a shift in focus from reactive to proactive and from an incremental to disruptive perspective on change.

Over the coming decades we will see the rise of China and India as two new global economic superpowers. By the middle of the century, it is likely that the Chinese economy, then the largest in the world, will be four and a half times bigger than the US economy is today. India will be the third largest, just after the US at around three and a half times larger than the current US economy.

Many are worried by the implications of such growth, and the difficulty of tackling the problems it will generate; problems which will have ramifications for the rest of the world. Increasingly, other poor countries are pinning their own economic development hopes on providing the natural resource base for these emerging economies: soy from Latin America, oil from Africa, timber from South East Asia. The need for ICT solutions that can provide welfare without increased resource consumption should be obvious.

GROUNDS FOR HOPE

The world should see current changes as an opportunity and a ground for hope. If we are to meet global targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals, the Kyoto Protocol, The Convention of Biodiversity, we must start to think outside the box. It is important to see how progressive companies who are willing to engage in the challenges ahead can be supported. How these companies can be included in low carbon policies should be high on any country’s low carbon agenda.

BEYOND A SIMPLE POLARISED PERSPECTIVE

ICT has the potential to radically influence transport patterns, energy consumption, overall resource usage and, to an unknown degree, our culture and even the way we perceive the world, our relationship to it, and our actions. Although ICT will have an enormous effect on tomorrow’s society, surprisingly little research has been conducted regarding its future environmental and social consequences, and even less concrete policies exist to support sustainable ICT use.

Most existing work in this area has reach one of two conclusions: either ICT will bring only good things, from solutions to world hunger and the elimination of all transportation problems to a revitalised democracy; or ICT will bring nothing but problems, accelerating resource consumption, introducing new toxic materials and resulting in greater inequity by introducing a digital divide that will worsen the already unequal distribution of wealth and influence. The first challenge, if we want to include ICT for the future, is to go beyond this polarised perspective.

NOT A PANACEA

However positive ICT use can be if aimed in a sustainable direction, it is important to acknowledge that it is not a panacea to the world’s environmental and social problems. Our society will continue to have an environmental impact upon the world and social tensions will continue to exist. There is no such thing as a weightless or frictionless economy: we will always need food and shelter, will own material objects, and will need transport with their consequent environmental impacts. In the same way, ICT will result in new social situations where new actors emerge and new values are shaped. Even if the new society will be more just and equitable, people’s views on how society should develop will still differ, as will their influence.

The information society will be layered atop the industrial society in the same way that the industrial society is layered over the agricultural society. Needless to say, the development of the new form of economy will not take place simultaneously, or look the same everywhere. It is therefore pointless to try and draw a distinct line between the so-called old and new economy, as this blurred line is drawn in time, includes all sectors and contains gradual changes mixed with sudden shifts.

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

As the infrastructure for this new society begins to come into place, there is a unique opportunity to shape the whole system in a way coherent to humanity’s needs and visions for the future. The complexity of ICT makes it difficult to approach in a traditional manner, which focuses only on the direct impacts of extraction, manufacturing, use, and disposal. It is vital that all due caution be taken when responding to ICT based challenges. The impact of ICT must be viewed in a very broad sense, from cultural changes caused by the use of new technologies, to the appearance of new possibilities for shaping a new economy in which production and consumption patterns look fundamentally different.

The impact of eshopping, for example, cannot be reduced to the computers used for transactions, or even to the eliminated car trip to the store. Instead, the whole distribution chain must be examined to determine the long term impact this kind of consumption will have on the economy, the development of the infrastructure, and on habits.

FOUR STRATEGIC AREAS FOR ACTION

Corporations, organisations and political parties are all very enthusiastic about ICT and its possibilities to deliver resource efficiency, but judging from the
actual results so far, these ideas and thoughts are seldom transformed into concrete action. The lack of results often seems to stem from a lack of focus. Backed only by vague ideas, the process leading up to actual implementation often winds to a halt somewhere before a concrete result has been achieved. In order to focus, a limited number of areas need to be prioritised initially.

ICT products

The importance of ICT products is two fold. First, even if ICT products themselves have only a marginal environmental impact, there is a great risk that the political system and mass media will judge the whole sector as environmentally unfriendly if the sector as a whole does not have a clear environmental strategy. Thus, ICTs broader credibility is threatened. Second, the rapid increase and penetration of ICT products can, if no action is taken, result in increased energy demand and bigger quantities of toxic substances.
Transport of goods

One area where ICT can contribute significantly in the short to medium term relates to the transport of goods. It is clear that ICT can be used to find more optimal transport routes and keep track of large fleets of vehicles. However, this could also result in further investment in a system that is inherently unsustainable. Due care must be taken to avoid a situation where investments only result in marginal short term reductions and create an infrastructure that makes it hard to reach necessary long term solutions.

When considering a sustainable transportation system, it is important to think in terms of service. Is it possible to deliver the same service without a physical product? Can the Internet be used to transport a service instead of moving a product, to move bytes instead of atoms? This process, along with the encouragement of local production, could set in place a less ecologically damaging economy.

Business travel

Not only would a reduction in business travel result in significant environmental gains; but done in the right way it could also contribute to a corporate culture where avoiding physical travel would be an option. The most important change needed in order to shift from a flying and car culture to a video conferencing and telecommuting culture is a mental and institutional shift. High levels of travel reflect higher status in many sectors, and frequent flyers mileage is an extra bonus for many. In many countries, there are also tax incentives in place that encourage travel.

The significant shift towards these technologies will come when a majority recognise that high tech, high resolution video conferencing and telecommuting are better and more intelligent solutions than physical travel. Full wall high resolution projections for virtual meetings should be a standard in all major corporations, and all major cities should supply this kind of facility for groups and corporations that do not have sufficient inhouse resources. The technology exists; it is just a matter of coordinated investments.

