Telstra Low Carbon Future Report

connecting with a low-carbon future

About this report

This report is an update of the 2007 Climate Risk report commissioned by Telstra, ‘Towards a High-Bandwidth, Low-Carbon Future’ (the 2007 Report). The 2007 Report explored the potential for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to contribute to a low-carbon economy. At the time, the report attracted international attention when it was formally released at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali (COP1 13) in December 2007.

Demonstrating the importance of the 2007 Report, the United Nations International Telecommunication Union used its concepts as the basis for two international conferences named after the report (one each in London and Kyoto) to discuss the correlation between ICT and a low-carbon economy.

Since 2007, numerous international organisations have followed up on this research. For example, Ericsson commissioned a documentary (which included interviews with Climate Risk) on the 2007 Report’s implications for European telecommunications providers. A succession of follow-on reports have applied similar methodologies to other countries and regions, including the landmark SMART 2020 (2008) and SMARTER2020 (2012) reports by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).

1 Conference of the Parties

This update revisits the role of the ICT sector in enabling cost-effective carbon emissions reductions in Australia, and assesses the extent to which the seven low-carbon ICT opportunities identified in 2007 have already translated into cost and carbon emission savings. To assist in understanding the level of savings achieved, this report reviews the impact of technical developments on the ability of ICT to deliver financial and environmental benefits. This analysis is critical given that ICT has been identified as a key enabler of a low-carbon economy. Further, as a result of commercial drivers and community expectations, government and private organisations are addressing climate change and rising carbon emissions as a matter of priority.

This report aims to stimulate further dialogue about ICT’s potential role as the ‘backbone’ of a low-carbon economy. It is intended primarily for a business and government audience. Nevertheless, the measures identified have the potential to provide both financial and emissions savings across Australian society, from consumers to business and government.

Climate Risk has been commissioned by Telstra to research and prepare this update, as it was for the original 2007 Report. This report was improved by the input of external reviewers, including Kellie Caught (WWF-Australia), Glenn Platt (CSIRO), Hugh Saddler (pitt&sherry), and Greg Bourne. Telstra and Climate Risk gratefully acknowledge their contributions.

Paul Geason Group Managing Director – Global Enterprise and Services Australia Telstra

Government, business and consumers have responded over many years to the economic drivers that have led them to reduce energy consumption and associated costs. However, as our understanding of climate change impacts continues to grow, the need to limit and contain carbon emissions has also become increasingly important, and is now a recognised driver for action. The ICT sector can be an integral part of the solution to both contain costs and carbon emissions.

The ICT sector is in an ideal position to enable Australia’s governments, businesses and consumers to reduce both their energy consumption and carbon emissions. This will not only lead to considerable cost savings but will also make a significant and tangible contribution to addressing climate change in the near and long term.

While existing innovations presented by the ICT sector have already realised reductions in carbon emissions and reduced expenditure in other sectors, there remains a significant opportunity to achieve even greater financial and environmental benefits.

we will continue to invest in solutions that provide the mechanism for our customers to reduce their costs and their emissions.

The rapid evolution in technology, combined with Telstra’s significant investment in deploying new products and mobile networks, puts us in a strong position to help Australians connect with a low-carbon future.

At Telstra we take our leadership role very seriously, and we will continue to invest in solutions that provide the mechanism for our customers to reduce their costs and their emissions.

This report is not the final word on the potential, or actual, carbon and cost savings associated with ICT. Rather, it is a contribution to the ongoing discussion on this subject. We welcome robust public dialogue around the ideas presented in this report, in the hope Australians can reach a more comprehensive understanding of the opportunities for the ICT sector to deliver the financial and environmental benefits of a low-carbon economy.

Connecting with a low-carbon future 3

Executive summary 06

01 The business case for reducing carbon emissions 08

02 The challenge posed by climate change and rising carbon emissions 10

03 ICT trends 13

04 The carbon footprint of ICT 17

05 ICT as the backbone of the low-carbon economy 20

06 Seven ICT-based carbon reduction opportunities 22

07 Additional emergent low-carbon opportunities 26

08 Conclusions 29

Appendices 31

4 Connecting with a low-carbon future

unlocking the benefitsof a low-carbon economy


Since 2007 carbon emissions have increased in many sectors of the economy. Consequently, the carbon-reduction potential of these seven ICT-based opportunities has increased by 8.5% between 2007 and 2014. This represents a potential to abate nearly 5% of Australia’s current total annual carbon emissions and approximately one fifth of the Australian Government’s 5% emission reduction target for 2020 on 2000 levels.3 This projected reduction potential is only for the seven opportunities identified; the total potential ICT-sector contribution could be substantially greater.

These ICT-based opportunities could save Australians $8.1 billion per year through avoided electricity, fuel and aviation travel spending, 47% more than the potential savings from ICT in 2007. Increased renewable energy production and value enabled by ICT could generate a further $762 million per year.

Technological advances in the past seven years and the rapid uptake of smart devices such as smartphones and tablets have also increased ICT’s potential to facilitate energy and carbon emission savings. As the range and sophistication of smart devices increases, they are able to perform more complex tasks, and thereby play an increasing role in low-carbon opportunities such as video conferencing and real-time fleet management.

ICT is a key enabler of a low-carbon economy

The 2007 Report established that ICT can play a critical role in delivering a low-carbon economy by enabling a reduction in energy-related costs and carbon emissions across the wider economy.

ICT encompasses end-user devices, networks and data centres. End-user devices include personal computers, printers, tablets, smartphones and other connected and mobile devices. Networks comprise wireless and fixed telecommunications networks. Data centres refer to facilities that house computers and associated systems.

This report reassesses the seven ICT-based opportunities for reducing costs and carbon emissions originally identified in 2007. These include:

•Remote appliance power management;

•Context-aware power management;

•Decentralised working;

•Personalised public transport;

•Real-time fleet management;

•Increased renewable energy; and

•High definition video conferencing.

The findings in this report reveal that the potential of ICT to help reduce energy costs and carbon emissions has grown substantially over the past seven years and, if realised, the opportunities identified here could help Australians substantially cut emissions, by 27.5 MtCO2-e per year and achieve savings and revenue of almost $8.92 billion per year.

Since the 2007 Report was released, the pressure on governments and business to reduce energy use and carbon emissions has intensified. Energy prices have increased significantly and there is increasing scientific confidence that human activity is a major contributor to climate change.

Given regulatory and societal pressure to address climate change, Australian businesses must find ways to reduce carbon emissions, while at the same time containing costs and balancing their public reputation with shareholder and investor requirements.

Those companies that can respond most effectively to these pressures to reduce carbon emissions are well placed to reap commercial and reputational benefits.

This report examines how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can help unlock the financial and environmental benefits of a low-carbon economy, building on the findings of the 2007 Telstra-commissioned report, Towards a High-Bandwidth Low-Carbon Future (the 2007 Report).

eXecutive summary

2 Excluding value related to carbon.3 Note this abatement excludes additional international aviation emissions that could apply to Opportunity 7: High Definition Video Conferencing.


Three new opportunities to cut costs and emissions

Three new ICT-enabled opportunities to reduce energy use and carbon emissions have emerged since the 2007 Report. They are: clean cloud; smart cities and infrastructure; and mobile carbon guidance.

Clean cloud entails improving energy efficiency of data centre operations through consolidation of smaller data centres to achieve economies of scale, and potential use of low-cost renewable energy alternatives to power them.

Smart cities and infrastructure use advanced communication, sensing and metering to more efficiently manage electricity supply, and can also facilitate efficiencies in water, waste and transport.

Mobile carbon guidance provides information and other assistance to consumers via mobile devices to enable a step change in consumer behaviour in favour of low-carbon choices.

Balancing ICT growth and carbon abatement

Unprecedented growth in data, traffic and devices is pushing up ICT carbon emissions, despite continuing improvements in energy efficiency. While it is important to address the ICT sector’s own emissions, the findings of this report and a wider body of international research suggest that ICT facilitates significant emission reductions in other sectors of the Australian economy. A recent study by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSi) found that ICT could enable global emission reductions in other sectors of more than seven times its own emission footprint.

Despite this recognition of ICT’s role, there is limited quantitative evidence to confirm that ICT has already achieved carbon emission reductions, partly due to the difficulty in assessing ICT impacts on other sectors. A key aim of this report is to add to the understanding of the ICT contribution in Australia to date.

Of the seven carbon-reducing opportunities identified in 2007, remote appliance management, video conferencing, teleworking and real-time fleet management (for freight vehicles) have quickly expanded to deliver savings worth an estimated $1.5 billion per year to Australian businesses and consumers.

However, barriers to uptake of ICT-based opportunities have constrained progress and, as a result, some of the ICT opportunities identified in the 2007 Report have barely started to deliver on their emission and cost-reduction potential.

These barriers to uptake include capital cost, complexity, cultural resistance to change and lack of uniform availability of technology. Overcoming these barriers to ICT uptake is an important factor in realising the substantial energy saving and emission reduction benefits of ICT.

Key conclusions of this report include:

•ICT has a central role to play in a low-carbon economy, with the potential to enable economy-wide emission reductions;

•The seven ICT opportunities identified in the 2007 Report are still valid and have even greater cost benefit and carbon reduction potential today than in 2007, with potential energy and travel savings for Australians estimated to be worth $8.1 billion per year;

•Combined, these ICT based opportunities would be able to deliver emissions savings of 27.5 MtCO2-e, approximately one fifth of the Australian Government’s 5% emissions reduction target for 2020. This level of abatement is equivalent to taking two thirds (8.4 million) of Australia’s passenger vehicles off the road (ABS 2013c, Australian Government 2013b);

•Some of the identified opportunities have already begun to provide tangible dollar savings and emission reductions, and the seven opportunities combined are worth $1.6 billion per year;

•The limited uptake to date of some of the carbon-reducing ICT opportunities highlights that substantial cost and carbon emission savings are yet to be realised;

•Three new carbon-reduction ICT opportunities that emerged since the 2007 Report were identified: clean cloud; smart cities and infrastructure; and mobile carbon guidance;

•To fully realise all of these ICT-based opportunities, barriers to uptake must be addressed.

Given that Australia is under increasing economic and social pressure to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions, this report’s findings indicate that ICT’s role in cost and carbon reduction is more important today than ever before.


Australian business is expected to reduce its carbon and environmental impact while improving profitability. Companies are seeking to act to reduce carbon emissions, while at the same time managing the emerging risks from climate change impacts. Businesses that respond effectively to these pressures stand to gain both reputational and commercial benefits. Accenture’s (2013) global survey of 1,000 CEOs found that nearly all (93%) regard sustainability as key to their company’s success.

1.1 Public and investor expectations

A company’s environmental credentials can now influence job choices of graduates (AAGE 2012), and most (81%) CEOs believe their company’s reputation for sustainability affects consumers’ decisions to purchase their products (Accenture 2013). Companies are increasingly expected to be responsible environmental stewards (Quinio 2009), and are under growing investor pressure to take this role (IISD 2013).

Public measures such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which rank companies’ environmental performance, are further building expectations on business to disclose and improve their environmental performance. Companies in Australia that disclose to the CDP represent 85% of the ASX 200 market capitalisation.

In 2011 the CDP launched an investor-led initiative, Carbon Action, specifically calling on the world’s largest companies to implement cost-effective carbon emission reduction initiatives. Investors view these actions as a way to protect their investments. As of 2013, CDP investor initiatives were backed by more than 722 institutional investors representing assets of more than USD$87 trillion (CDP 2013).

01: the business case for reducing carbon emissions

While pressure on business to reduce its carbon and environmental impact is increasing, taking action can deliver commercial benefits.

As proof of the growing expectations to improve environmental performance, there are now 14 indices in Australia to guide investment or assess companies’ performance based on sustainability criteria, according to the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA). Funds under responsible investment portfolio management in Australia continue to grow, reaching $152 billion (16% of total assets under management) at the end of 2012 (RIAA 2013).

Shareholder pressure on companies to improve their performance on climate change and other aspects of environmental and social performance continues to build through voting, resolutions, and other shareholder actions (RIAA 2013).

Illustrating the gathering momentum for initiatives specifically focused on carbon, in October, 2013 an investor alliance with $USD3 trillion in assets called on the world’s largest fossil fuel companies to rethink their future operations in light of the major emissions reductions required to address climate change (Blackburne 2013).

1.2 Policy and regulatory activity

Australian companies are also subject to policy and regulatory developments aimed at identifying and reducing carbon emissions.

Existing reporting obligations under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act (2007) require companies to provide accounting and data on carbon emissions and energy. The NGER Scheme, administered by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER), provides a single national reporting framework for corporations that meet or exceed the NGER thresholds.4

Australia’s larger corporate energy consumers must also report under the Commonwealth Energy Efficiency Opportunities program. Commenced in July 2006, the program mandates that eligible companies5 (more than 300 corporations are eligible) assess their energy use to identify and publicly report opportunities for cost-effective energy savings, along with the appropriate business response (DRET 2013).

For the financial year 2013-14, federal policy requires 3756 of Australia’s largest emitters to surrender eligible emissions units (each unit representing one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent [tCO2-e]). Companies are required to pay the ‘carbon price’ for the right to emit.

For the financial year 2014-15, the Australian Government has undertaken to replace this mechanism with the ‘Direct Action’ approach. This includes an Emissions Reduction Fund from which entities will be paid for the actual abatement they have achieved (Australian Government 2013a).

1.3 The pressure of rising energy prices

In addition to these regulatory requirements, Australian business must also manage rising energy costs. According to the Australian Industry Group (AIG), average business expenditure on energy, as a percentage of turnover, increased by 10% from 2008 to 2011. Electricity costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years (ESAA 2012). Retail petrol prices, though volatile, have also risen (ACCC 2012).7

The factors behind rising energy costs are numerous; for example, investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure is a primary driver for increasing electricity costs while

4 ‘As a guide, registration and reporting is required by controlling corporations emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or consuming more than 25,000 megawatt-hours of electricity or 2.5 million litres of fuel in a financial year,’ according to DRET (2012).

5 Using 0.5 PJ of energy per year, roughly the energy used by 10,000 households.6 375 potentially liable entities’ as of 1 November 2013 according to the Clean Energy Regulator website. 7 From 2008−09 to 2011−12 annual average retail prices rose 15.7 cents per litre.


international supply and demand are key to rising Australian fuel prices (ACCC 2012). While actions to mitigate GHG emissions place a further cost on energy, utilities have noted climate policy uncertainty in Australia to be a further significant contributor to domestic consumer price increases (Nelson 2010).

Whatever the causes, more businesses are being pushed toward higher energy spending, a trend that can be expected to continue (AIG 2012; 2013).

1.4 Climate change risks to business

In addition to related regulatory requirements noted in Section 1.2, many companies are concerned about the direct physical risks from climate change (for example, extreme weather events). In 2012, 81% of CDP-reporting companies identified that physical risks from climate change could impact their business, with 37% considering these risks to be material, up from 10% in 2010 (global figures; CDP 2012b).

Australian governments have remained committed to climate change adaptation though initiatives such as the National Climate Change Research Facility (Hunt 2013). With government support, some Australian businesses have moved to

the forefront of innovations that use ICT to quantify climate change risk to their assets and calculate the effectiveness of adaptation (Allen 2013).

In summary, recognition by business that long-term climate change hazards can only be limited by reducing global carbon emissions increases international pressure to constrain global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At the same time, business must adapt to the impacts of climate change.

1.5 The benefit of steps to reduce energy and emissions

As a result of these environmental, regulatory and cost imperatives, many Australian businesses are taking steps to reduce what they perceive as real risks to their profit margins, assets, staff and the infrastructure they rely on to do business.

Businesses that act can reap direct and indirect commercial benefits. A direct commercial benefit includes improved profitability through reduced energy costs. Companies can also increase market share via new products and services. Indirect benefits include improved brand and reputation (CDP 2013; DEFRA 2012) supporting market share, and improved talent attraction and retention.

Measuring carbon emissions is a first key step toward setting targets, identifying appropriate solutions and reporting emissions reductions.

Complementary work by the Carbon Trust since 2008 has certified 986 organisations, which have measured their carbon footprint using the Carbon Trust Standard. This standard recognises an organisation’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, enhancing its reputation and building trust with customers and investors. By 2013, the Carbon Trust had certified a total of 28,000 product footprints (Carbon Trust 2013).

Highlighting the wider benefits of socially responsible investing, ‘ethical’ funds are outperforming their mainstream counterparts in Australia and their benchmarks in all but one of the 12 categories rated by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA 2013).

In Australia, rising energy prices and cost control are now strong drivers for efficiency improvements (AIG 2012; 2013). Actions to cost-effectively address these pressures through improved energy efficiency are on the rise. An Australian Industry Group survey showed that between 2005 and 2010, two-thirds of surveyed businesses made no or negligible improvements in energy efficiency, but by 2012, three-quarters of surveyed businesses had taken, or were planning, actions to improve efficiency, indicating broader, deeper action on efficiency over the three years prior (AIG 2012).

1.6 Summary

The Australian business community is presented with a substantial dilemma – how to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change related risks while containing costs, and balancing public reputation with the requirements of shareholders and investors. Those companies who can respond to these increasing environmental, economic and social pressures while maintaining profitability may reap reputational and commercial benefits. They may grow revenue, for example, by delivering ICT solutions that facilitate the shift to a low-carbon economy and a more environmentally sustainable society.

Opportunities to use ICT to cost-effectively assist businesses to reduce emissions, gain a competitive advantage, reduce costs and improve corporate reputations are outlined in Section 6 and detailed in Appendix A.


