Greentech Lead India: Swati Rangachari, vice-president- Communications & Corporate Affairs, Ericsson, talks about sustainability initiatives adopted by Ericsson and the importance of having a pro-active green initiative for the telecom industry in India.
How does Ericsson help the world become sustainable through telecommunications?
Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility is central to Ericsson’s business. As a leader, we try to find ways to make sustainable development mainstream. We have a holistic approach that encompasses reducing our own carbon footprint consistently and having a life cycle management approach to the products/solutions we develop – right from innovating new products that consume less energy, to reducing energy consumption in live networks through our services offering, tracking life of previous generation products deployed in networks, and collecting and recycling them in an environmentally friendly manner. Additionally, we also aggressively advocate the role of broadband in sustainable urbanization and societal development. Represented in key global committees/forums, we have undertaken projects that exemplify the same. All of this is monitored at the leadership level and actively reported by Ericsson. We seek opportunities to leverage our influence as a leader in our sector to further sustainable development.
Our sector is estimated to account for around 2% of total CO2e emissions. It also has significant potential to reduce the 98% of emissions that come from other industries. Ericsson is focusing both on reducing the 2% and enabling a reduction of the other 98%. Sustainability is about successfully integrating the triple bottom line – social, economic and environmental performance. Ericsson R&D is focusing on energy efficiency and creating products that require less content.
Among the solutions we provide to address this are:
- The Ericsson Ψ (psi) Coverage: A solution that provides mobile broadband (3G) coverage. It has been shown to reduce power consumption by up to 40% compared to earlier installations with same coverage. This translates into a 240 W power saving per site or 550 litters of diesel saved annually.
- ECO Mode: Ericsson MINI-LINK provides an ECO Mode solution enabling up to 40% power consumption reduction for microwave communication. With this, the radio units can effectively adjust power requirements according to the used output power in the radio interface, which varies according to the actual link conditions and output margin design.
- Managed rural Coverage: Bundles a managed service with a cost-efficient solar powered 2G, 3G or LTE-mini-site solution including satellite transmission, designed to connect people in areas without voice- and data communication.
- New IP service delivery platform – The SSR 8000 family of products has been found to have leading power efficiency results. As an example, the GGSN node built on SSR 8020 is 4.5 times more efficient than previous generation.
- Second digital-power Advanced Bus Converter platform: For use with power modules in telecom and datacom applications, operates with a 98% efficiency.
It becomes imperative for us to look for solutions that target sustainability at each step of the cycle. Our Life-Cycle Assessment approach shows that our greatest environmental impact is from when our products are in use, so our strategy is to provide energy-efficient and low energy-consuming products and solutions. Through this strategy we not only aim to create effective solution, but also track them through their life-cycle over the next 10-15 years and eventually deliver end of life solutions to dispose of them properly. Looking not only at designing things with less energy usage, less hazardous materials during the design phase, to seeing that they are recycled properly.
What are the major issues related to adopting environmental sustainability initiatives in telecom industry in India? How does Ericsson help its clients meet their sustainability targets?
While mobile phone subscriber growth and innovative services have helped in creating new opportunities, they have also led to significant environmental concerns. The surge in demand for telecom services has increased the sector’s energy requirements, making it one of the largest consumers of diesel and consequently, one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the country. Addressing sustainability and contributing towards reduction of carbon footprint in an effective way requires the entire eco-system to come together and work towards a greener tomorrow. Hence an engagement model with a wide range of stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, suppliers, industry partners, government, consumer and business users of telecommunications services, non-governmental organizations, standardization bodies, research institutes, and media is a must.
Ericsson is therefore helping its clients globally and in India to meet sustainability challenges through constant technology innovation. We have commenced deployment of our energy efficient RBS 6000 series base stations which provide cost-effective deployment and a future-proof evolution in capacity and functionality. The RBS 6000 provides high-capacity and contains both energy-efficient 2G/GSM equipment along with 3G/WCDMA or 4G/LTE technology. When spectrum allocations allow, the multi-standard radios can be used simultaneously for two standards, with additional energy savings of 20-30 percent.
