Environmental benefits
While it is felt that the ICT industry’s potential future contribution to climate
change is a concern, there is a positive prospect that ICT itself can help reduce
overall global carbon emissions by changing how we live, travel and work.
Already there are estimates that by the year 2020 ICT applications could help
reduce global carbon emissions by 15 per cent, which is significantly higher
than the industry’s own contribution to carbon. The list below indicates some
ways which could help.
Dematerialisation
Swapping high carbon activities with low carbon alternatives, such as e-billing
instead of paper billing, teleconferencing instead of travelling to meetings and
e-media instead of producing CDs or newspapers.
Smart motors
Introducing ICT to the manufacturing sector to vary the amount of energy used
by production lines, rather than motors either being on or off.
Smart logistics
ICT can make communication and planning easier, whether this is for haulage
networks or customer delivery rounds. Many return journeys of vehicles carry
no product and with 80 per cent of fleets having less than five vehicles, better
coordination, communication and cooperation are crucial to cutting carbon.
Smart buildings
Our buildings and how we use them could be far more efficient. From heating
and lighting which is only on when rooms are occupied and automatic systems
to capture sunlight or provide shade from unwanted warmth, ICT has a role to
play. This type of network control of buildings is known as Building Automation
System (BAS).
Smart grids
India’s power generation accounted for over half the country’s carbon footprint
in 2007, but a third of this was lost in transmission making it a complete waste.
Demand management and smart meters will help those supplying energy to
run more efficient systems, while interactive real-time energy displays prompt
users to consider their energy consumption.