02: the challenge posed by climate change and rising carbon emissions

The scientific consensus is that human activity is a major contributor to climate change through the release of GHG emissions and that the window of opportunity is closing to limit warming to a level that would avoid unmanageable consequences.

figure 2.1The scientific consensus on climate change is strong.

2.1 The climate science

Ninety-seven percent of climate experts agree that humans are causing global warming through the release of GHG emissions (Figure 2.1; Anderegg et al. 2010; Doran et al. 2009). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global warming projections of 20 years ago have so far proven to be correct (Frame & Stone 2012), and the latest IPCC report tightens the case for human influence on the climate system (IPCC 2013a). The report states that scientists are now 95-100% confident that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.

If emissions continue along their current path8, global temperature could rise by up to 3.2 - 5.4°C by 2100, relative to pre-industrial levels (IPCC 2013b; DoE 2013; GCP 2012).

To avoid the associated risks (Figure 2.2), most climate experts agree that temperature increase should not surpass 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The need for this ‘2°C guardrail’ was also endorsed

by the European Union (EU 2008) and recognised by the Copenhagen Accord, which was endorsed by 114 nations (UNFCCC 2009).9

Climate science therefore indicates a need for action to reduce emissions, in order to limit warming to 2°C.

The planet’s average surface temperature increased by 0.85°C from 1880 to 2012 (IPCC 2013a). Sea levels are rising, and are likely to rise by 52 to 98 cm by the end of the century without mitigation (IPCC 2013a). Evidence also links climate change to an increase in the incidence of extreme weather events such as heat waves and coastal flooding (IPCC 2012).

2.2 Australia’s carbon emissions

Australia’s annual carbon emissions are 578 megatonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2-e; Australian Government 2013b). National emissions have been increasing at an average rate of approximately 0.5% per year since the 2007 Report (NGG 2012). Australia is among the top ten most carbon-intensive

nations per capita (WRI CAIT 2013), and the highest per capita emitter among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations (OECD 2013).

Australia’s per capita emissions have declined by 22% since 1990, however, this reduction is largely attributable to success in stemming land clearing (Australian Government 2013b). When these ‘land use, land use change and forestry’ (LULUCF) impacts are excluded, there is a modest per capita emissions decline of 1.1% over that same period.

Australia has demonstrated the ability to grow the economy without commensurate increases in carbon emissions (see Section 5). Emissions per dollar GDP have decreased by 48% since 1990 and Figure 2.3 indicates that this trend is set to continue.

Despite these positive signals, the projections for business-as-usual emissions suggest strong increases that will take annual emissions to nearly 700 MtCO2-e by 2020 (see Figure 2.5).

Image adapted from: Skeptical Science 2011

8 Currently, emissions are tracking Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5, the IPCC scenario with the highest greenhouse gas emissions.9 The 2°C guardrail encompasses the 0.8°C of warming that has already occurred over the past century.

figure 2.2The state of knowledge about risks under climate warming. Risks to unique and threatened ecosystems and from increases in extreme weather are substantial even below warming of 2°C.

Increase in global mean temperature above circa 1990 (oC)

Image adapted from: Smith et al. 2009

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Increasing risk97 out of 100 climate eXperts think humans are causing global warming


Since 2007 there has been a change in the volume of carbon emissions from most sectors, as detailed in Figure 2.4. The greatest growth has come from fugitive emissions,10 increasing by more than 45%. Transport emissions grew by more than 10%, incorporating emissions from aviation fuel use and diesel oil use in heavy-duty trucks, buses and light commercial vehicles.

There were also more modest increases in carbon emissions from agriculture, industrial processes and stationary energy (the combined use of electricity and gas for industrial, commercial and residential purposes).

Those sectors experiencing a decrease in carbon emissions since 2007 include the above-noted land-use related reduction, and waste.

figure 2.3Australia’s carbon emissions. Australia is one of the world’s most carbon-intensive nations, but emissions per capita and per real dollar of GDP have declined slightly since 2001–02.

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figure 2.4Australian carbon dioxide emissions by sector, as a percentage of total emissions (blue); and percent change in sectoral emissions since the 2007 Climate Risk report (purple).

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Australian carbon emissions 2012/13 (percent) Change since last report (percent)

10 The IPPC defines fugitive emissions as, ‘intentional or unintentional release of greenhouse gases [that] may occur during the extraction, processing and delivery of fossil fuels to the point of final use’ (IPCC 2006, p. 4.6).

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2.3 Policy to reduce emissions

Governments around the world have responded to growing scientific and public pressure to address carbon emissions. UN climate change deliberations involved discussing, reviewing and setting carbon emission reduction targets. To date, the international agreements have not articulated emissions reduction targets commensurate with scientific goals, which would be of the order of at least 80% by 2050 for Australia (IPCC 2013a)11. However, individual jurisdictions have made major inroads into emissions abatement12.

Both sides of Australian politics have committed to reducing national carbon emissions by 5% compared to 2000 levels by 2020 (Figure 2.5). Australia has also committed to reduce national carbon emissions by up to 15% or 25%, depending on actions taken by other countries.

A business-as-usual13 approach would see Australia’s emissions grow considerably (Figure 2.5). Despite the increase in the carbon efficiency of Australian society (Section 2.2), the nation’s total carbon footprint is expected to increase, driven up by population and GDP growth, as well as increasing fossil fuel use and extraction.

figure 2.5Australian emissions will grow considerably under a BAU path. Trajectories are also given for the bi-partisan target for 5% emissions reductions relative to the 2000 level out to 2020, as well as a target of 80% cuts by 2050, which is consistent with the ‘2oC guardrail’.

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11 Based on RCP2.6, the IPCC scenario most likely to avoid 2°C of warming, ‘By 2050, annual CO2 emissions derived from Earth System Models following RCP2.6 are smaller than 1990 emissions (by 14 to 96%)’. The 14% reduction requires average per capita emission of 1.9 tCO2-e per year for a global population of 10 billion, which would be a 92% reduction of current Australian per capita emissions of 25 tCO2-e per year.

12 For example, Denmark is expected to exceed (by 0.5%) its Kyoto Protocol target of 21% reductions in annual GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels; Germany is also exceeding its Kyoto target (also a 21% reduction), and by 2010 had already reduced national greenhouse gas emissions by almost 25% on 1990 levels.

13 This projection refers to forecast emissions without a carbon price or Carbon Farming Initiative.

2.4 Summary

The scale of the challenge posed by climate change is growing as global temperatures and emissions continue to rise. These trends make the task of staying within the 2°C guardrail challenging. Along with the public, regulatory and cost pressures to reduce carbon emissions (see Section 1), the challenge of climate change means cost-effective actions by companies to reduce their emissions are becoming more pressing.


03: ict trends

Technological advances are contributing to the rising use of ICT, and opening up new opportunities for ICT to help reduce costs and carbon emissions.

This section reviews the trends in technology that impact the ability of ICT to play a role in delivering a low-carbon economy. In particular, trends in end-user devices, telecommunication networks, and data centres are considered. Some of these trends affect the ICT sector’s own carbon emissions profile (see Section 4), while others could underpin opportunities to drive economy-wide reductions in carbon emissions (Section 6).

In this report, the definition of ICT is consistent with that proposed by GeSI (2012), as follows:

•End-user devices: including PCs (desktops and laptops), monitors, tablets, smartphones and other connected and mobile devices, printers, and peripherals (IPTV boxes, modems, routers, etc.);

•Networks: wireless and fixed telecommunications networks;

•Data centres: facilities to house computer systems and associated infrastructure.

3.1 Data growth driven by trends in devices, networks and data centres

Technological advances are enabling the consumption of increasing amounts of data. These advances include growing numbers of more powerful and compact end-user devices; increasing network speeds and capacity; and the increasing storage and processing capacity in data centres. Trends like these are facilitating a rapid rise in global data traffic – a fourfold increase in IP traffic over the past five years (Cisco 2013a) – and caused the amount of data centre traffic to surpass one zettabyte14. Data growth is projected to increase threefold over the next five years (Figure 3.1); by 2017, for example, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross the global Internet every three minutes, according to Cisco (2013b).

End-user devices: Growing numbers of end-user devices including tablets, smartphones and laptops are fuelling this data growth. Globally, networked devices grew in number by two billion during 2012 to reach a total of 12 billion. Australians have among the highest levels of devices per household (3.9 networked devices per capita in 2012, 10 million more such devices in total than in 2011 [Cisco 2013b]). Rapid growth in numbers of end-user devices is expected to continue. Increasingly smart and powerful end-user devices are also contributing to data growth.

Networks: At the same time, the telecommunications networks that connect these devices are servicing more traffic and enhancing their capacity to support further increases in traffic.

Global mobile data traffic grew 70% in 2012 (Cisco 2013b). Mobile traffic is expected to increase up to 89-fold from 2010-2020 (GreenTouch 2013). A key driving factor is an explosion in the use of mobile phones, with the number of mobile subscriptions forecasted to double by 2020 (from 6 billion in 2011; GeSI 2012).

At the same time, individual users of devices like smartphones and tablets are expected to use more streaming video, music and other data-intensive services and applications, further driving up traffic volume and necessitating network capacity upgrades (GeSI 2012).

Global Internet traffic on fixed (wired) telecommunications networks grew 30% in 2012 (Cisco 2013b). In the future, fixed telecommunications networks are also expected to face an increase in the amount of data they carry (GeSI 2012). This will be enabled by further increases in network speed: globally, average broadband speeds rose by 30% from 2011 to 201215. Estimates released by Cisco in May 2013 indicate Australia’s broadband speeds could increase more than eightfold from 2012 to 2017 (from 8.8 to 75 megabits per second [Mbps]; Cisco 2013b).

figure 3.1Global consumer Internet traffic, 2012-2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 23%.

14 Equal to 1021 bytes or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.15 From 7.0 Mbps to 9.1 Mbps.

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Internet Video Managed IP Video File Sharing Web/Data

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Data centres: The appetite of consumers and companies to store vast amounts of data and have it instantly available on request has led to a huge increase in the number of data centres (GeSI 2008).

The significant growth in demand for data storage and processing is expected to continue (GeSI 2012). By 2017, data centre IP traffic is expected to nearly triple over 2012 levels (Cisco 2013c). Global cloud IP traffic will increase faster still, more than four-fold over the next five years, and will account for nearly two-thirds of all data centre traffic by 2017 (Cisco 2013c). The cloud (see Sections 3.3.4 and 7.1) allows for still faster delivery of services and data (Cisco 2012c), further fuelling the data explosion.

These trends in end-user devices, network and data centres – especially in their ability to fuel rapid growth in data generation and transmission – are important because they drive fundamental changes to ICT-related energy use and emissions (Section 4).

3.2 Energy efficiency trends in ICT

While ICT devices are experiencing an exponential increase in both data storage and processing capacity, they are consuming less power to accomplish the same work. Incremental improvements in ICT energy efficiencies have been encouraged by the adoption of technology standards or targets. For example, the European Commission requires the ‘On’ state energy use of numerous devices to halve or better from 2007 to 2014 (EC 2008a; Appendix C).

Fundamental ICT energy-efficiency improvements are often industry-led through step changes in technology. For example, replacing a physical answering machine with a virtual solution in 31 million homes (20% of EU-15 households) has been estimated to reduce CO2 emissions equivalent to one million tonnes (WWF 2012).

Although the number of mobile devices is forecast to triple by 2020, increased energy efficiency of individual devices is expected to help restrain their overall growth in electricity consumption (Ericsson 2013a).

Network and data centre equipment (both aspects of ICT rely on some similar equipment) is also becoming more energy efficient. For example, over a five-year period (2004–09) Cisco routing equipment used by Internet Service Providers increased data throughput up to eight-fold for the same amount of energy use (Appendix C).

Future energy efficiency improvements to wireless networks are expected through upgrades to network infrastructure and equipment, and increased efficiency of base station power amplifiers and antennas (e.g., see Ericsson 2013a). Greener sources of energy for cell tower and base stations could also reduce emissions.

Data centre trends expected to help increase data centre efficiency include the virtualisation of servers as well as server and cooling energy efficiency improvements (GeSI 2012; Ericsson 2013a).

Many global initiatives are underway to drive further efficiency improvements in the ICT sector, including ‘green’ networking initiatives by GreenTouch, the Green Grid

and GeSI. For example, GreenTouch has an ambitious mission to deliver by 2015, ‘the architecture, specifications and roadmap to increase network energy efficiency by a factor of 1000 from current [2010] levels’ (GreenTouch 2012).

3.3 Useful trends in ICT application

This section discusses additional ICT trends with the potential to impact carbon emissions (see also Section 7).

ICT trends with potential to reduce costs and emissions are numerous and diverse. Though many are beyond the scope of this report, some of these will be important in the delivery of a low-carbon economy. Such underlying trends include the rapid growth of the ‘Internet of Things’ (connecting any device, from appliances to vehicles, that can benefit from an Internet connection); and the rapid increase in machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, which in turn enables the Internet of Things (Ericsson 2013a; Cisco 2012f; AT&T 2013). These trends may yield substantial future emission abatement opportunities beyond those proposed in this report.

3.3.1 Distributed intelligence and centralised control

Distributed intelligence refers to the existence of decision-making capacity at any point in a network (for example, a wireless local area network [LAN] or the Internet). It can be applied to diverse network applications, ranging from home entertainment to security networks of street cameras. Distributed intelligence can also be combined with centralised network control (whereby one component can control and manage the other component[s] of the network). This enables users to remotely manage aspects of the network in a highly personalised way. For example, a user may choose to use their smartphone ‘apps’ to remotely program their home pay-TV choices.

Distributed intelligence has particular relevance to smart grids (see Sections 3.3.3 and 7.2). Distributed intelligence and centralised network control are powerful tools that can be harnessed to better manage energy production and energy demand, thereby potentially reducing carbon emissions. These trends are central to some opportunities discussed in Section 6.


3.3.2 Smart devices, mobility and device consolidation

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are able to perform increasingly complex tasks that require greater computing power. Today, smartphones have the processing speeds of a laptop computer from around the year 2001, but use a fraction of the electricity. A tablet uses approximately 5% of the annual power of a desktop computer, but performs all but a handful of its functions.16 This step-change in power consumption has been harnessed for the sake of mobility, but has profound implications for the carbon footprint of computing.

The trend towards mobility of computing and connection is driving the evolution of services and experience (Ericsson 2013a). By 2010, the number of Australians with mobile telephones had exceeded those with fixed lines (Roy Morgan 2011). Globally, average smartphone usage grew by 81% during 2012 (Cisco 2013d).

The sophistication and processing power of smart mobile devices, harnessed by affordable, accessible apps is already facilitating a dramatic ‘dematerialisation’ of consumer electronics. Single smart devices are already replacing systems such as MP3, CD and DVD players, sound systems, calculators, games consoles, telephones, cameras, radios, alarm clocks and even televisions.

Increasingly, devices like smartphones are playing a role in low-carbon opportunities such as real-time fleet management or even video conferencing (see Section 6). These devices (together with relevant apps) put sophisticated functionality at the fingertips of individuals and small businesses, where functionality was formerly available only via expensive software and specialised services. This trend is important because it makes the associated low-carbon opportunities available to a wider group of users.

3.3.3 Smart cities and infrastructure

The term ‘smart cities’ commonly refers to the knowledge infrastructure created by cities to meet objectives for socio-economic development and quality of life. A city may be called ‘smart’ when ‘investments in human and social capital

and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance’ (Caragliu et al. 2009).

Smart cities are inclusive of terms such as ‘digital cities’ or ‘connected cities’. In technological terms, smart cities typically incorporate a range of technologies and capabilities: fibre optic cables, smart grids, smart meters, fast Internet speeds, and interconnected facilities and infrastructure for water supply, power, waste and transport.

Smart cities have direct relevance to the low-carbon economy.

Smart grids are a key component of smart cities. Smart grids are modernised electricity grids that efficiently manage electricity supply and demand. They combine advanced communication, sensing and metering infrastructure with existing energy networks. According to the CSIRO, a ‘smart grid’ can identify and resolve faults on the electricity grid, automatically self-heal, manage voltage and identify infrastructure that requires maintenance. Smart grids can also help consumers manage their individual electricity consumption and enable the use of energy efficient ‘smart appliances’ that can be programmed to run on off-peak power’ (CSIRO 2012b).

Smart cities facilitate sophisticated monitoring, usage and storage of energy, to integrate renewable energy with greater efficiency (see Section 7 and Appendix A). Renewable energy can be incorporated dynamically into the grids of smart cities, enabling countries to meet renewable energy targets. Residents can monitor and manage their own electricity production and consumption via real-time views of actual usage.

Australia is trialling its own initiatives to explore the possibilities of connected cities, for example the ‘Smart Grid, Smart City’ demonstration project, a partnership between the Australian Government, the energy sector and the CSIRO. Customer trials have been carried out in Newcastle, Newington, Sydney CBD, Ku-ring-gai and Scone (see also Case Study, Appendix A).

3.3.4 The cloud

Another important trend seen as a crucial enabler of ICT-related carbon emission reductions is the extensive growth of the cloud in recent years (see Section 3.1; GeSI 2012; Figure 3.2 and 3.3). This trend is being driven by a plethora of consumer services that rely on data centre storage and computing, as well as business needs for more flexible, efficient (and cost-effective) tools used to improve performance and productivity. As another major driver of the evolution in ICT services and experiences (Ericsson 2013a), the cloud is now seen as ‘business as usual’ in Australia (IDC 2013).

The cloud is a collection of globally-distributed data centres that provide both hardware and software computing resources over the Internet (or another network) for remote online processing, storage and multi-device access (see Figure 3.2). In this way, users entrust remote services to store data and software and provide computation. Whereas the ‘private cloud’ pools and shares resources within the same organisation, the ‘public cloud’ delivers resources to different corporations or users on a pay-for-use basis through specialist providers.

