Telecommunications Carbon Accounting
The telecommunications (telecom) industry consists of information transmission by electronic means, such as voice, data, and internet services. The telecom industry currently accounts for approximately 2% of global carbon emissions, however through emission accounting and reduction efforts, the industry has the potential to reduce up to 15% of global carbon emissions. This reduction would equate to roughly 12.1 million gigatons of carbon, showing the significant relationship between the telecom industry and carbon emissions. Reducing emissions proves to be difficult for a multitude of reasons, but most importantly the ever growing population and need for bandwidth causes increased energy consumption which is passed on to the telecom providers.
What are Telecom Carbon Emissions?
Telecom carbon emissions are split between two categories: operational and embodied. Operational emissions encompass both scope 1 and 2 emissions, while embodied encompass scope 3 emissions.
Operational Emissions:
Scope 1: Directly from the operator. This includes network operations and maintenance and diesel operated base stations. .
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the operator such as electricity use or energy bought for office buildings.
Embodied Emissions:
Scope 3: Indirectly related up and down the supply chain. This includes purchased products or services or their use by telecom operators, such as phones, gateways, and broadband routers..
Carbon Accounting Practices:
Life Cycle Assessments:
Analyzing a product/service from cradle to grave is crucial in evaluating all related emissions and where to work on reducing environmental impact.
Re-Imagine Technology Acceptance Model (RITAM):
A simple model to promote continuous improvement in any behavior change, but can easily be applied to carbon accounting and reduction. (Image on the right)
Practices to Reduce Operational Emissions
Fiber-Optic Networks:
Fiber-Optic Networks are made of glass and plastic to transmit data as light. Operators are shifting from traditional copper networks to fiber-optic networks as they offer a multitude of benefits (image to the left). Most importantly, they allow for an increase in traffic on networks while maintaining stabilized power consumption and reliability, yet decreasing carbon emissions..
Shared Networks:
Sharing towers and wiring for buildings not only reduces environmental impacts through cutting energy use and carbon emissions, but also helps operators expand into rural areas to increase coverage and drive competition by lowering entry level costs for new operators.
Renewable Energy:
Emission reduction through the implementation of renewable energy is increasingly popular in the industry. This process can be expedited through the use of power purchase agreements (PPAs); agreements between a corporation and renewable energy developer that guarantee their sale of power in the future at a fixed price. PPAs have decreased in price and are now in line with fossil fuel energy pricing.
Service providers are able to further reduce direct emissions through swithcing to electric vehicles and battery backup systems, which has an even greater when coupled with renewable energy.
Digitize/Automate:
Operators can digitalize and automate existing infrastructure, such as network cooling, to reduce operational emissions.
Practices to Reduce Embodied Emissions:
Product Manufacturing and Transportation:
Using a low carbon design, such as light weight equipment, low carbon materials, and other supplier engagement programs can help reduce embodied carbon emissions. On the consumer end, operators could develop recycling or buyback programs to encourage proper disposal of e-waste.
E-Waste:
Electronic waste (e-waste) encompasses all discarded electronic devices such as, computers, phones, servers, cables, and network hardware. E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream as there is not only increased innovation, but rapidly increasing demand for electronics. Around 80% of e-waste is not properly discarded, which leaches toxic chemicals into the environment. Encouraging the recycling and reuse of e-waste will not only reduce harmful chemicals exposure, but will also reduce carbon emissions as less material needs to be extracted, produced, and transported.
Fixed Broadband Networks:
The implementation of fixed broadband networks allows for the telecom industry to help other industries cut their emissions through reduced commuting time. Fixed broadband networks are typically faster and more reliable, which allows more people to wrok from home, reducing the amount of commuters and therefore emissions.
Office/Retail Spaces:
Implementing actions such as, office space consolidation, working from home, low carbon heating and cooling, and system recycling can also aid in reducing overall telecom carbon emissions.
Telecom Carbon Accounting Challenges:
The telecom industry is incredibly complex when it comes to carbon accounting for a multitude of reasons, some including numerous products, large scope due to large supply chain, and limited data maturity.
Due to the complexity of the telecom industry’s supply chain, there tends to be a very large scope for carbon accounting. When tracking and attempting to reduce carbon emissions, a clear boundary and narrow scope are necessary. There is also not a harmonized metric on the product level, which makes it increasingly difficult to track supply chain emissions.
There is limited data maturity in the field which leads to the use of generic secondary data throughout carbon accounting which can lead to increased uncertainty.
As a result of the numerous products associated with telecoms, various “mini life cycle assessments” are necessary as each product establishes its own emission factor. This can take immense amounts of time and resources. However, there are carbon accounting techniques that help reduce the amount of time this process takes, such as the Streamlined Parameterized Embodied Emission Methodology (image to the right). This technique allows for the examination of each product and its emissions, while not necessarily completing a full life cycle assessment for each one.
The telecom industry plays a crucial dual role in the fight against climate change—it is both a significant contributor to global carbon emissions and has the power to reduce emissions across other sectors. Through detailed carbon accounting practices, renewable energy adoption, infrastructure upgrades, and innovations like fiber-optic networks and shared infrastructure, telecom operators can make measurable progress toward sustainability. While the challenges of emission tracking and supply chain complexity persist, ongoing advancements in data collection, life cycle assessments, and streamlined methodologies offer promising solutions. As the industry continues to grow rapidly, a strategic focus on emissions reduction will be key to balancing connectivity demands with environmental responsibility.
Read more about carbon accounting in the telecoms sector in the white paper attached below: