DIGITAL STRATEGY : ICT SECTOR MEASURES ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT.

Twenty-seven information and communication technology (ICT) companies and associations are working with the European Commission on a project to measure their carbon footprint. A study(1), published on 18 March, concludes that ten measurement tools and standards pilot tested by these bodies are comparable. The idea is to develop a common measurement framework in order to measure more accurately and reduce CO2 emissions.

The ICT Footprint initiative was launched by the Commission's DG Connect in 2011 to develop a global framework to measure energy consumption and carbon emissions from the production, transport and sale of ITC goods, networks and services.

The problem is that most of the methods used to measure the ICT sector's footprint are not comparable because they are based on different premises that are little known outside these organisations.

Eighteen pilot tests were conducted on ten international standards presented by international standards bodies and organisations such as ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). They were carried out over a ten-month period (between December 2011 and September 2012) by the following companies and associations: Alcatel-Lucent, AMD, AUO, BT, Cisco, Dassault Systemes, Dell, EECA-ESIA, Ericsson, GSMA, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, Intel, Lenovo, NEC, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Orange, Sagemcom, SAP, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and...