The cloud is growing largely because data centres can provide flexible, scalable, fast and efficient services, and support the needs of an increasing number of users with multiple devices who expect to access applications and content anytime, anywhere, over any network (Cisco 2012c). Thus the cloud is an enabler of the mobility trend already discussed (see Section 3.3.2).

16 EPRI (Electrical Power Research Institute): Desktops use 245.5 kilowatt-hours per year (kWh/yr), Laptops 72.3 kWh/yr and iPads 7.1-11.2 kWh/yr (depending on the version 1-2-3).


Adapted from: Cisco 2013c

Installed workloads in millions

63%

39%

37%

61%

51%49%

Separate from these enabling functions, the cloud also holds promise for carbon abatement because it has the potential to rationalise large numbers of physical servers from multiple sites into fewer, larger cloud data centres designed to be as efficient as possible. This consolidation would minimise the number of sites and physical servers, and decrease the volume of cooling systems required. Using each server to its maximum potential could consolidate energy consumption. For example, Google identifies a potential saving of 68–87% in total required energy for its app users who migrate to cloud computing (Google 2012); and GeSI (2013) finds cloud computing to be 95% more efficient, with customers abating 20 tonnes of greenhouse gas for every tonne emitted by a vendor.

In this way, centrally managed pools of data storage and computing offer greater financial savings by rationalising energy use, equipment and physical space, to achieve potentially huge economies of scale that provide more efficient use of resources. Businesses that use the cloud can also spend less time managing their own IT systems and more time focussed on their own business objectives (CDP 2011). Other benefits for business include remote access, reduced capital costs, rapid scalability of applications and services, less need for users to travel to specific locations to access software or data, and improved resilience during disaster relief (provided the external servers are not also located in a disaster-stricken zone, such as New York during Hurricane Sandy).

Especially where big business is concerned, potentially high savings in terms of cost and carbon emissions are possible through energy use reduction. A CDP study found that ‘annual net financial benefits associated with the energy saving from cloud computing are forecast to reach $12.3 billion by 2020 for the 2,653 global firms with annual revenues in the US above $1 billion’ (CDP 2011). Cloud services are also critical internal drivers for small business efficiency and innovation in Australia (DBCDE 2013).

However, when it comes to carbon abatement, the level of utilisation per server is critical, since lower utilisation levels translate into lower energy savings. Consolidation of servers will be a key determinant of cloud energy efficiency gains (Baliga et al. 2010; Ericsson 2013a).

Furthermore, given the expected growth in the cloud (see Section 3.1; Figure 3.3), there appears to be a limit to the extent that these and other energy efficiency gains could constrain carbon emissions stemming from increasing cloud power use. The growing energy consumption by wireless network technologies used to access the cloud has also been highlighted recently (CEET 2013). Nevertheless, increased use of the cloud – and therefore its energy consumption – is required to provide many of the ICT-enabled low-carbon solutions detailed in this report.

Ultimately, if the cloud’s carbon footprint is to be reduced, data centre power use will need to be shifted from fossil fuel-based electricity sources to lower carbon sources. On a positive note, the cloud’s potential to consolidate computing resources into large data centres provides data centre operators with the opportunity to locate near to, and purchase energy from, renewable resources (see Section 7). Australia is one of only a handful of locations in the world with an abundant renewable energy resource that may be well suited for ‘Clean Cloud’.

Thus the cloud has potential to both enable other ICT measures to reduce emissions, while providing emissions reductions of its own, relative to non-cloud data centre use. Section 7 further examines the cloud’s potential for carbon abatement, in particular through synergies with renewable energy sources.

3.4 Summary

Growth of data, network traffic and end-user devices are putting upward pressure on energy use and emissions (Section 4). At the same time, trends that increase the efficiency of end-user devices, networks and data centres are helping to keep power consumption (and carbon emissions) in check. Other key trends with the potential to facilitate carbon emission reductions are: distributed intelligence and centralised control; smart devices, mobility and device consolidation; smart cities and infrastructure; and the cloud. The latter two trends are discussed further in Section 7 in the context of new opportunities for ICT-enabled emissions abatement.

17 ‘[The] amount of processing a server undertakes to run an application and support a number of users interacting with the application’ (Cisco 2012c).

figure 3.2Schematic overview of cloud computing.

figure 3.3Past and projected workload17 distribution comparing cloud and traditional data centres, compound annual growth rate of 18%.

Image source: iStock

The cloud is seen as a key enabler of ICT solutions for carbon abatement. A number of ICT applications considered in this report use cloud-based storage and computing: fleet management, smart housing, teleconferencing, and technologies that incorporate real-time feeds such as smart handheld devices.

2012

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Traditional Data Centre Cloud Data Centre


04: the carbon footprint of ict

Globally the energy and carbon footprint of ICT is expected to increase.

As noted in Section 3, there has been substantial growth in ICT end-user devices, network traffic and data centres. At the same time, there have been significant improvements in ICT energy efficiency. This section provides a more detailed understanding of the ICT sector’s own emissions profile. These insights are critical in order to quantify the sector’s capacity to contribute to economy-wide reductions in carbon emissions.

4.1 The global and national ICT footprint

Globally, ICT already consumes about 7% of the world’s electricity (Vereecken et al. 2010). It is estimated that the energy demands of the global Internet alone could increase to 10% of total energy use by 2020 (O’Halloran 2012). According to GeSI (2012), the ICT sector was responsible for 1.9% of global carbon emissions in 2011, and this footprint is expected to rise to 2.3% by 2020 (Ericsson [2013a] provide a lower range of estimates, finding that ICT’s carbon footprint rises from 1.3% of global carbon emissions in 2007, to 1.9% in 2020.)

The rate of growth in global ICT emissions is expected to slow somewhat over the 2011–2020 period to 3.8% p.a. (from 6.1% over the 2002–2011 period; Figure 4.1).

The main shift underlying this slower growth rate is an expected decrease in the growth rate of emissions from end-user devices (Figure 4.1; GeSI 2012; Ericsson 2013a), discussed in more detail in Section 4.2.

Australia’s ICT sector directly consumed more than 7% of total electricity in 2009 (13.2 million kWh), and was responsible for 2.7% of national carbon emissions (14.4 MtCO2-e; ACS 2010). ICT emissions will constitute 4% of national emissions by 2020 (ACS 2010). Thus the ICT sector produces a significant and growing share of Australia’s emissions (ACS 2010)18. For example, the electricity used by Telstra’s operations contributed 0.28%19 (1.6 MtCO2-e) of Australia’s carbon emissions in the year ending June 2013, up from 0.21% in 2005/06 (Telstra 2013a; 2006).

figure 4.1Global carbon emissions for data centres, voice and data networks and end-user devices for 2002 and 2011, as well as projections for 2020.

18 For comparison purposes, in the United Kingdom and United States, ICT emissions made up 4% and 3%, respectively, of the national totals in 2011. By 2020, ICT will generate 5% of national emissions in the UK, and 3.4% in the USA (GeSI 2012).

19 This percentage is computed using the Australian GHG emissions total reported under Kyoto Protocol accounting, which incorporates LULUCF-related emissions.

Adapted from: GeSI 2012

% global GHG

emissions

2.3%

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1.3%

+6.1%

2020

2011

2002 0.53 Gt

0.91 Gt

1.27 Gt

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

+3.8%

Compound annual growth rate 2002-2011

Compound annual growth rate 2011-2020

8.6%

4.7%

6.1%

7.1%

4.6%

2.3%

Data centres

Voice and data networks

End-user devices


4.2 Rising ICT power consumption and carbon emissions

Energy use is the primary source of carbon emissions generated by the ICT sector. Increasing demand and consumption of data is driving up the energy use of the devices, networks and data centres that process and deliver the data to the end user, despite the energy efficiency improvements described in Section 3, which serve to restrain ICT energy use somewhat (see Figure 4.1).

End-user devices account for about 59% of global ICT carbon emissions (GeSI 2012). The bulk of emissions from devices are due to the carbon footprint of personal computers (60%). However, growth in the share of relatively low-emission smartphones and tablets is rapid, and these devices will make up an increasing proportion of the end-user device footprint (Ericsson 2013a).

figure 4.2The growth of power consumption of the Internet out to 2020.

Tota

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Adapted from: Hinton 2012

2010 2015

2020 2025Global electricity supply

Projected Internet power consumption

Projected Internet power consumption at the current improvement rate

Note: Internet power consumption excludes data centres

3% pa growth

0% pa efficiency gains

15% pa efficiency gains

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The growth in carbon emissions of end-user devices is expected to slow from 6.1% (2002–2011) to 2.3% (2011–2020), due largely to the complete phased replacement of cathode ray tube monitors with liquid crystal display monitors, and laptops capturing a larger share of the PC market (GeSI 2012). Tablets and mobile phones may become capable enough in future to replace the role of the home PC (Ericsson 2013a).

These trends will contribute to a decrease in the overall share of emissions contributed by end-user devices, from 59% to 50% by 2020 (GeSI 2012). Thus, their somewhat slowed emissions growth rate notwithstanding, end-user devices are projected to remain a significant component of the ICT carbon emissions footprint.

In contrast to end-user devices, the higher growth rate of carbon emissions for networks and data centres will increase the carbon footprint of these sectors in both absolute terms and as a percentage of the global ICT carbon footprint. These trends emphasise that it will be increasingly important for integrated telecommunications companies, as designers and operators of networks and data centres, to manage and minimise their energy and emissions footprint.

Telecommunications networks are responsible for about one fifth of the global ICT footprint. Despite energy efficiency improvements within networks (see Section 3), massive increases in the volume of data traffic are expected to outweigh these efficiency increases and drive up network emissions. Thus emissions growth for networks will continue at about 5% from 2011–2020, the same rate as the prior decade (2002–2011; GeSI 2012).

Compared to end-user devices and networks, data centres produce less total emissions (about 17% of total ICT emissions), but their emissions growth rate is higher (8.6% from 2002–2011).

This growth is expected to slow only slightly (to 7.1%) to 2020 (Figure 4.1; GeSI 2012). Data centres are major electricity consumers, and in 2010 used about 1.3% of global electricity. Data centre electricity consumption grew 100% from 2000 to 2005. However, this growth has significantly slowed since 2005, with data centre electricity use increasing by 56% in the subsequent five years (Koomey 2011).

This rise in data centre energy use and carbon emissions is expected to continue despite the anticipated increases in efficiency mentioned in Section 3 (virtualisation of servers, efficiency improvements for server technology; also improved cooling technology).

Looking specifically at the Internet, its global electricity consumption could grow from 2% to well over 10% by 2025 (Figure 4.2; Hinton 2012). Most energy consumption related to Internet use stems from the access network, the part of a telecommunications network that connects subscribers to their Internet service providers. Network equipment and routers are the devices related to Internet use that are the major contributors to Internet power consumption (Hinton 2012). Access technologies are expected to continue to consume a major share of Internet-related energy use in the short to medium term (Baliga et al. 2011).

4.3 The challenge ahead

These statistics highlight the importance of continued efforts to do more with less energy to minimise ICT carbon emissions. In order for the ICT sector to reduce its own emissions, energy efficiency must be a central consideration in the design and operation of end-user devices, networks and data centres. For example, a recent theoretical study found that optical access networks are the most energy efficient of available network technologies and are forecast to remain so out to 2020 (Baliga et al. 2011).

Australian research and government initiatives are now addressing the need to reduce ICT emissions. For example, a new ICT energy rating system is proposed to assess, report and benchmark the sustainability of telecommunications products and services in Australia (Chan et al. 2012), and there are global efforts with similar goals (see ICT Footprint, www.ict-footprint.com). Demonstrating leadership in this space, the Australian Government has made commitments to improve the energy and carbon performance of its own ICT operations through the ICT Sustainability Plan 2010–2015, which includes energy consumption and efficiency targets for its operations and agencies (DSEWPC 2012).

4.4 Summary

The significant and growing energy use of the ICT sector underscores the importance of ICT efficiency gains to help address the 1.9% of global emissions currently produced by this sector. However, as the next section shows, considerable research also highlights the potential for ICT to assist in reducing the remaining 98% of global emissions.


05: ict as the backbone of the low-carbon economy

A number of recent studies identify the potential for ICT to enable energy and carbon savings across the wider economy.

The importance of addressing the ICT sector’s own emissions notwithstanding, ICT could facilitate significant emission reductions in other sectors of the Australian economy. This section reviews the mounting evidence to suggest ICT could be the backbone of a national and global low-carbon economy.

5.1 ICT potential to leverage future economy-wide carbon abatement

Since the 2007 Report indicated potential national reductions equivalent to almost 5% of Australia’s total emissions, a raft of more recent studies continue to emphasise ICT’s potential to enable carbon emission reductions in the wider economy. A key finding of the SMART 2020 study was that ICT has the potential to enable a 15% reduction in total global BAU carbon emissions (GeSI 2008). A recent update of this report, the SMARTer2020 study found this opportunity to be even larger than previously thought: a 16.5% global carbon emission reduction by 2020, and $USD1.9 trillion in gross energy and fuel savings (GeSI 2012). This study also identified that ICT could leverage a seven-fold reduction in emissions, compared to its own projected carbon footprint (at 2020).

The International Data Corporation (IDC) found that ICT could reduce emissions by more than 25% annually by 2020 compared with 2006 levels (IDC 2009). A study by WWF identified the potential for one billion tonnes (equivalent to more than one quarter of the EU’s total CO2-e emissions) of strategic CO2-e reductions using ten ICT applications of smart buildings and smart energy systems and components (WWF 2008). According to

research by the European Commission, the ICT sector could deliver savings of more than seven times its energy and three times its own emissions footprint (EC 2008c). More recently, Ericsson (2013a) found a multiplier of between 20 and about 200 (ICT emissions produced versus emissions avoided) for applications ranging from health care informatics delivered over the Internet (Sweden) to virtual presence (Sweden & global).

Although the methods, scope and results of these studies vary, they are unanimous in their view that ICT could enable emissions reductions that far outstrip the footprint of its own production, use and disposal.

In recognition of the role that ICT can play in enabling emissions reductions, the United Nations has established the ICTs for Sustainable Energy Partnership that ‘will focus on realising the information and communication technology industry’s role in achieving the goals’ of the UN’s Sustainable Energy For All initiative. The program’s targets include the ‘15% by 2020’ emissions savings noted by the SMART 2020 report (GeSI 2008).

5.2 Evidence for past ICT-enabled emissions reductions

The studies discussed in Section 5.1 suggest ICT could leverage future emissions reductions that far outstrip its own carbon footprint. This section attempts to answer the question: ‘What evidence demonstrates that ICT has already enabled emissions reductions in other sectors?’

A quantitative study by the European Commission found that applications of communication devices in the chemicals, metals, and transport industry sectors facilitate increased electricity efficiency. However, the same study also noted

that computers and software tended to increase the energy intensity20 of production in these industries (EC 2008b).

Another strand of work has focused on the potential for ICT to ‘decarbonise’ the economy (see Section 2). In the pre-Internet era in the USA (1992–1996), GDP growth of 3.2% closely matched growth in energy use of 2.4%. However, in the Internet era (1996–2000), GDP growth of 4% had partially uncoupled from growth in energy use of 1% over the same time period (Romm 2002). This apparent anomaly in the USA’s energy statistics was attributed, in part at least, to the growth of the Internet and ICT. First, the ICT sector is less energy intensive than traditional manufacturing industries; it follows that as ICT constitutes an increasing share of the global economy, energy use is reduced relative to non-ICT sectors. Second (see also Section 3.3.2), the Internet appears to drive energy efficiency increases across the wider economy, efficiencies that exceed its own increase in energy demand over time (EC 2008b).

20 Limited (and more costly) energy resources and limits on carbon emissions increase pressure on business to reduce the energy intensity of goods and services.


The decoupling trend for energy and GDP growth appears to have continued. Since 2000, the global (and Australian) economy has, on average, used less energy and produced fewer carbon emissions per dollar of GDP (see Figure 5.1; PWC 2012).

As some ICT trends (see Section 3) suggest, a driver of this decoupling could be due to ‘dematerialisation’, or substitution of high-carbon physical products and activities with low-carbon virtual ones enabled by ICT (GeSI 2008; Ericsson 2013a). Travel is replaced by teleworking; DVDs by online movies; paper magazines by digital ones. The trend of multiple devices (telephone, music player, camera) replaced by a single device (smartphone) is another facet of this dematerialisation.

A recent study demonstrated this ICT-enabled dematerialisation by showing that when two large organisations used virtual meetings to substitute for physical ones, they avoided transport emissions several times greater than the emissions generated by using virtual meeting technology (Houston & Reay 2011).

More proof of ICT-enabled dematerialisation comes from comparisons of digital and traditional delivery of music to customers. Moving from buying and using a physical CD to downloading a digital version of the same songs from the Internet can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40–60% (Weber et al. 2010).

Semiconductors, a fundamental underpinning technology of ICT, have achieved major energy reductions over time. Compared to technologies available in 1976, in 2006 alone semiconductor technologies generated U.S. electricity savings equivalent to about one-fifth of national annual power consumption (Laitner 2009)21. By 2030, semiconductors could reduce U.S. electricity use by more than a quarter of total projected national electricity consumption (Laitner 2010).

Notwithstanding the studies noted, there is still limited data to quantitatively demonstrate what ICT has leveraged in emissions reductions across the wider economy. In Green IT benchmark reports, Fujitsu (2012) gave low ratings to progress on ‘enablement’, defined as ‘the use of IT to improve performance and reduce the carbon footprint outside of the IT function, an indication of the inward focus of many Green IT initiatives.’ Developing monitoring and verification systems will be important to capture the scale, and therefore the carbon value, of ICT-led abatement.

