The path to net zero for telcos

Our sustainability framework

We are committed to empowering and supporting businesses within the telecom industry to reach their sustainability goals. Through our sustainability framework, we accelerate our clients’ net-zero transformation from commitment to sustainable achievements.

Commit

Net-zero strategy and new business models – We help telcos accelerate from pledge to actionable decarbonization strategy fast: Over the past years, an increasing number of telcos have set their net-zero targets to support the goal to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5, as set out in the Paris Agreement. Speed is of the essence; we must set a trajectory that moves the business from pledge to decarbonization strategy fast. Capgemini Invent’s net-zero strategy offers a solution to this transition. After a strong assessment of the transition risks and opportunities, we accelerate our clients’ carbon reduction with roadmap design, decarbonization levers assessment, governance design, and practical strategies for renewable energy sourcing and carbon offsetting.

Act

Green Experience – we help telcos unlock new opportunities by adapting sustainable product and service design: In addition to the operators’ own net-zero targets, consumers, enterprise customers, investors, and regulatory requirements are increasingly putting pressure on operators to reduce their carbon emissions and negative social impact. To ensure a relevant and attractive product and service portfolio, telcos must embrace the transition to sustainable product and service design. Through our green experience offering, we help our clients engineer and leverage next-generation technology, such as O-RAN, 5G and Edge, to deliver more sustainable networks. At the same time, the telco sector offers opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and support other sustainability goals such as education, health, and digital inclusion in other sectors through innovative solutions. We combine our telecom sector expertise with sustainable design thinking and engineering capabilities to support our clients to build the future telecom industry.

Sustainable operations and supply chain – we enable telcos to decarbonize their operations through a holistic end-to-end approach: The usage and importance of telecommunication networks increased during the pandemic, with a surge in energy consumption. Energy consumption does not only affect telecom operators’ costs but also carbon emissions. Network operations, data centers, and vehicle fleets represent large carbon emissions in the telco sector. Ensuring sustainable operations and a green supply chain is therefore essential to cut carbon emissions. From implementing a sustainable procurement strategy to designing data centers with high-efficiency cooling systems and ensuring the right energy solutions are chosen, we help our clients by taking a holistic approach and focusing on achieving end-to-end sustainable operations.

Sustainable IT – we empower operators to seize the opportunities of sustainable IT through lifecycle thinking: The environmental impact of enterprise IT is a growing area of concern. The rising demand for computing power and data storage poses a significant environmental challenge. We support our clients with an environment-focused approach to design, use, and disposal of computer hardware and software applications and accompanying business processes. Find out more in our recent Sustainable IT Research and a blog series.

5G for sustainable business – we support our clients in designing sustainable 5G solutions for the future: The 5G rollout offers environmental benefits as it enables technology solutions that can improve business sustainability, such as remote operations. However, 5G also poses certain environmental concerns as it could result in a potential increase in data traffic, which in turn, will increase energy demand significantly. Using Capgemini’s in-depth knowledge of 5G technology, we can help operators understand and monitor the environmental impacts of 5G rollout to find mitigation measures to curb these potential negative impacts. Furthermore, we help our clients in other industries identify the environmental benefits of 5G and design and develop 5G-enabled solutions that reduce business environmental impact.

Monitor and report

Data for a net-zero strategy – we help telecom operators leverage data to enable continual improvement to their net-zero strategy: Reliable data is essential to enable, scale, and monitor sustainable transformation. We support our clients with carbon assessment, lifecycle analysis, monitoring, and reporting on their sustainability initiatives. In the telecom industry, we leverage data collected from operations support systems (OSS) to meter and optimize energy consumption, creating more energy-efficient solutions for/within RANs (radio access networks), POPs (point of presents), core networks, and data centers. We enable our clients to harness this data for automated and predictive network operations.

Read the report

Capgemini and GSMA report: The sustainable telco

Our new report with GSMA Intelligence analyzes how the telecom industry has a huge role to play in supporting national and regional ambitions on climate change.

Read more