Sustainability Services of the Year 2023
Telecoms operators have been hard at work in 2022 and 2023 creating new services to enable their customers to meet sustainability goals. This article highlights some of the best-in-class services on offer this year.
Telcos are increasingly exploring their role as enablers of digital transformation. This is often referred to as “enablement” or “scope 4.” The enablement opportunity is interesting to telcos because it can help telcos to diversify and capture new revenues, often by utilising new technologies. This article explores some of the best sustainability enablement services available on the market. It showcases the best offering in five categories: best partner solution, best consumer solution, highest enablement claim, best edge solution, best hardware solution.
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Best partner solution – BT Industrial Energy Optimisation
BT partnered with QiO Technologies to assist its industrial customers in reducing their carbon footprints. The solution enables analysis of energy consumption patterns by leveraging QiO’s AI-powered Foresight Optima, combined with BT’s edge computing and digital industries solutions.
The solution utilises real-time and historical data from IoT sensors, machinery controls, databases, and external sources to identify energy optimisation opportunities. Industrial customers receive an Energy Efficiency Index based on historical data, enabling them to adopt best practices and achieve energy savings of 5-15% in sectors like glass, steel, cement, and automotive manufacturing. Read more about the solution here.
Best consumer solution – Proximus Banx App
Proximus has partnered with Doconomy to develop a dashboard that monitors users’ ecological footprint in terms of kilograms of CO2 emitted, based on their spending habits. Through its digital banking proposition, Proximus Banx, Proximus enables customers to track and measure their carbon footprint via an app-connected credit card. The service was originally launched in 2021.
Proximus has also launched a similar offering called MyFootprint, exclusively available through its MyProximus app. This service allows consumers to assess their carbon footprint even when they don’t bank with Proximus Banx, by answering in-app questions. Read more about the solution here.
Highest enablement claim – Elisa Distributed Energy Storage
Elisa has won a grant from the Finnish government to implement an innovative Distributed Energy Storage (DES) solution driven by AI/ML. The solution creates a virtual power plant on the mobile network by utilising backup power batteries to manage electricity supply at Elisa’s numerous base stations. This enables the deployment of more renewable energy by taking and storing renewable energy when it is available, like wind, and using it at times when it is not.
Furthermore, the storage capability allows Elisa to sell excess capacity back to the grid, contributing to supply-demand balance. This system facilitates the storage of renewable and cost-effective energy, which can be deployed as needed, providing a sustainable and reliable energy solution for Elisa’s operations. Following trials, it achieved technical pre-qualification from Fingrid. Read more about the solution here.
Best edge solution – GECCO Edge
Green Edge Computing Corp (GECCO) is a startup that specialises in producing edge computing hardware that has a smaller form factor and environmental footprint than the industry average. In 2022 GECCO launched the initial prototype of the EdgePod™, which is a multi-server edge computing platform that requires 90% less resources and space, 75% less energy and cooling, and has an 80% lower carbon/GHG footprint when compared to conventional server technology.
Best hardware solution – Juniper Cloud Metro
Juniper Networks has recognised the need for improved energy efficiency in metro networks, where traffic bandwidth is anticipated to grow more than 500% from 2021 to 2027. Juniper’s Cloud Metro proposition applies cloud principles to architecting, building and operating metro networks. These include smaller form-factors, active assurance monitoring and other energy-saving features to reduce energy consumption, while offering better experience, in metro networks. It also expect the solution to reduce the total cost of ownership by more than 50% and extend network equipment lifecycles by more than 10 years. Read more about the solution here.
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