Nevertheless, evidence suggests that integrating more ICT in industrial economies could sustain current patterns of economic growth but without increasing environmental impact from carbon emissions. This appears to be because (1) compared to most other sectors, ICTs are less intensive in energy and materials use; and (2) ICT can increase energy efficiency in other sectors.

5.2.1 Barriers to understanding ICT’s contribution to the low-carbon economy

The limited availability of quantitative data discussed in Section 5.2 has been attributed to inconsistent methodologies across studies, limited collection of relevant official statistics and a lack of shared research across nations and institutions. It remains a significant challenge to attribute the structural, behavioural and macroeconomic effects of any single ICT application (DESC 2010), and capture the myriad influences of ICT applications on carbon emissions, especially over the longer term (Erdmann & Hilty 2010).

However, efforts are being made to fill this major gap in quantitative information on ICT’s contribution to the low-carbon economy. As a first step, the ICT sector is developing globally recognised, best-practice methodology and guidance on how to quantify the emissions footprint of ICT and the emissions reductions enabled by ICT. Telstra, along with organisations including the World Resources Institute, Carbon Trust and GeSI, is a member of the working group developing the Greenhouse Gas Protocol ICT Sector Guidance (GHGP 2012).

Another Australian initiative is the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications study on how the National Broadband Network will impact the national economy’s energy consumption and carbon footprint (Hinton 2012).

5.3 Summary

In summary, a number of recent studies suggest that ICT could, in future, leverage significant savings in energy and carbon emissions across the wider economy, reductions that far outstrip ICT’s own carbon footprint. However, limited evidence is available to quantitatively demonstrate that ICT has already achieved carbon emission reductions, partly due to the difficulty in assessing ICT impacts on other sectors. Section 6 provides another contribution to the available global research in quantifying the carbon emission savings since 2007, and estimates potential future savings as a direct consequence of adopting the seven low-carbon ICT opportunities identified by Climate Risk in 2007.

figure 5.1Past decoupling and the future projected rate required to stay within two degrees of global temperature increase.

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Adapted from: PwC 2012

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21 This refers to savings not only within the ICT sector, but also the residential, commercial and industrial settings. Outside the ICT sector, semiconductors achieve carbon abatement through improved operation of motors and the motor systems that heat and cool buildings, and provide pumping and mechanical power to industrial facilities.

Pathway to a low carbon economy (actual for 2000-2011)

Progress 2000-2011: the global rate of decarbonisation averaged 0.8%.1

Challenge to 2050: Global carbon intensity now needs to fall by 5.1% on average from now to 2050.2

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06: seven ict-based carbon reduction opportunities

The seven opportunities identified in 2007 have the potential to save even more money and carbon in 2014.

6.1 Rationale for selection of opportunities

The seven opportunities analysed in this report are the same as those identified in the 2007 Report. The opportunities selected were considered to be the ICT solutions that could provide major contributions toward minimising the energy and emissions footprint associated with meeting basic human needs: light, heat, cooling, transport and communication. These needs overlap with emissions sources and applications of ICT in three areas: the home, the workplace, and the transport of people, goods and services.

Homes and workplaces are significant users of stationary energy. Stationary energy carbon emissions have continued to grow, and transport emissions are growing even more rapidly (see Section 2). Consequently, solutions to address these emissions are even more relevant today than in 2007.

In addition to these criteria, three further selection criteria were used to identify opportunities for analysis and adoption in 2007:

1. The opportunity must be economically viable and practical to implement;

2. Each opportunity must reduce Australia’s total net emissions by at least 1.0 MtCO2-e; and

3. ICT must facilitate the deployment and adoption of the opportunity.

The uptake of some opportunities since 2007 is a testament to the importance and relevance of the above selection criteria.

The identification of the viability of low-carbon opportunities in this report does not extend to a detailed business strategy or roadmap for their commercial realisation by businesses or government. However, current industry opinion (Telstra 2013b) is that all

of the current technologies that underpin the seven opportunities presented in this report are possible under the range of extant broadband policies being implemented or proposed in Australia.

The high-level findings are summarised in Section 6.2. Appendix A provides a more comprehensive analysis of each opportunity’s potential and current (estimated) level of carbon abatement. It also lists the assumptions and data sources for these calculations.

6.2 Overview of opportunities

This report recontextualises and recalculates the potential emissions and energy savings of the seven ICT opportunities identified in the 2007 Report22. Summary findings are presented below.

22 A ‘rebound effect’, known as the Jevons Paradox, can mean that savings created through improved efficiency are spent on more consumption – with no net benefit. However, this concept has limited relevance to the opportunities proposed here, because in the context of a low-carbon economy, there is the tendency to increase the cost of high-emission consumption and promote spending on lower-emissions commodities than would otherwise be the case.

23 This opportunity was termed ‘presence-based power management’ in 2007. The new term used here reflects technological advances since 2007.24 Telework typically entails full-time or part-time workers who are remote from a central business location, connecting with employers or clients (ATAC 2006).25 An additional 1.4 MtCO2-e of international aviation emissions would also be avoided. However, this amount is excluded from this report’s totals because international aviation emissions

are currently outside the scope of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

Remote appliance power management: Remote power management of appliances specifically to reduce stand-by power use. Avoids 2.1 MtCO2-e p.a., delivering energy savings of $565 million p.a.

Context-aware power management23:Minimising the energy use of devices, such as computers or air-conditioners, that are on but not in use. Avoids 3.0 MtCO2-e p.a., delivering energy savings of $819 million p.a.

Decentralised working: Increasing the frequency of teleworking24 and use of decentralised offices by enabling an equivalent quality of productivity using ICT. Avoids 2.8 MtCO2-e p.a., delivering fuel savings of $1.7 billion p.a.

Personalised public transport:Use of an integrated, on-demand network of public transport modes and/or real-time user access to information on transit vehicle movements. Avoids 2.5 MtCO2-e p.a., delivering savings of $1.6 billion p.a.

Real-time fleet management: Monitoring vehicles, cargo and driving habits to improve the efficiency of road freight transportation. Avoids 4.8 MtCO2-e p.a., delivering savings of $2.2 billion p.a.

Increased renewable energy: Ensuring more renewable energy can be produced by matching demand with well-forecasted generation of intermittent renewables. Avoids 11.3 MtCO2-e p.a., delivering revenue of $762 million p.a.

High definition video conferencing: Avoiding travel yet still achieving high quality face-to-face communication through video conferencing. Avoids 0.96 MtCO2-e p.a. of domestic aviation emissions25 delivering savings of $1.2 billion p.a.

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6.2.1 Potential financial and emissions benefits

Since 2007, carbon emissions have increased in the sectors relevant to most of the seven opportunities. Consequently, the carbon reduction potential of these seven ICT-enabled opportunities has increased by 8.5% from 2007 to 2014, specifically 25.3 MtCO2-e p.a. in the first report versus 27.5 MtCO2-e p.a. in this report (see Figure 6.1). Overall, these opportunities provide the potential to abate 4.7% of Australia’s current total annual carbon emissions26.

Figure 6.2 illustrates that the opportunities identified in this report could provide approximately one fifth of the bipartisan 5% carbon emission reduction target for 2020.

Separate calculations on the total avoided electricity, fuel and aviation travel costs indicate that the associated low-carbon opportunities have a potential dollar value of $8.1 billion p.a. in 2014, 47% higher than 2007 after adjusting for inflation. 27

In addition to cost savings, ICT systems have the ability to increase both the amount of renewable energy that can be used on the grid as well as its value. The former is achieved through real-time load balancing to avoid excess renewable energy destabilising the grid; the latter through maximising renewable energy’s contribution to periods of peak demand (Opportunity 6; Increased Renewable Energy). Additional ICT-enabled revenue from renewable energy generation is estimated to be worth $762 million per year.

Regarding the value of carbon savings, the carbon price given in this report is $9 per tCO2-e. This is based on the current international market trading price of carbon (Washington Post 2013), and on the Australian Government’s ‘Direct Action’ policy.28

The total dollar value of potential carbon savings for the seven opportunities is slightly higher in 2014, $247 million versus $226 million in 2007 (based on the $9/tonne carbon price).

This brings the total potential value of the seven opportunities – from cost and carbon price savings, as well as increased renewable energy revenue – to $9.1 billion. This estimate is about 42% higher than 2007 levels of $6.5 billion p.a.

The higher potential cost savings are primarily due to a combination of two factors: increased energy consumption in the sectors of the economy relevant to each opportunity, and rising energy prices.

The value of just the seven ICT-enabled opportunities identified in this report – a fraction of ICT’s wider potential – could provide approximately one fifth of the Australian Government’s 5% emissions reduction target (on 2000 levels) for 2020. Figure 6.4 shows the relative contribution from each and the assumed relative share of the Emissions Reduction Fund spending on abatement.

6.2.2 Cost and emissions benefits realised to date

Typically, the rate of technology adoption follows an S-curve, initially growing slowly from a low base, followed by a period of rapid uptake, and then reduced growth rates as markets become saturated.

figure 6.1Aggregated potential reduction of carbon emissions, showing a comparison of opportunities in 2007 and 2014.

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figure 6.2The carbon abatement trajectories for Australian Government 5% by 2020 emission targets relative to the level of Australia’s emissions in 2000 as well as the trajectory for 80% emission cuts by 2050. Dotted dark grey line shows the total level of abatement provided by the opportunities in this report.

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figure 6.3Aggregated values of cost savings and clean energy production for comparison of carbon abatement opportunities in 2007 and 2014.

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26 Note this abatement excludes international aviation emissions that could apply to Opportunity 7: High Definition Video Conferencing.27 Inflation based on nominal 2.5% per year on Consumer Price Index (CPI) from financial years ending 2006 to 2012.28 This policy aims to achieve the 5% emissions reduction target by abating 140 MtCO2-e per year using an Emissions Reduction Fund,

with an average annual spend of $1.2bn per year to 2020 - capped at 3.2bn over the first four years (Hunt, undated).

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Figure 6.5 illustrates the location on the S-curve of the opportunities discussed in this report from a carbon abatement point of view. It shows that while four of the seven low-carbon opportunities have made significant progress, three remain in their very early stages of development.

The seven opportunities combined are estimated to be currently saving around $1.6 billion29 and 2.5 MtCO2-e every year. Evidently tangible benefits of these opportunities are already being realised. However, Figure 6.5 shows the proportion of this achieved abatement relative to their untapped potential, which remains considerable.

Rapid uptake of telework is driving the success of the Decentralised Working opportunity. Despite increasing the original 2007 Report’s target by 200% for this reanalysis, an estimated 35% of this opportunity has already been achieved.

Significant video conferencing uptake means that this low-carbon opportunity has achieved 44% of its potential. Remote Appliance Power Management has achieved somewhat less, 23% of its potential, driven mainly by off-the-shelf products (e.g. smart power boards) ahead of in-built home building automation.

Although Real-Time Fleet Management has yielded significant emission reductions for some of Australia’s larger freight companies, uptake across the wider sector has been weak, or is not yet quantifiable; thus far an estimated 9.9% of this opportunity’s potential is being harnessed. The other three opportunities have not yet achieved 5% of their potential.

Despite early success in many areas, these findings indicate significant opportunity remains for ICT to deliver financial and emissions benefits to business, government and consumers.

figure 6.4Contribution of the seven opportunities to 5% emissions reduction target for 2020 and commensurate value under an Emissions Reduction Fund.

figure 6.5S-curve showing the extent to which each opportunity has harnessed its emission abatement potential in Australia.

29 Excluding the value of carbon according to the carbon price.


Remote Appliance Power Management 1.5% Context-aware Power Management 2% Decentralised Working 2% Personalised Public Transport 2% Real-time Fleet Management 3% High Definition Video Conferencing 1% Increased Renewable Energy 8% Other 80%

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6.3 How to realise the seven low-carbon opportunities

This section reviews the barriers and practical issues influencing uptake of the seven low-carbon opportunities. The discussion of each opportunity in Appendix A provides a more detailed review of these issues.

6.3.1 General barriers to ICT uptake

Telstra’s Productivity Indicator (TPI) Research30 (Telstra 2012a) identifies a number of barriers to the adoption of ICT by private and government organisations. The findings provide insight as to why the uptake of ICT-based low-carbon opportunities has not progressed further (Figure 6.6).

6.3.2 Practical issues affecting uptake of low-carbon ICT opportunities

Technological developments are making it more practical and therefore feasible to implement the low-carbon ICT opportunities identified in this report.

Video conferencing (estimated at 44% of uptake) and teleworking (35% of uptake) are the most advanced in realising their potential for cost savings and carbon abatement (Figure 6.5).

As the ability of ICT to move large volumes of data, voice and video increases, the quality and effectiveness of video conferencing and teleworking is improving. This trend would be expected to promote increased uptake of these two low-carbon opportunities. For example, the rollout of improved broadband helps overcome network-related barriers to teleworking uptake because the ability to telework hinges on network access, reliability and speed.

At the same time, increasingly popular tablet devices, combined with real-time, multi-point video for virtualised desktops are also driving a major push for video conferencing to become truly multi-modal. This ‘unchains’ the video conference experience from dedicated conference rooms, enabling an acceleration of this technology’s uptake as a way to increase user productivity and collaboration, while at the same time replacing various modes of business-related travel at lower cost.

Uptake of remote appliance and context-aware power management to reduce cost and carbon emissions has, in part, been limited by the extent of equipment incorporating the required capability or connectivity. However, this is changing.

Since 2007, the application, number and type of devices enabled for remote management of appliances have increased, and their sophistication has improved. Computers, tablets and smartphones can now perform these monitoring and control functions, reducing hardware and software costs and widening deployment.

More efficient control over the power use of devices is now possible due to increasingly sophisticated software. These applications now permit devices to distinguish between individual people, and even whether they are awake or asleep.

Although ICT solutions for real-time fleet management are commercially available, implementation of these solutions is focused on meeting OH&S requirements. The use of these solutions to reduce energy and carbon is mainly limited to larger companies in the transport sector. Significant potential exists for smaller fleets to increase uptake and obtain the benefits.

Affordable apps for smartphones now put fleet management applications into the hands of small fleet companies and individual drivers who can use them to increase driver safety, fuel efficiency and reduce transport emissions.

The practicality of matching renewable energy generation with demand has been demonstrated technically, while the required demand management has been demonstrated commercially.

CSIRO pilot trials have demonstrated the technical feasibility of controlling ICT based demand and linking this to renewable energy production (see CSIRO Case Study, Appendix A). The commercial feasibility of demand management has also been demonstrated (see EnerNOC Case Study, Appendix A), although it has not yet been linked to renewable energy production.

Developing personalised public transport requires on-demand access and utilisation of a transport network including taxis, minibuses, buses and trains. However, this has not been the main direction of ICT implementation in this sector thus far; most progress has come in the form of real-time public transport information. Examples in Australia include Melbourne’s tramTRACKER® and the Sydney Bus real-time customer information service, which delivered almost 10 million messages in 2011-2012. Though this type of communication is still one-way, its uptake has been substantial and it provides key confidence to the public transport user, increasing their satisfaction with services, reducing the frustration of waiting, enhancing their capacity to plan, and saving them time.

Non-technical but equally practical issues must also be addressed to ensure the low-carbon opportunities in this report achieve maximum uptake. For example, teleworking hinges on establishing trust-based employee–employer relationships and issues related to monitoring and supervision of employees. Provision of adequate insurance coverage for people working at home, and concerns about cultural resistance may also present barriers to teleworking.

figure 6.6List of barriers in order of importance and percentage of surveyed government and private organisations that indicate these to be ‘large’ barriers to introduction of new ICT.

the provision of operational expense budgets in addition to IT budgets

the cost of capital investment in new information & communication technology

the complexity of managing change

the cultural change required to implement new technology

the time to roll out new ways of doing things

lack of uniform availability of products & services

a lack of broad executive-level support for investment in new ICT solutions

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30 The fourth in a series of Telstra reports on, ‘productivity improvement in Australia’s large enterprises and across a range of government organisations’ (Telstra 2012a). Since 2013, Telstra’s research into productivity has been renamed ‘Clever Growth’ Research.

Adapted from: Telstra 2012a


07: additional emergent low-carbon opportunities

In the process of re-examining the seven opportunities explored in the 2007 Report, three new opportunities have been identified as having commensurate carbon reduction potential. The three new opportunities are: clean cloud, smart cities and infrastructure, and mobile carbon guidance.

7.1 Clean cloud

As discussed in Sections 3 and 4, the ongoing explosion in data consumption is both facilitated by, and fuelling growth in, data centres and their energy use. As a result, emissions from data centres are growing rapidly, a trend projected to continue almost unabated until 2020 (GeSI 2012). Data centres are a critical component of the cloud. The data storage and processing power they provide is essential to deliver many of the emissions reduction opportunities identified in this report.

Three major strategies could be investigated in further detail to help confirm and achieve the full emissions reduction potential of the cloud:

1. Quantify and measure the energy and emissions reduction potential and delivery of the cloud;

2. Reduce the energy consumption of cloud data centres; and

3. Power the cloud using low-carbon energy sources.

The cloud has potential to reduce overall data centre energy intensity (and thereby emissions) by consolidating small and medium-size data centres into more efficient, large data centres – achieving potentially huge economies of scale (Section 3). More efficient energy use is possible, as physical space and numbers of servers and cooling system volumes are rationalised. Maximising utilisation per server will be essential to achieving the cloud’s full emissions reduction potential through data centre consolidation.

As noted earlier in this report, many studies identify ICT’s potential to provide carbon abatement; however, the measurement and quantification of actual benefits and outcomes achieved is lacking. This lack of quantified evidence based on real-life measures also applies to cloud computing. Yet what is not measured is not managed. Therefore efforts to realise the associated low-carbon opportunity must include steps to quantify and measure the cloud’s impact on emissions.

