January 11, 2009
In this second installment of Building an Eco-sustainable Future, we turn our attention to Driving Green Innovation and Opportunity. The environment and the economy are top priorities today, as evidenced by the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last month. However, it will take more than good intentions. It will take considerable action to mitigate the impact of global carbon emissions. The information and communication technology (ICT) industry has a tremendous opportunity to play a significant role in helping the world become more eco-sustainable while continuing to prosper.
We hope this new series of articles will help you further consider how to take positive action within our own ICT domain. We also hope the articles will provide greater insight into how ICT can help reduce the carbon footprint in other industries.
In our lead story, the President of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Laboratories, Dr. Jeong Kim, shares some interesting research findings. Most notably is that today, carrier network energy consumption is as much as 8 orders of magnitude above minimum limits. Radical thinking and radical action will be required to close that gap. Also, our Green Networks Grow Business article shares insights on how network operations can be reduced by an estimated 1.1 million kilowatt-hours per year.
The impact of eco-sustainable ICT reaches beyond its domain. In Shaping Sustainable Cities of the Future, Alan Marcus of The World Economic Forum looks at how ICT must become integral to urban planning. This is an important step as we work to improve the carbon impact of all communities and develop greener cities.
These new articles showcase how innovative, eco-sustainable approaches can create new opportunities to grow business and benefit our collective future. Please join our distinguished authors in a discussion of these topics. Together, our efforts can impact climate change in a positive way for the good of the planet and for the good of business. The time is now.
I invite you to visit us again in February as we explore a series of topics in the multimedia space. Our next issue, themed The Multi-screen Revolution, will look at how the industry is moving from challenge to opportunity.
November 9, 2009
We’re hearing more and more about eco-sustainability and the need to decrease carbon footprints and reduce our impact on climate change. But what does that mean really? If the world’s appetite for consumer electronic devices follows the U.S. (an average of 3 devices per household in 1980; 25 today), satisfying the demand will require the equivalent of 560 new coal-fired, or 230 nuclear power plants [1]. This growing appetite for energy is unprecedented. The risk to the planet is real and our response must be swift, unified and driven.
The good news is there’s a lot going on in our industry to address the climate change issue. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has the potential to reduce 2% of the world’s carbon footprint that it generates. More importantly, it can help reduce the 98% coming from other sectors. That’s powerful.
In this Sustainable Telecom Transformation edition of Enriching Communications you’ll gain insights from some of our industry’s thought leaders, including Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent CEO. Mr. Verwaayen’s commitment to eco-sustainability is evident from his many actions. These include being an active member of the World Economic Forum and its climate change activities and serving as chairman of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s Climate Change Board. In his article The Low Carbon Opportunity he emphatically states, “Success in global markets will go to the companies and nations who reduce and better manage everyone’s carbon footprints”.
In this edition of the e-zine our authors share many interesting concepts and recent findings, and highlight salient points on this global strategic business imperative. I encourage you to read the articles and give the authors your feedback by leaving a comment, rating their articles and participating in the quick poll. We look forward to your reactions on this important subject.
Going green is not a fad, nor is it an expense without return. Real business value is derived as we progress toward lowering the global carbon footprint. Please be sure to return to the e-zine in January as we continue our exploration of this topic with a collection of articles on Green: Driving Innovation and Opportunity.
September 16, 2009
Why work alone when partnerships help mitigate risk in a highly competitive marketplace? We are seeing clear evidence that moving beyond traditional business models brings greater opportunities. Companies from different industries are now innovating together to generate added value for the end user and help grow business. The resulting whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.
Building on the topics we covered in our last collection of articles, we now bring you a slightly different perspective on ways to innovate communications to stimulate your business. “How Ecosystems Change the Game” explores how these new partnerships and transformative business approaches can create a sustainable winning advantage. Experts at Alcatel-Lucent, Hewlett-Packard, ABI Research and Israel’s Pelephone provide insights to help you further consider the value of innovation and ecosystems in the current market context. Here are some article highlights to get you started:
- We look at how diverse ecosystem membership, including those participating in the ng Connect program can facilitate a “living lab” and benefit all members of the value chain.
- HP shares how openness and cooperation delivers concrete benefits and greater wins for everyone.
- ABI Research provides their perspective on how partner ecosystems can expedite applications development and services deployment.
- Pelephone of Israel offers insights into how their innovative applications are bringing the “wow” factor to the end-user experience. The result is a great success story.
- We are also keeping an eye on key trends. Recent Alcatel-Lucent application enablement research looks at how selectively exposing network capabilities can help create a win/win for applications/content and network providers and offer an enhanced experience to end users.
Ecosystems are more important than ever — they are changing the face of business. We hope you find these topics timely, informative and helpful as you drive forward at a market-winning pace.
Check back with us in a few weeks as we turn our attention to the important discussion of sustainable telecom transformation.
July 24, 2009
Innovation offers a collective opportunity to change and grow. Advancements will occur regardless of business conditions. Those who seize the opportunity to move beyond traditional, conservative approaches will be well positioned to take the advantage as economies regain momentum and progress ignites.
Bandwidth begets bandwidth. More capacity drives volume and demand — and the resulting congestion and quality issues impede growth. We frequently hear of problems resulting from our current communications environment. Who would have thought a superstar’s untimely death could briefly take down a popular short message site? While a best-effort experience has been accepted we have to ask: Why? People turn to the network for almost everything today. We’ve reached a tipping point where best effort is no longer acceptable. Alternative business models and technologies will break through.
The new Enriching Communications e-zine and discussion forum takes a close look at industry trends and the innovations that will address these current constraints and drive real change and business opportunities. For our first discussion, we’ve selected key points to consider when growing your business with 4G/LTE. I encourage you to engage with our experts. Share your ideas and opinions in the articles’ comments area and vote in our quick poll.
In several weeks, we’ll change the innovation focus slightly as we build on the topics introduced here and bring you more expert thinking on “How Ecosystems Change the Game.” This fresh look at ecosystems will give a thought-provoking perspective to the adage: the whole is greater than sum of its parts. Bookmark us and come back often to actively participate in the discussion forum and stay connected to what others are saying about these topics.
Our goal is to bring you expert, consultative thinking on your most pressing business issues. We hope you enjoy the new e-zine experience and we look forward to exchanging ideas with you.
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