RBS 2×16 introduces enhanced radio performance, improved output power from the transceiver and an enhanced building practice, which removes internal cable losses when the outdoor cabinet is used, boost the link budget by as much as 1.5dB. This improvement means that fewer sites are needed to provide the same coverage. A 1.5dB increase in the link budget translates into a 12% to 23% savings (reduction) in radio sites. Additionally, through our Managed Services offering we are also bringing greater energy efficiencies across networks of our customers.
What are the sustainability initiatives adopted by the company to reduce carbon footprint in its own manufacturing?
Ericsson has always been a leading advocate of sustainable business practices and this commitment also extends to our manufacturing unit in India. In fact the unit was most recently awarded with the ‘Challengers Award – Large Business’ at the Frost & Sullivan ‘Green Manufacturing Excellence Awards.’ The award recognizes the effective deployment of Green Manufacturing Practices at the manufacturing unit and highlights how we have remained committed towards identifying and implementing sustainable manufacturing practices in our operations and supply chain.
The award also applauded Ericsson’s manufacturing unit on the initiatives taken and results achieved towards Reduce, Reuse and Recycle of Materials, Water, Energy, Emissions, Effluents, Waste and Products and Services. It also captured the efforts made by Ericsson Supply Site Jaipur towards sustainable manufacturing practices, creation of a safe workplace for employees and impact on society on account of the plant’s operations.
What are your sustainability goals for the next five years? Please explain along with the key metrics – fuel efficiency, power consumption, recycling, water conservation, etc.
To begin we are very happy to say that Ericsson has always met and exceeded its targets for sustainability. In 2012 we achieved our five-year carbon intensity reduction target a year early, and set new ambitious targets on reducing the carbon footprint of our own activities.
Our target now is that by 2017, we will keep our absolute emissions on the same level as 2011, while continuing to grow business for the next 5 years. Our targets are implemented globally. We also aim to reduce CO2 emissions per employee by 5% on Ericsson own activities (business travel, logistics and facilities).
We remain focused on driving global standards and economies of scale, combined with innovative public-private partnerships, making mobile communications more affordable and accessible. Additionally, we will continue to demonstrate the positive role of technology, where it can shape low-carbon economies, increase access to education, and support other humanitarian issues such as refugees, peace and conflict resolution, and disaster response.
Many companies, including big companies, still lack effective sustainability strategies. What is preventing them from adopting such measures? Recent reports said corporate spending on sustainability will grow less than 10 percent in 2013 in India. Do you see any reasons for this?
Corporate reporting is in a nascent stage among leading Indian firms, and companies have minimal clarity when it comes to choosing projects to be involved in. I feel every company has been working hard for some time now to come up with solutions that leverage sustainable strategies in and progress has been made. But like is the case every new innovation, the first phase of adoption is the most challenging. We are sure adoption of green practises will grow exponentially as more and more companies understand the positive impact that they can bring about.
Sustainability does not bring profitability to companies though it brings some environmental benefits. Do you expect this to change over the next few years? Can sustainability practices help improve bottom line of companies?
Sustainability definitely helps improve the bottom line of companies. For us, sustainability is about the “triple bottom line”—long-term social equity, economic prosperity, and environmental performance. Corporate responsibility is about maintaining the necessary controls to minimize risks, while creating positive impacts for our stakeholders and our brand. A sustainable and responsible approach results in value creation for the company, its employees, its customers, its shareholders and the society as a whole.
Do you think government should support businesses – especially small businesses – for such initiatives, in the form of bigger tax waiver or project financing, etc.?
The responsibility of protecting the environment lies with all the government, businesses – small or large and citizens. Therefore while it is important for business to take a future ready approach by investing in greener business practices, it is also important for the government to encourage these solutions.
Rajani Baburajan