This process must cover the impact of consolidation of servers and routers in centralised, built data centres (as opposed to distributed equipment operated at customer premises). It must also quantify the net emissions reduction of the cloud attributable to its services.

The second point relates to identifying and implementing energy efficiency opportunities in data centre design and operation, from equipment selection and configuration to improving heating, ventilation and air conditioning efficiency. Stanford University finds that most big U.S. data centres31 (as differentiated from those that have made major steps in efficiency and use of low-carbon sources) could slash their GHG emissions by up to 88% by switching to more efficient, yet off-the-shelf equipment, and improving energy management; thereafter most of the remaining emission could be avoided by switching to renewable energy sources (Masanet et al. 2013).

Interestingly, this process also opens up the opportunities afforded by ‘industrial ecology’ approaches (see Section 7.2). These approaches entail interconnecting data centre cooling loads with other heating loads needed elsewhere. For example, water that has become heated as a result of using it to cool a data centre may be used for processes that require hot water in an adjacent factory.

The third strategy is a result of growing pressure to consider the energy sources that power the cloud, for example, the Greenpeace International ‘How Clean is Your cloud?’ report and campaign (Greenpeace 2012). Major players in ICT, including Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and Verne Global, are already responding to this pressure by seeking to power their data centres with renewable energy. This highlights the opportunity to provide zero emission cloud services powered by renewables, which can be referred to as ‘clean cloud’.

Some data centres draw power from solar panels incorporated into their building design. However, to cost-effectively power data centres with renewable energy, it is advantageous for them to be located in proximity to large grid-connected power sources. Whereas some data-centres must be in close proximity to their users to minimise latency, many that are more geographically flexible can be located where electricity is cheap. Low-emissions data centres, however, can be located where energy is both cheap and renewable. The following jurisdictions tap plentiful local sources of low-cost clean energy (Greenpeace 2012):

•Iceland: selected by Verne Global for data centres powered by hydroelectricity and geothermal power (as well as lower cooling demand);

•USA: some data centres are now powered by hydroelectricity (Yahoo), wind energy (Google), and bioenergy (Microsoft); and

•Sweden: Facebook’s data centre is powered by hydroelectricity and wind.

31 Based on a representative US enterprise-class facility, with 20,000 volume servers, 40,000 external hard disk drives, 2,060 network switches and a US average power utilization effectiveness of 1.8’, and average U.S. electricity mix.


Australia has a major opportunity to join Iceland and Sweden, and eclipse the USA as a provider of international clean cloud hosting. Especially for an economically-developed country, Australia has a large volume of renewable energy resources. Of these resources, many locations have very high energy density by international standards (implying lower generation costs; 3Tier 2010).

Clean cloud has the potential to share the benefits of ICT-driven economic growth around the nation by supporting new or existing renewable generation facilities across the country. These include solar resources throughout the country; wind resources in Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria; and geothermal resources (‘hot rocks’) in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Hosting cloud computing in Australia in this manner would also add value to the Australian renewable energy sector. If clean cloud resources powered by Australian renewable energy were made available for global data management companies, this would effectively allow Australia to ‘export’ renewable energy – but in the form of data rather than electrons.

7.2 Smart cities and infrastructure

Several of the seven opportunities mentioned in Section 6 focus on measures that fit under the banner of smart grids. However, ICT use in smart cities could encompass more than just the energy consumption and production for smart grids. ICT could also enable smart infrastructure that facilitates efficiencies for other utilities, including those responsible for water supply and wastewater.

ICT is a critical component of a smart city because it permits a broad range of data to be collected, analysed and communicated. This permits better-informed and improved decision-making. Sensors can remotely collect a variety of data, such as the status of lighting, air quality, traffic flow, or electricity demand. The prototype smart city of Santander, Spain has been blanketed with 12,000 such sensors in a European trial (Spiegel 2013). The data collected is carried via wireless and fixed networks to a command and control data centre, and onward to

the apps of citizens’ smartphones. This provides real-time information on road closures, bus delays, pollution, and even whether garbage bins are full, which in turn can feed into decisions and actions. Although Santander is an excellent example of the extent to which ICT can be deployed in a smart city, as previously stated, measurements that would quantify the impact of such deployment on emissions are still lacking.

As monitoring and network costs decrease, ICT could play an increased role in utility efficiency and performance. For example, localised feedback on water demand, supply and pressure could provide utilities with much more choice around the timing of when to undertake energy-intensive activities like water pumping. As another example, smart infrastructure could enable early detection of water leaks or losses from pipelines carrying fuels.

Similarly, ICT can be – and is – used in the transport sector, to interactively manage traffic light sequencing, improving traffic flow and coincidentally vehicle efficiency.

Equally, many of the options for energy efficiency considered for business and homes could be applied at the city scale. For example, ICT in smart cities could enable street lighting that detects the presence of people and becomes brighter when they need light, but dims or shuts off when people are absent, saving energy (and emissions).

The growth in electric vehicle fleets also creates new opportunities for ICT to manage and enhance energy supply and demand. Electric car batteries can be controlled to draw power from the grid during periods of low demand or high renewable energy production, storing it, and returning it to the grid during periods

of high demand. Electric cars can also reduce transport emissions, further maximising the environmental outcome.

Another growing area of interest, also related to efficient use of resources, seeks to apply industrial ecology techniques to match non-traditional supply and demand. In these situations the waste products of one process become the inputs or resources for another. Relevant applications include heating and cooling, and commodities such as wastewater or industrial waste materials. ICT has the potential to play an enabling role in the dispatch and allocation of these waste/resource streams. This could take place across both the public and private sectors and bring together residential, commercial and industrial supply and demand.

7.3 Mobile carbon guidance

Key ICT trends (see Section 3) include the consolidation and convergence of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, combined with low barriers to entry for a plethora of application software providers. These two trends are creating fertile ground for user-centric, low-carbon decision support. Furthermore, the ability of smart devices to execute decisions on behalf of the user in remote locations, or to use information from remote locations to inform the user, creates a very powerful tool for behavioural change.


This new opportunity has three main types of application: (1) existing decisions that can inform ICT and carbon considerations; (2) decisions that are now made possible by ICT; and (3) M2M-type automated decision making.

Today, most applications for decision support aim to help users answer questions such as, ‘What’s the best route to my destination?’ or ‘Where is the nearest Italian restaurant?’ However, the new mobile carbon guidance opportunity would shift the focus to emissions reductions. An example of the first above-noted application would be, ‘How can I get to my destination, but with the least possible fuel use?’ An example of the second might be a smartphone alert: ‘You have just arrived in a new city, your hot water and air conditioning system is still on at home. Would you like to turn it off?’ An example of the third might be a smartphone app which, recognising that its owner is in a foreign city and that their home is likely to be unoccupied, automatically communicates with their home energy management system to turn off hot water systems and air-conditioners.

These types of decision support can be greatly assisted by existing practices in the logistics sector that are available to everyday workers. New initiatives may include reorganising meetings to consolidate travel, or providing instant access to consumers on the carbon footprint of commodities or utilities.

Another scenario would be the ability to cross-reference a shopping list on a mobile phone or tablet with the carbon footprint of the listed products, empowering consumers to avoid products with an excessive pollution footprint. This could in turn affect the behaviour of product providers, to ensure their goods or services are not on the ‘shame file’ generated by the carbon transparency such applications afford.

Today’s apps provide static consumer information, including bar-code scanning for specific products (e.g., the U.S. GoodGuide™ app for food). However, Pathways to Market by the University of Technology, Sydney, aim to deliver digital information that, ‘could one day have consumers swiping their smartphones

over packaging to discover where a food came from, who processed it and the conditions under which it was transported and stored’ (UTS 2013).

Carbon transparency tools for even a fraction of the world’s 10 billion networked devices could provide quick and easy information for decision-making every day in the work and private lives of millions (or even billions) of people. Cumulatively, their decisions to minimise their carbon footprints could have far-reaching consequences for carbon abatement. These tools, along with other associated support applications, could help ordinary citizens contribute to carbon abatement. This type of decision support is therefore worthy of detailed and prompt consideration.


08: conclusions

ICT can play a critical role in delivering a low-carbon economy by enabling a reduction in energy-related costs and carbon emissions in other sectors of the economy.

By facilitating the reduction of energy costs and emissions, ICT can play a part in tackling climate change, while at the same time assisting business to respond to the need to reduce environmental impacts and maintain profitability. Increasing energy costs and the levels of warming projected by climate scientists indicate that ICT’s potential role in carbon abatement is more important today than ever before.

Significantly, it appears possible for the ICT sector to deliver emission savings that far outstrip its own emissions footprint. Recent studies have found that ICT could enable emission reductions in other sectors ranging from about seven to 200 times its own emissions footprint (GeSI 2012; Ericsson 2013a).

In this report we revisited the carbon-reducing opportunities identified in the 2007 Report, to assess the continued relevance and value of these opportunities in Australia.

The 2007 Report identified the following seven telecommunications-based carbon reduction opportunities:

•Remote appliance power management;

•Context-aware power management;

•Decentralised working;

•Personalised public transport;

•Real-time fleet management;

•Increased renewable energy; and

•High definition video conferencing.

There is some very good news in this reanalysis. The seven opportunities have more relevance and significance in 2014 because they could deliver even greater cost savings and emissions reductions than seven years ago. Today these opportunities are already estimated to provide approximately $1.6bn in cost savings to Australian businesses

and individuals. Four of the seven opportunities already appear to be making serious inroads into emissions abatement.

Going forward these opportunities could create around $8.9bn p.a. in value through avoided energy and aviation travel spending, and increased renewable energy production, approximately 43% more than in 2007. These opportunities could also deliver carbon emission reductions of 27.5 MtCO2-e p.a., an increase of around 8.5% since 2007, and representing a 4.7% reduction in Australia’s total annual carbon emissions.32

This increased potential for cost and emission reductions is mainly due to the increased energy consumption seen in the sectors of the economy relevant to each opportunity, and to rising energy prices. A number of factors have influenced energy prices, such as international supply and demand, and investment in electricity infrastructure.

However, three of the seven ICT opportunities identified in this report are currently estimated to be achieving 5% or less of their total emission reduction potential, indicating that the majority of the overall opportunity to save energy and emissions is yet to be harnessed. Telstra’s Productivity Indicator Research (Telstra 2012a) identified potential barriers to ICT adoption including:

•Cost;

•Complexity of managing change;

•Cultural change required to implement new technology;

•Time to roll out new technology;

•Lack of uniform availability of products and services; and

•Lack of management support for change.

Responding to such barriers will be an important factor in realising the full energy and emission reduction benefits of ICT.

Significantly, advances in technology are improving the practicality and feasibility of implementing the low-carbon ICT opportunities identified in this report. These advances include access to higher Internet speeds, device mobility, and associated access to fast and reliable mobile networks. This in turn will promote further adoption.

While ICT provides opportunities to reduce emissions in other sectors of the economy, continued focus on understanding and minimising the emissions of the ICT industry is critical. The global carbon emissions footprint left by the international ICT industry is projected to increase from 1.9% in 2011 to 2.3% in 2020 (GeSI 2012). Consumer demand for more and more data is a major driving force increasing the energy consumption and therefore the emissions footprint of the ICT sector. This demand is being facilitated and supported by advances in technology such as faster network speeds, increasingly powerful and mobile end-user devices such as smartphones and tablets, and the storage capacity and computing power provided by data centres and cloud services.

In the light of the changes to both the ICT sector and Australia’s national climate change priorities, three important new carbon-reducing opportunities have been identified:

•Clean cloud;

•Smart cities and infrastructure; and

•Mobile carbon guidance.

In the context of rising energy prices and Australia’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, the financial and environmental benefits of the ICT-based opportunities identified in this report will only continue to increase in significance into the future.

32 Note this abatement excludes international aviation emissions that could apply to Opportunity 7: High Definition Video Conferencing.


Appendix A 33

Appendix B 51

Appendix C 53

Glossary 54

References and Sources 55

The project team 62


appendicesa



appendiX a: detailed analysis of the seven ict-enabled low carbon opportunities

Carbon Opportunity 1: remote appliance power management

What is remote appliance power management (RAPM)?

In homes and offices most devices and appliances consume significant power when in ‘stand-by’ mode. Unless physically switched off at the power point, televisions, radios, photocopiers, microwave ovens and most other appliances and devices continue to consume power when not in use. Wasted stand-by energy in Australia is worth about AUD$175 per annum per household1.

Remote appliance power management (RAPM) reduces the power consumption of electronic devices and appliances by remotely monitoring, controlling and reducing the amount of time unnecessarily spent in stand-by mode by turning off the device directly or indirectly via the power supply.

This opportunity considers the simplest means of power management – turning off devices. The next opportunity considers more sophisticated power-management techniques.

Since 2007 there has been a proliferation in the number, type, application and sophistication of devices capable of remote appliance power management. Many computers, tablets and smartphones can perform monitoring and control functions, reducing hardware and software costs and widening deployment. As of December 2012, these devices were found in approximately eight percent of Australian homes (Connection Research 2013). This includes dedicated standby power controllers.

What’s changed in RAPM since 2007?2

Since the 2007 Report, electricity sector emissions peaked, declining after 2009 (reflecting the progressive decarbonisation of Australia’s generation mix over the period (Australian Government 2013b). However, over the same period, residential and commercial electricity demand expanded by 11% and 25%, respectively.

The proportion of residential stand-by power has increased slightly to about 10% (EEE 2013). At the same time, because total electricity consumption by residential premises has also continued to grow, the quantity of electricity wasted by devices on stand-by has increased by approximately 31%. One key driver of this increase is a rise in the average number of appliances per home (EEE 2011a).

This trend of increasing wastage comes despite significant progress to reduce stand-by power consumption, with stand-by power consumption for the average appliance falling from 5.7 Watts to 1.1 Watts over the period 2001 to 2011, according to a major Australian store survey of 700 products (EEE 2011b).

These efficiency measures have yielded decreases in the overall stand-by power consumption of some applications (e.g. in the major appliance and home entertainment categories). However,

overall stand-by power use by computers and peripherals has increased substantially. Increasingly, householders are leaving computers continuously in ‘On’ mode – for reasons that are unclear.

Another key stand-by power trend pertains to network connected or network capable products (designed for fast, effective network function). These are becoming increasingly prevalent and are typically left on (i.e. active; EEE 2011a). Most policy initiatives do not yet cover network stand-by, but given expected continued growth in the number of these devices, standards to improve their efficiency will be increasingly important (Maia Consulting 2012; see also Figure C.1).

Why is RAPM important?

Implementing this opportunity would translate into energy savings of $565 million per year for business and consumers by reducing electricity consumption (by 2,306 GWh p.a.).

1 Based on stand-by wastage of 715 kWh per year per household.2 Note that in 2007, approaches to calculations for emission abatement potential were undertaken based on available information. In 2014, more information and/or more relevant

information is now available in some cases, making more direct and/or more accurate calculations of emission abatement possible. Therefore, improved methodology is used in this report, with recalculation of the 2007 abatement potential using the new method to ensure readers see a comparison based on the same, not different, methods. However, in some cases this means that the abatement calculations for 2007 presented in this report are different from those in the 2007 Report. In these cases the numbers for 2007 presented in this report are considered to be more accurate.


Higher electricity prices today are a major contributor to a more than doubling of the value of these electricity savings since 20073, 4 (Figure A.1).

Because total stand-by power consumption has increased, this opportunity to avoid emissions has also increased (by 32%) since 2007, to 0.35% of national emissions (2.1 MtCO2-e per annum). The increase in total stand-by power usage is also a factor behind the greater value of potential electricity savings.

Because the emissions reductions are larger, the potential carbon value5 of the RAPM measure ($18 million per annum) is also higher.

Note that for this opportunity and context-aware power management (Opportunity 2), the gains made on reducing carbon emissions will be most significant in the short term, the period for which the grid is still dominated by fossil fuel electricity sources. Though the carbon abatement would expectedly diminish over the longer term assuming that the renewable energy share of the grid increases, these gains nevertheless make the low-carbon economy more achievable by reducing overall energy demand.

How could RAPM contribute to Direct Action?

Implementing this opportunity could reduce emissions by 2.1 MtCO2-e, 1.5% of the Australian Government’s 5% (140 MtCO2-e per year) reduction target for 2020. The associated fraction from the proposed Emissions Reduction Fund would be $18 million per year.

How far has RAPM come?

In Australia, the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through RAPM has moved rapidly, driven by devices that can be used in existing homes, with a smaller contribution from fully-automated homes. As a result an estimated 23% of RAPM’s potential has already been realised; it is currently reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 0.5 MtCO2-e per year.

How to realise the RAPM opportunity

RAPM can be realised by incorporating ‘intelligence’ into communications networks. RAPM can also be deployed on a large scale by installing default software that enables remote monitoring and control in devices connected to appliances in residential and commercial dwellings.

RAPM take-up is facilitated through the introduction of subscription-based business models, which help overcome cost barriers (Fierce Telecom 2013).

RAPM can also be facilitated through response to new energy efficiency standards and schemes, like those under the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target and South Australia’s Residential Energy Efficiency Scheme.

These schemes help illuminate some barriers related to these products’ functioning, and to their successful implementation on a wider basis. For example, energy efficiency stand-by power controllers (power boards intended to switch off appliances not in use) may switch off a television as often as every hour if a user does not adjust their set, inconveniencing users. And initiatives that provide companies with incentives to distribute these products at no cost to householders can lead to the distribution of inferior products (Climate Spectator 2013).

