The Long Road Ahead for Telco Sustainability

The telecom industry boasts the potential to aid in the decarbonization of other industries as connected service providers, and operators have given plenty of lip service to their net-zero targets. But new research from Mobile World Live and Galooli revealed a majority of operators have more room to fully act on their climate claims. The telecom industry boasts the potential to aid in the decarbonization of other industries as connected service providers, and operators have given plenty of lip service to their net-zero targets. But new research from Mobile World Live and Galooli revealed a majority of operators have more room to fully act on their climate claims. GSMA recently reported that 62% of the telecom industry by revenue has committed to reducing emissions in the next decade. That works out to be 49 operators, an increase of 18 since 2020. Additionally, half of the industry by revenue has made a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, according to GSMA. Mobile World Live — which surveyed mobile operators, tower companies, and cloud providers — similarly found that 71% of respondents are very familiar or somewhat familiar with their company’s net-zero targets. Just 19% say they’re not familiar with their company’s net-zero goals, and only 8% say their company doesn’t have any plans for reaching net zero. However, the survey also shows 31% of respondents do not track carbon emissions from data centers, base stations, towers, or operations centers, and 16% do not track energy usage at any of those locations. Measuring emissions and energy use in all parts of the network is a foundational step to reducing telecom’s environmental impact, which highlights how “some companies are lagging when it comes to tracking sustainability targets and meeting their net-zero goals,” the report reads. On the flip side, 26% of respondents say their companies are tracking emissions, and 36% are tracking energy use in multiple locations throughout the network. About a third of respondents monitor cell site energy sources using both software and manual checks while 25% use a software monitoring tool. Reaching net zero takes more than just tracking energy use. Operators need to supply that energy from renewable sources — and only 5% claim to use 100% renewable energy, the survey found. According to the data, 63% of respondents say their mobile cell sites rely on a combination of fossil-fuel based electricity, batteries, and solar power. To further break that down, 17% of individuals claim 35-74% of their company’s energy use is renewable, and 15% say 75-100% of energy use is renewably sourced. Additionally, close to half rely primarily on solar as a renewable energy source, 7% lean mainly on hydropower, and just 4% primarily use wind power. “While some mobile operators have made great strides in using renewable energy, the industry overall has more work to do,” the report concluded. One recent development is Google Cloud’s recently announced plans to develop an artificial intelligence and data management platform designed to optimize renewable wind energy and render it more cost effective than carbon-intensive fossil fuels. In a similar vein, Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom say they have successfully trialed a 5G energy management system that uses both solar and wind energy to optimize power at mobile sites. The results of the trial showed that on windy days, the site generated more renewable energy than it could consume.