Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance has urged telecommunications operators to reduce their environmental footprints through more sustainable approaches in the design, manufacturing and operation of mobile networks, as well as finding ways to reduce their energy and water usage.
NGMN Alliance, a mobile telecommunications association of mobile operators, vendors, manufacturers and research institutes, in its latest publication, ‘Reducing Environmental Impact: Best Practices and Recommendations,’ offered guidelines on how mobile network operators can manage and lower their impact on the environment about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, materials usage, and energy and water consumption.
A member of the NGMN Alliance board, and group CTO and SVP at Orange Innovation Networks, Laurent Leboucher, said: “Environmental impact is not just limited to carbon emissions – use of rare materials, plastics and water footprint all need to be considered, managed and reduced (too).”
The NGMN, with an office in Frankfurt, Germany, outlined key strategies to reduce the use and to substitute or recycle materials, particularly harmful ones, rare elements and those that require greater resources in mining processes.
The alliance also noted that mobile operators need to establish “harmful substance management for all components”, including by requiring sub-suppliers to reveal the chemical composition of all candidate components, and selecting options that contain “no or the least number of harmful substances.”
Another recommendation involves formulating strategies to avoid using plastics derived from fossil carbon sources, as these still constitute “a substantial portion of the total weight” for many types of equipment. For instance, companies could consider using recycled plastics, plastics made from biological (or renewable) precursors or plastics made from chem-cycled precursors.
The NGMN also said that currently a diverse range of elements is used in network equipment systems – some of which are very difficult or uneconomic to recover – and recommended they be replaced with alternative recycled products, especially when it comes to rare metals.
Another notable finding in NGMN’s publication suggested that the industry should leverage technologies such as AI, data augmentation using traditional and quantum computing, generative models and laboratory automation to speed up the discovery of “new, more environmentally preferable materials”. This is something that South Korean operator (SK Telecom) recently forecast would be a trend in 2024, and is something that Google is already working on, announcing in November 2023 that ‘GNoME’, a new material development AI tool by its subsidiary DeepMind, had discovered 2.2 million new crystals, including 380,000 stable materials that could power future technologies – see SKT highlights AI trends for 2024.
Beyond materials, the NGMN stressed the importance of looking at the energy usage levels of servers, network infrastructure and used equipment and the corresponding GHG emissions related to the manufacturing and operation of those network elements.
In terms of specific network equipment items, the alliance suggested that extending the lifespan of antennas is “one natural step towards more sustainable networks”. Here, a variety of methods can be considered, including software or hardware reconfiguration, choice of sustainable material, modular design, and decoupling of active and passive antennas.
As climate change has been intensifying problems related to global water shortages, the alliance said companies must measure their water footprint throughout the lifecycle of equipment and across the supply chain.
“Reports indicate major water usage during manufacturing, such as semiconductor fabrication, while highlighting the vast number of user devices of all types using a significant amount of water in the process of being manufactured. Water consumption inevitably leads to wastewater after leaving the process, which can be polluted and harmful if not treated properly. In general, multiple parameters need to be considered for water footprint,” the NGMN noted.
Therefore, it urged companies to make calculations of the direct use of water, as well as indirect water use for electricity generation and ICT equipment manufacturing. It also recommended a reduction in the amount of freshwater used within businesses’ operations and buildings, as well as addressing local water challenges through partnerships and funding of watershed restoration projects, for instance.