These issues suggest that aggregating solutions like these by trusted providers, such as power and telecommunications utilities, could help to ensure product quality standards are upheld in order to better realise these opportunities.

Assumptions and additional data

1. Current total annual net greenhouse gas emissions for Australia are 578.4 MtCO2-e according to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (Australian Government 2013b, table 3.) Historical figures for the 2007 report are taken from the same source document and are given for the 05/06 financial year, data table 1A.

figure a.1Carbon opportunity 1: Quantifying the remote appliance power management opportunity. The dollar value of this opportunity has more than doubled since 2007, and its potential to reduce emissions has also increased by 32%; the value of this carbon abatement has also therefore increased in proportion.

3 We note that there are many different price plans for electricity and the value used in our calculations is an average price drawn from a representative sample.4 We also note that the commercial stand-by percentage is a conservative/’lower-bound’ number based on the residential sector estimate, as no exact number is available.5 All carbon values are based on a carbon price of $9/tCO2-e or pro rata portion of an Emissions Reduction Fund.

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2. Estimated losses from stand-by power in residential and commercial sectors are 10.35%, (AIFS 2013; EEE 2011a; ABS 2013b) of 127,361 GWh used per year (BREE 2013). Due to lack of data for the commercial sector, we assume the same loss rates as for the residential sector. This is likely to be an underestimation.

3. The assumed emissions intensity of electricity production is 0.9 tCO2-e per megawatt-hour (MWh; DCCEE 2012e). Note that this emissions intensity is likely to decline over time due to an expected increase in the share of electricity production from renewable energy and gas, a decrease in the use of black coal, and due to the ongoing impacts of climate mitigation policies. However, for clarity and simplicity’s sake, no projected change in emission intensity is given in the calculations for the impacts of ICT options going forward. Rather, emissions intensity is held at a constant level (0.9 tCO2-e per MWh). This may result in emission abatement estimates reported here that are slightly higher than may actually be achieved. Equally, however, since such emissions reductions are likely to be accompanied by a rise in electricity prices, the estimated cost savings are likely to be understated here.

4. The national average price of electricity for residential and non-residential customers is estimated to be 24.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (CME 2012).

5. Assumes broadband-based remote appliance power management solutions are used to reduce stand-by emissions by 50% in one-third of Australian homes and commercial buildings.

Uptake assumptions

1. Market penetration of building automation is 8.2% (Connection Research 2013; assumed to be equivalent to home automation and applied equally to business premises).

2. Assumes RAPM reduces stand-by emissions by 50% (as in item 5 above).

3. Stand-by power losses, electricity consumption and emission intensity as in items 2 and 3 above.

case study: Z-waveThe radio frequency remote intelligence market has grown exponentially over the last few years, enabled by the market saturation of hand held wireless devices. Home area networks (HANs) such as Z-Wave technology, used in conjunction with compatible apps, are readily available. As of August 2013 more than 14 million Z-Wave products had been sold worldwide. The related apps are easily downloaded onto personal iPhones, iPads, Android devices or PCs. Users can access multiple appliances to turn on/off, put a timer on for activation/deactivation or make sure the house is running as it should. Users can monitor the display of real-time energy consumption information with the app software. In this way, consumer awareness of power use alone can lead to behavioural change that results in energy use reductions of up to 30%; this is because the devices enable users to consume responsibly and manage effectively (Kailas et al. 2011).

rapm’s potential direct action contribution:

2.1 MtCO2-e 1.5% of ERF $18 million / year value


Carbon Opportunity 2: context-aware power management

What is context-aware power management (CAPM)?

Once a home or office device is turned on, it draws its required energy even if nobody is present to take advantage of the lighting, air-conditioning, heating or other service it provides. This wastage can be thought of as ‘orphaned’ energy.

Smart homes and buildings are often broadband-enabled. This provides the opportunity for internal networks to connect to devices, thus enabling remote monitoring and control of energy consuming devices. These features provide the potential to deploy context-aware power management (CAPM), to reduce orphaned energy by ensuring that only devices within user proximity, or with which the user is engaged, are activated. A large fraction of orphaned power can be eliminated without the need for any change in behaviour on the part of users, or loss of amenity from lighting, heating, computers and other end uses, thereby saving energy and reducing carbon emissions.

What’s changed in CAPM since 2007?

The increasing sophistication of CAPM6 during the past two years means that personal devices can not only detect a person’s presence, but also identify individual users (via their mobile phone or other personal devices, or via personal characteristics through the use of facial recognition software) and even distinguish a person’s state of engagement (e.g. whether they are asleep or awake). The significance is that it is possible to have even more efficient control over when devices are required, using electricity only when needed.

CAPM is part of a wider class of power management solutions that are relatively cheap to implement, but present some of the highest cost-saving benefits a company can find, according to research and analyst group Ovum (Thomasnet 2012).

Figure A.2 shows that in the home, CAPM can be applied to about 50% of residential energy consumption (including heating, cooling, and lighting). Figure A.3 shows an even higher level of application – about 60% – for commercial energy consumption (heating and ventilation, air-conditioning, and lighting).

There is very little research to indicate how much energy is orphaned or whether its share of energy consumption has changed since 2007. In this report orphaned energy is conservatively estimated at 15% in residential and commercial premises, extrapolated from analysis by service providers in the field (Siemens 2013; Energex 2013). Because the total amount of power use in Australia has increased, the total amount of orphaned power was deemed to have undergone absolute growth as well.

Why is CAPM important?

Implementing this opportunity would translate into energy savings of $819 million p.a. by reducing electricity consumption (by 3,343 GWh p.a.). Higher electricity prices today are a major contributor to the almost doubling in value of these electricity savings since 2007 (Figure A.5).

Because the total amount of orphaned power usage (and associated emissions) is estimated to have increased in proportion with overall energy consumption, this opportunity to avoid emissions has likewise increased (by 13%) since 2007, and could reduce Australia’s total carbon emissions by 0.51% per annum (3.0 MtCO2-e; Figure A.5). This rise in power use is a factor behind not only the greater value of the electricity savings, but also the small increase in emissions reduction potential of this opportunity.

Because the emissions reductions are larger, the carbon price value ($27 million) of the CAPM measure is also higher.

The cost and emission reductions that can be delivered by context-aware power management may become even more significant in the future. This is because energy use in the commercial sector is projected to almost treble from 2005 levels by 2050 (Figure A.4).

6 Reflecting this diversification and more specific tailoring of the relevant ICT applications, the term ‘context aware power management’ has replaced the term ‘Presence based power’ used in the 2007 Report.

Without intervention, the total amount of orphaned energy may also increase in future.

How could CAPM contribute to Direct Action?


How far has CAPM come?

In Australia, the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through CAPM has realised only 4.5% of its potential; it is currently estimated to reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of 0.1 MtCO2 per year, worth $37 million per year in energy savings.

How to realise the CAPM opportunity

Similar to remote appliance power management, CAPM is realised by inserting intelligence into buildings and devices, which are then actively ‘aware’ as a person moves between spaces: switching on devices, lights, heating, TVs or computers when users are present, and putting them to sleep in low or zero power modes once the person leaves.

Today’s energy intelligent buildings mainly use sensors to assess occupancy. In future occupants’ real-time location could be tracked, and their personal preferences for lighting, cooling, and heating retrieved. Whereas real-time occupancy information is well suited to lighting control, the longer response time needed for temperature control has led that research area to focus on predictors. The related systems use profiles of inhabitants’ behaviour, but may switch to incorporating real time information when users’ habits change (Nguyen et al. 2013).


figure a.2Composition of residential energy use, showing the share of energy consumed by different applications.

Adapted from: CIE 2007

figure a.3Composition of commercial energy use, showing the share of energy consumed by different applications.


figure a.4The energy used to light, heat, cool and power appliances in the commercial sector is expected to increase under business as usual, illustrating the importance of measures to reduce wastage due to stand-by and orphaned energy.


2005 2030 2050

7 For energy services, this is equivalent to approximately one hour out of every seven, on average, being unnecessary or ‘orphaned’.

figure a.5Carbon opportunity 2: Quantifying the context aware power management opportunity.The value of this opportunity has almost doubled since 2007, and its potential to reduce emissions has increased by 13%.

Systems that don’t require full home automation are evolving. For example, Daikin has developed its own Sky-fi app to allow users of their ducted air conditioners to remotely monitor and control them from anywhere. Extending apps like these with a link to a mobile phone GPS could allow air conditioning to be automatically ramped down when a resident leaves their house.

With CAPM, it will be critical to overcome documented concerns, which are actually unfounded, that PC power management solutions will somehow disrupt core IT operations (Ovum 2012). Overcoming customer trust issues related to privacy will also be important. CAPM could be best realised through an adequate volume of participants and by increasing the range of devices that can be managed through external signals.


1. Current total annual net greenhouse gas emissions for Australia were 578.4 MtCO2-e according to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (Australian Government 2013b, table 3.) Historical figures for the 2007 Report are taken from the same source document and are given for the 05/06 financial year, data table 1A.

2. Total residential and commercial electricity consumption was 127,361 GWh per year (BREE 2013).

3. Emissions intensity of electricity production is 0.9 tCO2-e per MWh (DCCEE 2012e).

4. The national average price of electricity to residential and non-residential customers is estimated to be 24.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (CME 2012).

5. Assumes that orphaned energy consumed by appliances is 15% overall for residential and commercial energy consumption (Energex 2013; Siemens 2013).7

6. Assumes network-enabled context-aware power solutions are used to reduce orphaned energy emissions by 50% in one-third of Australian homes and commercial buildings.

Uptake assumptions

1. Market penetration of building automation is 1.5% (Connection Research 2013).

2. Assumes stand-by emissions reduction of 50% (as in item 6 above).

3. Electricity consumption, emissions intensity, and orphaned energy losses as in items 2, 3, and 5 above, respectively.

2007 2014 2007 2014

case study: should i sleep?‘Should I Sleep?’ is an app for Apple computers that uses facial recognition and audio detection to optimise the use of the computer’s stand-by function. Using the inbuilt camera and microphone software to sense the presence of the user, the computer ‘sees and hears you’. If the user is away from the computer the app registers the user’s absence and proceeds to ‘sleep’; if the user is in front of the computer, concentrating on reading, the software recognises their presence and prevents sleep mode.

Refrigeration 8% Light 6% Hot water 24% Stand-by 5%

Cooking 4% Space heating 38% Cooling 4% Other 11%

Lighting 26% Water heating 12% Air conditioning 21%

Appliances 7% Heating and ventilation 12% Other 22%

Lighting Water heating Air conditioning Appliances Heating and ventilation Other

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capm’s potential direct action contribution:



Carbon Opportunity 3: Decentralised Working

What is decentralised working (DW)?

Decentralised Working is the term for decentralisation of the workplace by teleworking8 from home, or from a regional telework hub or other type of distributed office9.

Each year Australians travel a total of 45.8 billion kilometres to and from work (ABS 2013a). Lengthy commutes, averaging a total of one hour per day for peak hour travel (Productivity Commission 2011a), consume significant energy and produce commensurate carbon emissions.

Teleworking not only saves the fuel and emissions associated with these commutes, it also increases productivity, decreases work costs, allows for flexible work hours, and overcomes distance as a barrier to employment (DBCDE 2012a). Working from home is a common example of teleworking. However, working at contact centres or in regional centres are other forms of workplace decentralisation, with similar benefits,10 along with the potential to benefit the local (e.g., suburban, regional) economy.

As ICT continues to improve our ability to move large volumes of data, voice and video, these Decentralised Working (DW) alternatives to commuting become increasingly viable.

What’s changed in DW since 2007?

The distance travelled by passenger vehicles for commuting has increased by just over 1% (500 million kilometres) since the last report. However, the share of passenger vehicle travel devoted to commuting declined slightly from 2007 to 2013. This trend, combined with improved fuel efficiency of passenger vehicles, led associated carbon emissions to decline by 7% (ABS 2013a, 2007b, 2006).

Commuting on public transport also produces emissions, though less on a per person basis. The ability to avoid these emissions through telework has not been included in this opportunity.

Why is DW important?

Implementing this opportunity would translate into energy savings of $1.7 billion p.a. by avoiding fuel consumption alone (Figure A.7). An additional benefit is the $8.1 billion worth of savings realised through avoided vehicle costs including depreciation, on-road costs and vehicle maintenance.

Higher fuel prices today are a major contributor to the large increase in the value of these energy savings since 200711 ($1.00/L in 2007 ; $1.50/L in 2012; RACQ 2012; Figure A.7). Another reason is the above-noted increase in commuter kilometres travelled.

Though the dollar value of this opportunity has increased, the potential to avoid emissions has decreased modestly, by 7% since 2007 in line with the decline in related emissions. This opportunity could reduce Australia’s total carbon emissions by 0.5% per annum (2.8 MtCO2-e).

The potential carbon value of the DW measure is $25 million per year.

How could DW contribute to Direct Action?

Implementing this opportunity could reduce emissions by 2.8 MtCO2-e, 2.0% of the Australian Government’s 5% (140 MtCO2-e per year) reduction target for 2020. The associated fraction from the proposed Emissions Reduction Fund would be worth $24 million per year.

8 Telework typically entails full-time or part-time workers who are remote from a central business location, connecting with employers or clients (ATAC 2006).9 Shared office facilities where employees from multiple companies work under the same roof at a location that is closer to their home than a centralised head office. 10 For example, Sydney’s 35-minute peak hour commute times (an average) compare poorly with Wollongong’s 20-minute commutes (Productivity Commission 2011a).11 Adjusted for inflation, this is $1.13 in 2013 dollars.

figure a.6Australia’s actual passenger car emissions and projected emissions to 2030.

Source: DCCEE 2012d

How far has DW come?

In Australia, telework has been embraced, but mainly on a more informal basis (CIO 2013). Because the 10% telework uptake target set in the 2007 Report appears to have been exceeded, this report has increased it by 200%. Based on this higher target, the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through DW has realised about 35% of its potential; it is currently estimated to be reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of 1.0 MtCO2 per year nationwide.

How to realise the DW opportunity

Since DW hinges in part on network access and quality, the greater reliability, speed, and access provided by improving broadband (see Case Study) is likely to facilitate DW uptake (DBCDE 2012b).

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8. Assumes that broadband-based telework is taken up, on average, one and a half days per week by workers who have telework suitable jobs. (This is a 200% increase on the 2007 Report target which has already been exceeded).

9. Assumes that decentralised workplaces are used by 15% of employees who have telework suitable jobs, and that their decentralised commuting emissions are reduced by at least 50% versus urban commuting.

Assumptions for value of avoided car-related costs

Total car-related costs are $AUD 0.74 per kilometre (ATO 2013). Of this amount, $AUD 0.16 per kilometre is associated with fuel (RACQ 2013), while the remainder relates to other costs associated with a vehicle including depreciation, financing, and wear and tear.

Uptake assumptions

1. Passenger car emissions, time worked from home/local business centre as in item 2, 3 and 8.

2. Current share of teleworkers is 38% of telework amenable jobs (hybrid teleworkers, that is, those who work from home one to three days per week; based on CIO 2013).

A known barrier to teleworking is the difficulty communicating with co-workers and coordinating work with managers (CIO 2013). The rising prevalence of ‘in-person’ video conferencing and other higher-end services could help overcome these barriers (see Opportunity 7), further enabling DW.

However, some barriers to DW are non-technical. According to ATAC (2006), for example, realising teleworking also hinges on establishing trust-based relationships between employee and employer and monitoring and supervision of employees. Issues such as insurance, isolation from co-workers, and cultural resistance must also be addressed.

The Australian Government Telework initiative aims to overcome some of this resistance by highlighting teleworking’s benefits, and promoting an increase in the rate of formal teleworking to 12% (DBCDE 2012a)12.



2. The emissions from private transport (passenger cars) were 42.6 MtCO2 in 2011/12 (Australian Government 2013b).

3. The fraction devoted to commuting to and from work is 27.3% of total kilometres travelled, based on ABS statistics (ABS 2013a).

4. The fraction of jobs that are amenable to telework is about 55% (adapted from Lister & Harnish 2011; ATAC 2005).

5. The emission intensity of one kilometre travelled is approximately 0.199 kg CO2 (NTC 2013).

6. The assumed cost of fuel is $AUD 0.16 per kilometre (ABS 2013a, RACQ 2013).

7. Assumes that emissions for commuting in non-urban areas are half those of city-based commutes.

12 ... so that at least 12 percent of Australian employees have a formal telework arrangement with their employers’ (DBCDE 2012a).

figure a.7Carbon opportunity 3: Quantifying the decentralised working opportunity. The dollar value of this opportunity has increased by 28% since 2007, however, its potential to reduce emissions decreased slightly due to lower vehicle-emission intensity and a decline in the share of passenger-vehicle kilometres devoted to commuting.

2007 2014 2007 2014

Value/saving Savings due to carbon price @ 9 AUD/t CO2-e Emissions avoided

real world eXample: teleworking on the central coast, nswThe Central Coast Telework Committee in conjunction with Regional Development Australia trialled temporary telework centres in Wyong and Gosford during 2013, and aims to establish a permanent Gosford teleworking hub, in conjunction with the roll out of the National Broadband Network. More than 40,000 people commute from the Central Coast to Newcastle or Sydney during a business week. Creating accessible teleworking centres on the Central Coast will reduce the number of cars on the road, alleviate pressure on current infrastructure and public transport, provide commuters with financial savings and reduce carbon emissions from thousands of cars.

dw’s potential direct action contribution:


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Carbon Opportunity 4: personalised public transport

What is personalised public transport (PPT)?

