At Teléfonica we rely on products and services which stop more than 80 million tons of CO2eq until 2030, equivalent to 25% of the emissions generated by Spain in one year. And its potential is even greater. If we managed to market more green solutions in a way that our income increased at a rate 3 times greater than global GDP, we would stop the equivalent of Colombia’s CO2.
These are the conclusions from the company PwC after analysing our sustainable digital solutions in 12 areas (smart building or intelligent buildings, connected transport, intelligent networks, smart logistics, smart manufacture, smart agriculture, transport and optimization control, e-commerce, e-banking, e-work, e-health, e-learning) and its ability to reduce the energy consumption of companies, administrations and cities.
It is sustainable innovation, a concept which references solutions which, apart from creating an economic value, have a positive impact on society responding to challenges such as climate change. All of these tap into the potential of technologies such as cloud computing and M2M communications to streamline the use of scarce resources such as energy or water, manage environmental aspects such as waste, climate and air quality and reduce C02 emissions.
It is estimated that mobile communications enable us to reduce more than 180 million tons of CO2 each year, a quantity equivalent to the emissions of the Netherlands and five times more than those corresponding to mobile networks themselves. And this figure will multiply until it reaches 500 million tons of CO2 a year until 2020.
Two examples of energy efficiency: buildings and fleets
Among the services which PwC highlight in their analysis is fleet management. “An example –says the consultant- on the commitment of Telefónica in the development of products and services capable of reducing the environmental impact of their customers’ activities while generating new sources of income for the company”.
Thanks to this solution, driving style can be changed, which enables reducing vehicle consumption by 15% with the resulting saving in the associated emissions.
Thus, in the last year 1 million tons of CO2 have been avoided, equivalent to half of the direct or indirect emissions of Telefónica in 2015.
Other services with a clear benefit are the Telefónica smart building solutions, which return a 30% saving in energy consumption to companies which have adopted them.
The potential of Big Data: Smart Steps
Just like in other areas, we still don’t know about all of the benefits that technology can provide the environment.
Smart Steps is a sample of its great potential. How? This Big Data platform processes all of the customer and roamer mobile events who use the Company network to understand mobility flows, trends and behavioural patterns. This information may, for example, be used by councils when planning traffic and public transport in cities in a way that is beneficial to the users and the environment, with a more rational use of resources and energy.
With just a few days left until we celebrate World Environment Day on Sunday 5th June, Telefónica is doing our part thanks to the green services we are developing. A contribution which enables us to recall that we can still do a lot more for our planet.
