White paper: The environmental impact of a local area network (LAN) and corporate phone services
APL Data Center helped create a reference for calculating the environmental impact of local area networks (LAN) and corporate phone services. That reference is now being supplemented with a white paper and an open-source calculator available on the website of the Club des Dirigeants Réseaux et Télécoms (CDRT).
Creating an evaluation framework for environmental reporting
Since January 1, 2022, France’s Law Against Waste for a Circular Economy (known as the “AGEC Law”) has required internet service providers and telecom companies to report to their subscribers in the general public the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of their data usage.
Alliance Green IT (AGIT), the CDRT, Act for a Better Planet, APL Data Center, and ADEME wanted to take things further and worked together to develop a method for evaluating the environmental impacts of a LAN and corporate phone services.
APL Data Center helped establish the framework for calculating these environmental impacts. Now, that framework is being supplemented with a white paper and a calculator.
A white paper to supplement the framework
The purpose of the white paper is to supplement and offer examples for the framework on the methodology for evaluating the environmental impact of a LAN and corporate phone services. In particular, the white paper provides concrete examples, such as calculating the environmental impact of:
- Providing a local area network for one year
- A minute-long phone call
- An hour-long video conference
It also includes suggestions of best practices for limiting the environmental impacts of networks and phone services.
Download the white paper for free (in French)
Multi-criteria environmental footprint calculator
Additionally, a multi-criteria environmental footprint calculator and its accompanying user guide are available on the CDRT’s website.
Using the calculator, telecom companies can:
- Get basic environmental reporting information specific to their company or organization;
- Inform their customers of the overall environmental footprint of services provided, using three criteria: carbon, energy, and materials;
- Offer eco-designed—and thus optimized—networks and services.
This tool is just a first step and uses both public data and data generated by the working group. The plan is to continue updating the tool as new environmental data are generated in the telecommunications industry. Improvements will help ensure that information is better shared with more telecom operators.