Wireless networks and devices can dramatically improve the time efficiency of public transport. On the one hand, personalised public transport (PPT) allows users to order public transport provided by an integrated network of multi-occupant taxis, minibuses, buses and trains (multi-modal transport). By providing a door-to-door solution, PPT reduces wait times and thus addresses a major barrier in the amenity of public transport. ICT can also provide more detailed, real-time arrival information for trains, trams and buses. These applications increase the satisfaction of transit users by providing certainty (reducing stress or frustration of waiting), increasing the ease and flexibility of planning public transit trips, and saving users time.

Both these ICT-facilitated approaches can therefore lead to an improvement in the personal efficiency of public transport, as the transit rider experiences a shift away from use that is driven by pre-existing timetables, to use driven by demand and real-time information.

Personalised public transport provides greater flexibility and has the potential to save time, commuting costs and carbon emissions door-to-door compared to private car use.

What’s changed in PPT since 2007?

The development of Australia’s public transport systems and the consequential usage patterns are worthy of exploration to contextualise the scale of change possible by adopting the Personalised Public Transport Opportunity.

Australia’s low-density, decentralised land use patterns require greater intra-city travel and promote reliance on private vehicle use, reflected in relatively high levels of transport-related carbon

emissions (e.g., roughly double those of Germany on a per capita basis). Transport sector emissions currently make up 15.6% of Australia’s total. From 1990 to 2013, transport emissions increased by 50.1% (Australian Government 2013b).

Under business-as-usual this increase is expected to continue, reaching 67% above 1990 levels by 2020 (BITRE 2010).

Private transport: The number of passenger vehicles grew 10% from 2007 to 2012, to 12.7 million vehicles (ABS 2013a). The number of kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles also increased by 6% from 2007 to 2013. Passenger vehicles accounted for 72% of the total distance travelled in 2012, a slightly smaller share (1.4% less) than in 2007 (ABS 2013a & 2007b). Part of the reason for this decline may be that younger adult Australians (aged 21-30) are driving less (SMH 2013). For example, in 2002, ‘people aged 21 to 30 in Sydney drove themselves on about 53 per cent of all trips on an average weekday. That share fell almost eight percentage points to 45.5 per cent in 2011-12.’

Nevertheless, more than three-quarters of the Australian population aged 18 years and over usually travel to work or full-time study in a private motor vehicle (ABS 2012). Of the eight million people who drove a private motor vehicle to work or full-time study, only 23% were accompanied by passengers on any part of the trip (ABS 2012). This highlights the inefficiency of passenger car commuting in terms of fuel use (and associated carbon emissions).

Public transport trends: Public transport use is typically a more fuel-efficient way to move commuters but has low uptake in Australia. Sparse deployments of hub and spoke transport networks have led to very limited options for intra- and inter-suburb transit (UTS 2012). As of 2012, only 16% of the Australian population aged 18 years and over usually travelled to work or full-time study using public transport (ABS 2012).

However, from 2005 to 2010, urban public transport trips increased, both in overall terms (10% increase in passenger distance travelled) and as a share of the overall passenger task (from 9.2% to 10.9%; BITRE 2013a). Though much of this shift may be driven by fuel price increases, at least some of this increase may be attributable to ICT innovations for passengers that make the switch to public transit more attractive (see below).

Transit-oriented design: Transit-Oriented Design that connects dense, mixed-activity centres with frequent transport services is becoming more popular in regional transport planning. However, the provision of transit services in low-density sprawling neighbourhoods can be costly and highly time-inefficient for users.

Why is PPT important?

Implementing this opportunity would translate into energy savings of $1.6 billion p.a. by avoiding fuel consumption alone (Figure A.8). Higher fuel prices today are a major contributor to an increase in the value of these energy savings since 2007 ($1.2 billion). This fuel saving is dwarfed by the $5.8 billion in annual savings that could be achieved by avoiding additional car running costs.

Personalised Public Transport could reduce Australia’s total carbon emissions by 0.4% per annum (2.5 MtCO2-e). This opportunity to avoid emissions has decreased slightly (by 2.5%) since 2007. The slight decrease in emissions abatement potential comes because total private transport emissions have decreased due to strong vehicle efficiency improvements.

And because this emissions reduction potential is slightly lower, the carbon price value of the PPT measure ($23 million) is also lower than in 2007 (Figure A.8).

Between 2010 and 2020, passenger vehicle kilometres travelled are projected to increase at an average rate of 1.8% per year, and the related passenger car emissions to grow to 44 MtCO2-e by 2020 (DCCEE 2010b). This will make PPT measures even more important in future to keep carbon emissions in check.

How could PPT contribute to Direct Action?



How far has PPT come?

In Australia, some services now provide more real-time engagement with public transport systems, such as smartphone apps with real-time arrival information based on the location of buses and trains in a network. Though this communication is still one-way, its popularity is demonstrated by considerable uptake. For example, the Sydney Bus real time customer information service delivered almost 10 million messages in 2011-12 (TfNSW 2012). This type of real-time information is linked to increased uptake of public transit in surveys (Filippi 2013; Ferris et al. 2011).

Nevertheless, it is estimated that the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through PPT has realised only 2% of its potential; it is currently estimated to be reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of 50.4 ktCO2 per year nation-wide.

How to realise the PPT opportunity

The personalised public transport services analysed in the 2007 Report were predicated on improving the public transport experience and increasing its usage through ICT.

Personalised public transport provides on-call public transport vehicles which act as feeders to transit oriented developments, using integrated modes of local mini-buses, suburb-to-suburb links, high-speed express buses, trains and multi-occupant taxi services. The integration reduces travel and wait times and increases the economies of scale for services such as express commuter trains and buses, as well as suburb-to-suburb interconnection.

The benefits of using PPT include:

•Increased flexibility;

•Reduced waiting times;

•Greater use of public transport within the catchment area;

•More frequent services;

•Higher speed arterial services; and

•Increased commercial viability of all transport suppliers.

The integration of ICT in public transport deployment, use and coordination has equal application in personal rapid transport (PRT). PRT uses driverless, battery-powered pods with features including call or SMS to order, integrated iPhone connectivity for manual driver function, LiDAR13 tracking systems and crash sensors to slow the

vehicle to avoid collisions with pedestrians or other vehicles. Within the context of PPT such systems might be used to augment timetable-driven services with on-demand services – especially in off-peak periods. While PRT is nascent and has not been canvassed in the analysis contained within this report, it is worth noting ICT integration is at the core of these new innovations.

Assumptions and Additional Data

1. Current total annual net greenhouse gas emissions for Australia were 578.4 MtCO2-e according to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (Australian Government 2013, table 3). Historical figures for the 2007 Report are taken from the same source document and are given for the 05/06 financial year, data table 1A.

2. Total emissions from private transport (passenger cars) are 42.6 MtCO2-e per year (Australian Government 2013b).

3. The emissions intensity of one kilometre travelled is approximately 0.199 kg CO2 per kilometre (NCT 2013).

4. The assumed cost of fuel is $0.16 per kilometre (ABS 2013a, RACQ 2013).

5. Compared to a passenger car, the emission intensity of public transport is 60% lower (Glover 2009).

6. Assumes that wireless broadband-facilitated personalised public transport is able to convert 10% of car-based commuters to public transport.

Assumptions for value of avoided car-related costs:

Total car-related costs are $AUD 0.74 per kilometre (ATO 2013). Of this amount, $AUD 0.16 per kilometre is associated with fuel (RACQ 2013), while the remainder relates to other costs associated with a vehicle including factors such as depreciation, financing, and wear and tear.

13 A detection system that works on the principle of radar but uses light from a laser.

figure a.8Carbon opportunity 4: Quantifying the personalised public transport opportunity.The dollar value of this opportunity has increased substantially since 2007, but its potential to reduce emissions has decreased slightly because improved vehicle efficiency has reduced overall passenger vehicle emissions.

Uptake assumptions

1. Passenger car emissions and the emission intensity of public transport as in items 3 and 5 above, respectively.

2. Assumed balance and trends in car and public transport use in Australia’s largest cities is as per Sydney (BTS 2013).

3. Assumes only available in cities with real-time public transport data systems.

4. Average trip distance is 10.1 km (BTS 2013).

5. Fraction of increase in public transport above general transport growth attributable to ICT is 25%, consistent with 2-3% gross increases in ICT-driven public transport use (Filippi et al. 2013). There are new ICT options emerging for taxi and minibus services but these were not included due to lack of comparative data.

case study: heathrow t5Personal rapid transport devices are replacing standard transport, with demonstrated efficiency increases. Heathrow Terminal 5 has replaced its shuttle buses with 21 personalised rapid transport pods that operate on a 4-km stretch of guideway between the terminal and the business car park. The wait time has been drastically reduced, from 10 minutes to instant pod delivery; journey time is now guaranteed because there is no chance to get caught in traffic. Each pod allows up to four passengers and uses 70% less energy than a car. The battery powered pods move along the guideway network, releasing no emissions at Heathrow airport. They saved 400 tonnes of carbon emissions over two years of operation, and present the opportunity to be powered by renewable energy. A second system is planned for Heathrow Airport Terminals 2 and 3.

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Carbon Opportunity 5: real-time fleet management

What is real-time fleet management (RFM)?

Using ICT to monitor vehicles, cargo and drivers can help improve the fuel efficiency of road freight transportation. This in turn reduces the carbon emissions of road freight. Monitoring can assist in delivering these outcomes by enabling better route planning; identifying maintenance issues to ensure optimum vehicle performance; uncovering opportunities to improve driver behaviour; and facilitating dynamic freight brokering to maximise the payload capacity factor and minimise empty and partially laden vehicles.

Real-time fleet management (RFM) provides fleet managers, drivers and freight brokers with the communication and management systems they need to increase vehicle, driver and logistics efficiency.

By increasing the efficiency of freight operations, RFM could reduce emissions in a sector that has undergone rapid emissions growth. Additional benefits of RFM are avoided fuel costs, and reduced capital stock required, vehicle wear, and on-road costs (such as taxation).

What’s changed in RFM since 2007?

Transport for freight (truck and light commercial vehicles) today produces about a third of Australian transport emissions (Figure A.9). Continued growth in emissions from freight during 2007 to 2012 totalled 15% (BITRE 2013b). The unladen share was around 28% of the 42 billion freight kilometres travelled by light commercial vehicles, rigid trucks and articulated trucks in 2012 (ABS 2013a; Figure A.10).

Since the 2007 Report, alongside the opportunities to reduce unladen trips, it has become evident that real-time communication with drivers can reduce emissions through changes to driver behaviour.

A key ICT development since 2007 is behavioural telematics, a new field using GPS, on-board diagnostics and 3G networking to monitor driver behaviour, for example, to meet OH&S requirements. This technology could be used in any type

of vehicle, to monitor everything from theft to driver emergencies and will increasingly be integrated in ‘connected’ vehicles. Feeding data about their behaviour back to drivers can promote safer driving but also increase fuel efficiency by 15 to 20%, according to vendors of this technology such as MyDrive (Telstra 2012b; ALD Automotive 2013; Ford 2011).

This technology could achieve additional carbon emissions benefits outside the freight sector because insurance companies aim to use it to assess driver behaviour. Of relevance here, higher risk behaviours (such as hard braking and excessive acceleration) also decrease fuel efficiency. The number of ‘telematics’ insurance users is expected to reach 44 million subscribers in Europe by 2017 (TechRadar 2012).

In addition to developments in behavioural telematics, vehicle management systems are becoming more sophisticated and widespread. Vehicle management systems can now monitor and report on a variety of aspects of vehicle performance. This enables real-time identification and rectification of maintenance issues that may impact fuel efficiency. For example, running at incorrect tyre pressures can reduce fuel efficiency.

Apps for smartphones put RFM and behavioural telematics applications into the hands of small fleet companies and individual drivers who could also use them to increase driver safety and fuel efficiency and reduce transport carbon emissions. The Motormate app (Motormate 2012), ‘runs in the background while you’re driving, measuring your driving style. It then gives you a score for your performance according to how safe you are on the road.’

figure a.9Share of Australian transport emissions by mode of transport.

Source: Australian Government 2012d

figure a.10About 28% of the kilometres travelled by freight are unladen trips.

Source: ABS 2013a

Passenger cars 50% Light commercial vehicles 15% Trucks 19% Buses 2%

Domestic aviation 8% Domestic shipping 3% Railways 3%

Unladen vehicles 28% Laden vehicles 72%


The increased power and availability of mobile devices means that the efficiency gains made by the handful of market leaders using cutting edge technology can now be disseminated through the rest of the market using standard mobile devices, with relatively low barriers to uptake.

Why is RFM important?

Implementing this opportunity would translate into energy savings of $2.2 billion p.a. through avoided fuel costs. Higher fuel costs today are a major contributor to a 53% increase in the dollar value of these fuel savings since 2007 (Figure A.11), while the growth in transport freight travel (and therefore fuel use) also plays a role.

This opportunity to avoid emissions has also increased modestly (by 16%) since 2007 and could reduce Australia’s total carbon emissions by 0.8% per annum (4.8 MtCO2-e). This increase in carbon abatement comes because total freight emissions have increased. And because the potential emissions reductions are larger, the carbon price value of the RFM measure is also higher ($43 million).

The real-time fleet management measure could become even more important in future because the growth in freight emissions is projected to continue in line with economic growth (by roughly 20% to 2020; DCCEE 2012d, 2010a).

How could RFM contribute to Direct Action?


How far has RFM come?

In Australia, the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through RFM has realised about 10% of its potential; it is currently reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 0.5 MtCO2 per year. However, the bulk of this change has been driven by cuts achieved by market leaders (Linfox 2012a). This action by industry leaders may be expected to put significant market pressure on other companies to follow suit and adopt RFM, or face the prospect of becoming uncompetitive.

How to realise the RFM opportunity

Today, in-vehicle technology that improves driver behaviour includes video event recorders (using mobile connectivity) and integrated GPS. Integrated GPS tracks the location of vehicle events as well as environmental conditions (Zurich 2013; DriveCam 2013).

However, according to Machina (2012), ‘Drivers may perceive themselves to be over-managed by these solutions and there may be significant ‘user’ push-back.’ Communicating the environmental goals of driver’s telematics ratings can enhance acceptance and peer competition to improve safety and achieve the fuel and emissions saving potential of behavioural telematics (Business Fleet 2013).

Vehicle management systems can collect data including speed, oil life and pressure, engine temperature, tyre pressure, and particulate and CO2-e emissions. This data gives operators a clearer picture of vehicle risk, productivity and maintenance status. Telematics hardware is now built into many vehicles at the factory.

RFM is especially useful for owner-operator carriers who lack the capacity or resources for an integrated management system. In Australia’s highly competitive freight sector, profit margins are extremely tight and the opportunity to avoid costs of increasingly expensive fuel could be a significant motivator for uptake.

Wireless devices and mobile networks allow freight brokers to identify loads, vehicle locations, destinations and load status, enabling them to offer freight to empty or partially laden vehicles. Brokers with various forms of ICT-enabled support can provide the most expedient routes for load pick-up and delivery.

figure a.11Carbon opportunity 5: Quantifying the real-time fleet management opportunity. The dollar value of this opportunity has increased by 53% since 2007. Its potential to reduce emissions increased by 16%, along with its carbon abatement value.

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real world eXample: navman wirelessICT-enabled vehicle systems are used by many companies for tracking vehicles and reporting on data to increase efficiency for both their on-road and management teams, in areas such as fuel savings, job allocation and the efficient use of vehicles.

Industrial Metal Services Ltd in the UK used ICT-enabled vehicles using real-time messaging and routing functions to help the company cut fuel costs and increase efficiency by allowing better allocation of both planned and ad hoc freight jobs to vehicles of the right size in the right location. In the first month of operation, diesel costs came down by 20%.



2. Total emissions from freight transport are 32.3 MtCO2-e (BITRE 2013b).

3. Assumes that real-time fleet management increases payload capacity factors equivalent to reducing unladen kilometres by 12%.

4. Assumes ICT enables more efficient driving and more efficient vehicle performance, reducing emissions per kilometre by 10%. This measure is separate to the above load consolidation.

5. Assumes cost of fuel is $0.60 per kilometre (Based on ABS 2013a & RACQ 2013). Other savings such as insurance, depreciation and vehicle wear are not included.

Uptake assumptions

1. Freight sector emissions as in item 2 above.

2. Potential to save carbon emissions is 37%, of which 15% is attributed to ICT (Linfox 2012a and b).

3. Estimated market uptake for fleet management is estimated as applied by only the leading 10% of the market.

rtf’s potential direct action contribution:



Carbon Opportunity 6: increased renewable energy

What is the increased renewable energy (IRE) opportunity?

The increased renewable energy (IRE) opportunity is based on the ability to manipulate significant electrical loads across a large customer base to match demand with predicted and real-time generation of renewable power.

Time-regulation of the energy used in appropriate devices and appliances can play an important part in power management of the electricity network. This opportunity harnesses ICT in the home and workplace by making use of Internet-connected appliances and easy-to-install networked switches and sockets. This permits energy-consuming appliances that are not critically time sensitive – hot water systems, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, fridges, charging devices and air-conditioners – to perform their normal services at a pace dynamically informed by renewable energy generation.

The time-sensitive use of these devices to control electricity demand is well understood but unfortunately, if this energy management is done solely with the goal of minimising electricity costs, it can lead to higher carbon emissions. This is because time-shifting of electricity use may result in greater use of base-load generation, which is currently dominated by coal, with less use of cleaner gas and hydropower.

However, if the energy consumption of these devices is controlled by ICT, these devices can be used to form what might be thought of as Iarge, distributed manageable loads to be used in conjunction with renewable energy as it is generated – over seconds, minutes and hours.

