In the race for increased energy efficiency, businesses and governments across Europe are investing in strategies to meet the target of reducing the EU energy consumption by 20% in 2020.
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Mark MacGann, Director General EICTA /Photo credit:eGov Monitor
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But are they putting their money on the winning horse?
Recent debates about climate change tended to focus on energy-intensive industries and remedial action is of course urgent there. The ICT industry is no exception. A recent report by Gartner, a leading IT research company, estimated that the ICT sector was responsible for around 2% of global CO2 emissions, approximately the same as the airline industry.
Everything we produce has an energy impact: from software to networks, hardware and communications. The latest estimates indicate that by 2020, we will spend 45% of domestic energy on ICT and consumer electronics products.
Solution provider
We are fully conscious that ICT is currently part of the problem, but we believe that our industry is also a substantial part of the solution.
A relatively new industry, the high-tech sector has developed at
extraordinary speed over the last two decades, beating early predictions. In fact, during these past 20 years social, economic, environmental, and ethical concerns have played a significant role in our industry’s manufacturing and product innovation.
Our recent report High Tech: Low Carbon was not commissioned because the boards of our companies suddenly went to see Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, but because sustainable development and environmental responsibility has long become an integral part of corporate strategy. In fact, our approach to energy efficiency and climate change is neither opportunistic nor altruistic: it is simply good business sense.
As Tony Blair said in his landmark speech on climate change as long ago as September 2004, “Just as science and technology has given us the evidence to measure the danger of climate change so it can help us find safety from it. The potential for innovation, for scientific discovery and here, of course for business investment and growth, is enormous. With the right framework for action, the very act of solving it can unleash a new and benign commercial force to take the actions forward, providing jobs, technology spin-offs and new business opportunities as well as protecting the world we live in.”
But the environmental footprint of digital technology is also driven by the choices we all make every day: whether we decide to leave our computers and office servers on day and night or mobile phone chargers constantly plugged in. Every single one of these actions has a considerable impact on energy consumption. And it is no secret that habits are hardest to break.
We need concerted action from governments, industry and consumers if we are to make meaningful progress towards a more energy efficient lifestyle.
Environment friendly technologies
Industry has made dramatic improvements: our products, businesses and manufacturing processes have become more energy efficient. For example, printers now have the ability to print duplex, multiple pages per sheet and at different toner densities, all of which allow substantial energy savings. In addition, power management functions – i.e. “hibernation” – are now standard in PCs. Mobile phones are now around 100 times more efficient than in 1990.
In recent years EICTA members have also made voluntary
commitments to reduce energy consumption. For example, the
Energy Star programme sets minimum standards for energy efficiency and only those products which comply can display the certified label. Many believe that voluntary agreements drive positive change faster than legislation.
Can the EU hear me?
So what does the digital technology industry have to offer to the EU policy and decision-makers? We as Europe’s technology innovators need to convey the message that our sector has huge potential to help meeting the energy efficiency challenge.
Otherwise we risk that policy could focus solely on our industry’s direct climate change impact. This would not only reduce the broader positive impact of digital technology for other sectors, but also reduce the total ‘green’ market opportunities for our sector.
We believe that Europe can meet, and even exceed, the EU’s 20:20:20 targets if digital technology is used to its full potential. ICT has been the principal driver of the European economy for the past twenty years. Our industry has the unique and proven potential to enable real change, across all sectors of industry.
So our challenge is to prove that ICT is not a “runner-up in the race” to tackle climate change, but that we can be the “winning horse.” We will demonstrate that the equation “High Tech = Low Carbon” is a conceivable truth.
Source: eGov monitor
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