Converging technologies

With rapid technological development, difficult ethical, environmental and economic questions beg to be discussed. Ethical questions regarding new technologies will be even more important in the years to come, with probable breakthroughs in areas, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics and quantum computing.

If technologies like these, and especially the combination of these technologies, are to be used in a responsible way, and if technological development is to contribute to solving at least some of the challenges faced today, there is a clear need to approach the issue in a strategic way. It is important to create incentives to direct development towards meeting the most basic and important needs of this planet.

In order to direct ICT and broader technological development in a sustainable direction, independent agencies should be created at both national and international level to evaluate emerging technologies. One way to address this issue would be to develop an International Convention on New Technologies, to assess the societal and political implications of emerging technologies before their commercial release. Due care must, however, be taken so as not to create a culture that believes all problems may be solved thanks to technology.

LET’S START NOW

There is no time to waste and the world desperately needs a new generation of business leaders who are
not afraid of a global perspective.

THE USE OF ICT FOR A LOW CARBON ECONOMY

The numbers are meant to give an overview of the opportunities that exist for economic growth whilst combating climate change in the same time. The opportunity numbers are only related to EU-25, but can easily imagine their potential in e.g. China.

A new and more efficient meeting culture: Travel replacement
Possible target for EU-25: 24 million tonnes CO2/year
Business travel replacement (video-conference)
If 20% of business travel in EU-25 Countries is replaced by a non-travel solution (e.g. video-conference), around 22 million tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year.
Audio-conference
If 50% (96.512 million) of EU-25 countries’ employees replaced one meeting with one audio-conference call per year, then 2 million tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year.
Sustainable consumption: e-dematerialisation
Possible target for EU-25: 4 million tonnes CO2/year
Online phone-bills
If all households with internet access, in EU-15
countries, and all mobile customers in EU-25 countries would get an online phone-bill, then 500 thousand tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year.
Web-based tax return
If all employees in EU-25 countries (193 million) deliver their tax return via the Internet, then 200 thousand tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year.
E-dematerialisation has much more potential than the examples above.
Sustainable community/city planning: combined measures
Possible target in EU-25: 22 million tonnes CO2/year
Flexi-work
If 10% (19,3024 million) of EU-25 countries’ employees became flexi-workers, then 22 million tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year.
(based on ETNO-WWF roadmap: ’Saving the Climate @ the Speed of Light”)

MOVING ICT FORWARD

For governments

1. Appoint a responsible person in the government for ICT and climate change and allocate a budget.
2. Set targets for use of ICT in key areas, not only CO2 reductions, but jobs created, number of patents etc.
3. Support companies that set targets for CO2 reductions for the use of their products/services.
4. Ask companies for a product/sale catalogue for CO2 saving services.
5. Set targets for export of ICT solutions that reduce CO2 emissions.
6. Review rules and legislation from a dematerialisation perspective.
7. Explore a sustainable innovation zone.
8. Ensure economic policies support incremental improvements and disruptive new solutions that ensure more than marginal improvements of CO2 reductions.

For business
Generic

1. Move focus from risk to profit – look at how sustainable services can increase profit.
2. Move focus from reactive to proactive – create new markets and support rules that help customers to use sustainable services.
3. Move focus from an internal and product perspective to an external and service perspective. Focus on how the a service can help customers to become sustainable companies/individuals.

Specific

1. Report on targets for CO2 reductions for the use of ICT products/services.
2. Produce a product/sale catalogue for CO2 saving services using ICT
3. Ask the government to set target for use of ICT in key areas
4. Ask the government to set targets for export of ICT solutions that can reduce CO2 emissions.
5. Ask the government to review current legislation and organisation from a dematerialisation perspective.
6. Establish an internal (and later and external) sustainable innovation zone that allows staff, customers and developers to collaborate in developing new ICT solutions.

Authors

Dennis Pamlin has a background in engineering/industrial economy/marketing. He has worked for WWF with global policy issues since 1999.
Examples of ICT projects:
2002: Edited the book “Sustainability at the speed of light”.
2004: Initiated the project “Saving the climate @ the speed of light” with ETNO.
2007: Project supervisor for a WWF/HP project that will identify the first billion tonnes of CO2 reductions with ICT solutions.

Katalin Szomolanyi is the Head of Corporate Sustainability Group, Magyar Telekom, Hungary. She has a background in environmental sciences – geography, nature conservation, and international business. She has worked for Magyar Telekom since 1997.
Examples of climate projects:
2002: Launched and managed the ETNO project of ICT’s effect on climate change
2004: Initiated ad managed on ETNO-side the joint initiative together with WWF on ICT & climate change
2006: Co-author of the “Saving the climate @ the speed of light” roadmap for reduced CO2 emission in the EU and beyond

Organisation

For more than 45 years, WWF has been protecting the future of nature. The largest multinational conservation organisation in the world, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.2 million members in the US and close to five million globally. Using the best available scientific knowledge and advancing that knowledge where we can, we work to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth and the health of ecological systems by: protecting natural areas and wild populations of plants and animals, including endangered species; promoting sustainable approaches to the use of renewable natural resources; and promoting more efficient use of resources and energy and the maximum reduction of pollution. ETNO – the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association – is the industry’s leading policy voice. It represents 41 major European telecommunications companies in 34 countries, inside and outside the EU.
The Association launched the Environmental Charter in 1996 and the Sustainability Charter in 2004.

Enquiries

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Picture credits: Office building - Steve Johnson/iStockphoto; Airport terminal - Terraxplorer/iStockphoto