Chipping away at pollution

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry feels that it has been given a bad rap in the era of greener-than-thou politics. As policymakers scramble for ways to achieve ambitious environmental targets, hi-tech polluters are out to prove their green credentials.

Recognising that the industry can, in fact, play a huge role in the fight against climate change does require a little lateral thinking. Beyond the energy-intensive manufacturing of products such as personal computers and mobile phones and beyond the toxic goo that they may contain is the potential of the industry to change the way we live and work.

Cutting business travel by 20% through increased use of technologies such as videoconferencing facilities or the humble phone could prevent the emission of some 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually by 2010, according to a report carried out by the Worldwide Fund for Nature and telecoms lobby ETNO this year. That same study also noted that if just 10% of EU employees became telecommuters or flexi-workers, another 22 million tonnes of CO2 might be saved annually.

"Most policymakers are still thinking of this sector as a user and putting it in the same bag as, say, aviation," complains James Lovegrove, managing director of AeA Europe, an association of technology companies such as Intel and Motorola, formerly known as the American Electronics Association.

"The role of this sector has been misunderstood," he says. "It’s not only a user of energy, it also has an enabling role which helps citizens to reduce their carbon footprint by using products to change their lifestyles."

An AeA report published in September aims to increase EU policymakers’ awareness of the part that the sector can play in helping to cut energy consumption by 20% by 2020 - which was a target agreed by EU leaders at their summit in March 2007. The sector is ubiquitous, it points out, with microprocessors, semi-conductors and sensors of all sorts embedded in products ranging from heating systems to construction equipment. Given the reach of the sector, Lovegrove believes that the EU could aim even higher and slash energy consumption by half.

Examples given by the AeA report include use of IT-driven smart grids to monitor and manage energy supplies, energy demand and energy transmission. Currently, consumers are locked into traditional power grids, with only limited means of reducing their energy use. In future, they will be able to monitor and adjust their consumption through the use of smart grids that could, in the not-too-distant future, eventually feed off wind turbines, photovoltaics and fuel cells.

So-called intelligent building systems powered by ICT systems also have the power to flatten energy consumption. Buildings are currently responsible for more than 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, says the AeA report. Use of sensors, transmitters and wireless controls to manage energy guzzlers such as chillers, boilers, air conditioners, heat pumps and lights could dramatically reduce the environmental toll.

All of this sounds great in theory. But environmentalists are not all convinced that the green potential of the industry should be viewed as a pay-off for its dirtier side. Mahi Sideridou, EU climate and energy policy director at Greenpeace, says that binding standards are needed to improve the eco-friendliness of ICT products all the way through their life-cycle. E-waste, for example, is a growing problem, with huge volumes of highly toxic waste from items such as used computer monitors, circuit boards, mobile phones and chips from computerised appliances of all kinds being dumped, often in developing countries such as India.

Under the 2005 EU directive on the eco-design of energy-using products, a number of ICT products could end up being blacklisted. Products are currently being assessed by the European Commission. "The intention is to come up with some binding standards that take most inefficient products of the shelf," says Sideridou. "If you have a computer, then why not make sure that computer is the best model you can have in terms of its environmental impact."

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry feels that it has been given a bad rap in the era of greener-than-thou politics. As policymakers scramble for ways to achieve ambitious environmental targets, hi-tech polluters are out to prove their green credentials.