In addition to making renewable energy more ‘grid-friendly’, this ICT-enabled opportunity can also be used to ‘soak up’ renewable energy before peak demand periods begin. For example, water heaters or air-conditioners can use this energy production prior to the peak, and then be turned off or operated under reduced load during the peak, before catching up

again after the peak using more renewable energy. Already, some air conditioners sold in Australia can be remotely controlled by energy providers, to facilitate a shift in electricity use to off-peak times (Panasonic 2012).

This approach can be thought of as a form of demand-side management, but equally it can be thought of as supply shifting renewable energy into higher pricing periods, increasing its value by up to 60% (Productivity Commission 2011b).

This measure would secure or increase the value of production from large renewable energy power plants (to a value equivalent to that of both dispatchable base-load and some amount of peak-load) and from small-scale buildings with integrated renewable energy systems like rooftop solar panels. In doing so, it could make several renewable energy sources cost-competitive with electricity generated by fossil fuel14. Any ICT-enabled increase in the production of renewable energy resulting from cost-competitiveness against fossil fuels would in turn reduce carbon emissions.

What’s changed in IRE since 2007?

In 2012–13 approximately 76% of Australia’s electricity was supplied by coal and a further 13% by gas (Australian Government 2013b) – with the remainder mainly supplied by renewable energy. Overall, electricity generation using fossil fuels accounts for 36% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions, up by 1% from the 2007 Report.

Australia has large sources of renewable energy: wind, solar, geothermal, biomass from agricultural waste, and ocean-based energy. Among renewable technologies, wind and solar are the fastest growing. According to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO 2013), of the 30,000 MW of publicly-announced new generation capacity on the investment horizon, 45% is wind, 37% gas and 11% coal-fired. Wind generation makes up the majority of new committed projects.

Meanwhile, new developments since the 2007 Report have seen a step-change toward smart cities, within which the standalone load-control measures described above can be and are being embedded. With the introduction of smart grids, the smart city can manage energy distribution, generation and in-device energy storage. Smart grids can collect and analyse the flow of energy between devices through smart sensors, back-end IT systems, smart meters and the connecting ICT networks.

Why is IRE important?

This opportunity can be thought of as either a means to increase the value of existing renewable energy or increase the amount of production possible. In the context of measures to reduce national emissions, the emphasis in this report is on the latter goal, to produce renewable generation beyond that required by the national Renewable Energy Target (RET). The key enablers required for such uptake are achieving cost convergence with conventional electricity generation and ensuring the variable nature of renewable supplies can be tamed for both the grid and the home. Both issues are addressed by this ICT opportunity.

14 Based on Australian Government generation price profiles (BREE 2012b).


Implementing this opportunity would facilitate additional renewable electricity generation (of 12,693 GWh p.a.), with energy production worth $761.6 million p.a. at an average value of $60/MWh for large, grid-connected renewables with an additional 20% value created, on average, from capturing additional value in peak demand periods (Figure A.12). There would also be an annual value of approximately $102 million from carbon abatement at an equivalent of $9/MtCO2-e. To be competitive, the price of building-integrated renewables such as solar panels would need to compare to the retail price of electricity as opposed to the grid price, although these two prices are related.

In principle this revenue would go to renewable energy generators (including home owners), but since the share referred to here is ‘created’ by ICT networks and home/building owners, we assume that this value would also be shared by these enabling participants.

This opportunity to avoid emissions has increased by about 6% since 2007. This opportunity could still significantly reduce Australia’s total carbon emissions by 2.0% per annum (11.3 MtCO2-e).

How could IRE contribute to Direct Action?


How far has IRE come?

Renewable energy has become the largest source of new generation capacity in Australia. However, the use of ICT to unlock additional value and generation in increasing renewable energy, and in the ways laid out in this section, is still nascent.

Strictly speaking, because the amount of new, renewable generation is dictated by the Renewable Energy Target, no generation of significance (including any attributable to ICT) is currently produced outside of the scheme. Therefore, any

additional renewable energy made possible by ICT would be offset by reduced production elsewhere. However, this situation is changing because the cost of renewables and fossil fuels is beginning to converge, and because some renewables incorporate energy storage technology to enable baseload generation. For renewables that still have variability, the added value created by ICT enhances the competitiveness of these non-baseload generators (BREE 2012b).

The IRE opportunity is far from merely hypothetical. For example, South Australia’s energy market produces more wind energy than it can consume at times but also experiences severe spikes in power demand. This state is trialling ‘direct load control’, which ‘allows electricity distributors to remotely control electric devices in a home (or a business) and thus to ‘cycle’ electrical appliances at peak times, that is, to turn on and off appliances such as air-conditioners and pool pumps, for short intervals’ (ETSA 2011), and more generally to moderate the power draw with no loss of amenity.

In summary, for the above-noted ‘policy framework’ reasons, emission reductions cannot yet be directly attributed to IRE. However, its role is clearly being developed by utilities, where its uptake may be most useful.

How to realise the IRE opportunity

Wind farms are typically placed in locations with strong and consistent winds, but wind speeds are not the same at all times, which makes wind power a ‘variable’ energy supply. Similarly, production from solar panels on the roof of a house can go up and down on a cloudy day. Greater use of Australia’s plentiful, low-cost renewable energy sources is hampered by intermittency and the minute-by-minute15 variability of supply, and this could present a barrier to achieving deep carbon emissions cuts. The ability to provide more predictable power – using IRE load balancing – can substantially increase the value of wind and other variable energy supplies.

15 Minute-by-minute fluctuations can be managed by backup with gas generation, but this is a fossil fuel that results in carbon emissions. These issues have been considered by the Future Grid Forum, www.csiro.au/future-grid-forum.

figure a.12Carbon opportunity 6: Increased renewable energyAvoided emissions, and value of carbon abatement and dollar revenue from electricity sales through increased renewable energy. The value of this opportunity has increased by 10%, and its potential to reduce emissions has also increased slightly.

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This IRE opportunity could assist grid managers in three ways. First, it could avoid the need to manage the grid supply on very short, second-by-second time scales that are very difficult for managers to accommodate. Second, it could reduce the need to use fossil fuel backup for intermittency on minute-by-minute and hour-by-hour time scales. This effectively turns a variable energy supply into something akin to a base-load supply. Third, IRE could achieve an outcome equivalent to storing renewable energy for peak demand periods by using homes and buildings like a battery, gaining a still higher value for these energy sources.

Connectivity, combined with intelligent load management of heating, cooling, and discretionary and charging appliances, can overcome the challenges of variability of supply. National intelligent ICT networks and devices increase the viability of renewable energy by effectively balancing changes to create stable and predictable generation, contributing more emission-free power to the electricity supply.

The grid is not a battery, and grid operators cannot control how people use energy. Grid operators must constantly balance electricity supply and demand. An alternative to balancing energy supply is to manage loads. This is called demand-side management. Conventionally, this relies on price signals for energy consumers. Many electrical appliances and devices in homes, offices and other buildings are only mildly time-critical (discretionary) and can be managed to control loads with no loss of customer amenity.

Typical discretionary loads in the home and workplace include:

•Air conditioning;

•Electric heating;

•Electric hot water systems or electric boosted solar hot water;

•Refrigerators and freezers;

•Devices on charge such as tools, laptop computers and wireless phones;

•Electric vehicles on charge.

Smart meters allow utilities and consumers to make use of variable and granular energy pricing, which better reflects the cost of generation, transmission and distribution. They are also a way to let customers know how power price varies through the day so they may choose to shift the timing of their energy-intensive activities and save money. However, this shift can also increase the uptake of off-peak, high-emission, base-load coal power. The consumer response is furthermore a relatively slow and blunt instrument. A faster response, enabled by broadband, could assist with managing the short-term dynamics of renewable energy.

The above-mentioned discretionary loads are increasingly being Internet-enabled, making them readily accessible to external management over home or office broadband connections. Regulating energy-consuming devices and appliances can play an important part in power management of the electricity network. Time-of-use regulation constitutes a major tool for distributed load management. Although the net energy use would be the same, it is the time shifting or ‘dynamic’ aspect that is being harnessed in this opportunity.

This opportunity applies broadband to the home and workplace, with broadband enabled appliances, switches and sockets that can be easily installed in buildings.

Building user trust in external parties that manage electrical device and appliance loads is critical to ensuring widespread implementation of this opportunity. The IRE opportunity would therefore lend itself to implementation by electricity or telecommunication utilities.



2. Emission intensity of electricity production of 0.89 t CO2-e per MWh (DCCEE 2012e).

3. Increased potential for renewable electricity through support of the penetration of wind and solar generation in case of 100% penetration of smart grid technologies is 5% (Pratt et al. 2012).

4. Average value of electricity in the National Electricity Market is $50/MWh and average peak prices are assumed to be 60% higher, (Productivity Commission 2011b).

5. Assumes that an equivalent value balance is achieved for building integrated generation compared to the delivered price of electricity.

6. Load balanced renewable energy production is assumed to be of equal value to the NEM average.

7. Discretionary device services are assumed to be able to remain within a performance envelope for up to two hours without power.

ire’s potential direct action contribution:



case studies: enernoc and csiro renewable energy integration and intelligent energyEnerNOC

This company demonstrates that time regulation of power use is not only technically achievable but commercially viable. EnerNOC successfully works with utilities and power consumers to reduce electricity demand at critical times (when demand could exceed supply). It acts as an intermediary between energy generators willing to pay users to reduce power consumption (because it is cheaper to do this than build new plant) and users who reap financial rewards for engaging in flexible power consumption. EnerNOC reports more than half a billion dollars worth of energy savings16 under its ‘DemandSMART’ banner.

EnerNOC works with its commercial, industrial, and institutional partners to design energy curtailment plans to reduce non-essential energy use at critical times. Its technicians deploy technology at its partners’ sites, including meters for real-time monitoring of electricity use. EnerNOC covers all costs associated with bringing their facilities online. In Australia, EnerNOC is working on demand management programs in conjunction with the South West Interconnected System in Western Australia and TransGrid in Sydney.

EnerNOC’s web-based DemandSMART application allows partners to monitor energy use data through EnerNOC online portals. This provides the added benefit of real-time, minute-by-minute views of energy use and helps partners identify opportunities for energy (and dollar) savings beyond the DemandSMART management payments.

At critical times, utilities and grid operators call upon EnerNOC to enact their partners’ energy reduction plans, to stabilise the grid, essentially creating ‘virtual power plants’. EnerNOC’s partners are paid for this energy they do not use, but also for simply being on call. This practice benefits utilities, businesses, the community and the environment. As of January 2013, EnerNOC had more than 13,500 sites in its network and had achieved 38 million tonnes of CO2 reductions.

CSIRO renewable energy integration and intelligent energy

CSIRO is demonstrating that the time regulation of power use can be linked to renewable energy. The CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship is conducting research directly relevant to the ICT link between electricity network loads and generation. This work is being carried out at the Renewable Energy Integration Facility, located at the CSIRO Energy Centre in Newcastle, NSW.

This million-dollar facility provides capability in energy management and electricity grid operation and planning with a particular focus on growth in renewable generation.

The facility’s researchers are focused on creating techniques to allow greater penetration of renewable energy in Australia’s electricity networks. They capture detailed electrical power data – to a scale of 1/5000th of a second – and relate it to solar photovoltaics (building integrated and tracking), wind turbines, natural gas turbines, combined heat and power (CHP) cogeneration units, load banks, UltraBattery storage and flow battery storage.

Separate but related work under CSIRO’s ICT Centre Intelligent Energy program is also using advanced ICT to find ways to manage and use energy more intelligently, with the goal of making renewable energy more reliable, thereby encouraging its uptake.

16 As of January 2013. ‘Estimate based on demand response payments earned for EnerNOC’s C&I customers since 2007 as a portion of previously reported cost of revenues and savings from other energy management applications, and projected rate of future payments/savings.’


Carbon Opportunity 7: high definition video conferencing

What is high definition video conferencing (HDVC)?

Long-distance, short duration travel can effectively be replaced with life-like online video conferencing that is significantly more efficient in terms of cost, time, energy and emissions.

What’s changed since 2007 in HDVC?

In 2013 aviation carbon emissions made up 8.3% of Australian transport emissions (Australian Government 2013b). Driven by growing consumer demand for air travel, carbon emissions from domestic aviation have more than doubled since 1990, a higher growth rate than any other transport sector (Australian Government 2013b; Figure A.13).

In Australia, domestic aviation has been subject to an Equivalent Carbon Price. International policy pressure to reduce carbon emissions from aviation is building. Although international bunker fuels are excluded from restriction under the Kyoto Protocol, within the EU, aviation is subject to a carbon price under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. In 2013 progress was made toward an agreement to control international aviation emissions when the International Civil Aviation Organization Assembly agreed to develop a global market-based mechanism by 2016, and to apply it by 2020 (EC 2013).

Video conferencing has undergone rapid market expansion globally. Although growth in dedicated systems temporarily halted in 2012, this technology is still expected to achieve a $4 billion market by 2017. Meanwhile the market for lower-cost, non-dedicated solutions (e.g., PBX) has undergone rapid growth in recent years (Infonetics 2013).

These trends mirror the evolution in the video conferencing market since the 2007 Report. At the lower end of the market, personal video conferencing products have emerged, and many home and mobile telepresence products have made an entry.

The growth in popularity of tablet devices, combined with real-time, multi-point video for virtualised desktops is also driving a major push for video conferencing to become truly multi-modal. The video conference experience has therefore become unchained from conference rooms, a trend that further increases the potential for video conferencing to replace a significant portion of various modes of business-related travel (for example, as a potential substitute for within-city work commutes by passenger vehicle).

The use of telemedicine is also emerging as an exciting opportunity to reduce health sector travel, while videoconferencing in the education sector offers opportunities for collaboration, virtual excursions, and access to more teachers, experts and courses.

Why is HDVC important?

Implementing this opportunity would translate into savings of $1.2 billion p.a. through avoided air travel. Increased business expenditure on travel is a key reason for the 46% jump in value of the potential dollar savings of this opportunity since 2007 (Figure A.14).

This opportunity to avoid emissions has also increased since 2007, by 53%, and could reduce Australia’s carbon emissions by 1.0 MtCO2-e, equivalent to 0.2% per annum (not including an additional 0.2% per annum through the abatement of 1.4 MtCO2-e of international aviation emissions). Again, the increase in carbon abatement potential comes mainly because of the rise in aviation emissions noted above.

And because the potential emissions reductions are larger, the carbon value ($8.7 million) of the HDVC measure is also higher.

Short-term growth rates for air travel are forecast to increase from 3.3% to 4.7% per year over the period 2013 to 2016 (Airservices Australia 2010). Given that an estimated 37% of air passenger travel is for business (DIT 2012), measures to replace business travel with video conferencing will be more important than ever, to help restrain the growth in air travel projected through to 2030 (DCCEE 2010b).17

Carbon abatement in this sector is also important given that aviation emissions released at altitude are at least 1.7 times more harmful18 in greenhouse gas terms than those at ground level (Forster 2005; this effect was not included in these calculations).

figure a.13Rapid growth in domestic air travel since 1990 has led to rising emissions, a trend projected to continue.

17 Based on 2010 figures, aviation emissions are projected to increase in real terms (to 9 MtCO2-e in 2030) and as a share of total transport emissions (to 8.7% by 2030; DCCEE 2010b).18 For a 100-year horizon; and 3.7 times more harmful at a 25-year horizon.

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How could HDVC contribute to Direct Action?

Implementing this opportunity could reduce emissions by 1.0 MtCO2-e (counting domestic travel only), 0.7% of the Australian Government’s 5% (140 MtCO2-e per year) reduction target for 2020. The associated fraction from the proposed Emissions Reduction Fund would be $8.3 million per year.

How far has HDVC come?

In Australia, video conferencing has already had a major impact on business travel. The opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through HDVC has realised approximately 43.8% of its potential; it is currently reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 0.4 MtCO2-e per year.

How to realise the HDVC opportunity

An estimated 60% of communication between people is non-verbal, conveyed through body language, gesture and expression. In the past, these elements were lost through teleconferencing when the body was not shown and definition was too low to capture nuanced facial expression. High-end video conferencing with considerable bandwidth requirements, such as the systems sold by market leaders Cisco and Polycom, addresses these shortcomings.

Educating customers on the benefits of video conferencing will help to promote its uptake. A study on ‘The Telepresence Revolution’ on behalf of the Carbon Disclosure Project, found that if U.S. and UK companies with more than $1 billion in revenues implemented strong video conferencing programs, they would together generate almost $19 billion in financial benefits and avoid 5.5 MtCO2-e of emissions (CDP 2010).

Research (JISC 2012) suggests that to be actively taken up, video conferencing must be managed, nurtured and pro-actively supported by organisations that purchase the technology. Its positive benefits in terms of emissions reduction cannot be realised if it is purchased and deployed but rarely used.


1. Current total annual net greenhouse gas emissions for Australia were 578.4 MtCO2-e according to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (Australian Government 2013b, table 3). Historical figures for the 2007 Report are taken from the same source document and are given for the 05/06 financial year, data table 1A.

2. Current total annual emissions from domestic aviation were 7.8 MtCO2-e per year in 2012 (Australian Government 2013b).

3. Emissions from international aviation are approximately 1.44 times those of domestic emissions (DIICCSRTE 2013).

4. The estimated fraction of flight travel due to business use is 37% (DIRD 2012).

5. Business expenditures for airline fares, taxis/hire car in 2012/13 were $3.7 billion (TRA 2013).

6. Assumes one-third of business aviation trips could be replaced with video conference meetings with high speed, high definition links.

Uptake assumptions:

1. Emissions as in item 2.

2. Uptake of telepresence assumes annual emission savings of 76 tCO2-e per room per year (for 2011), which includes both national and international aviation emissions. Note: Cisco have reduced their air travel GHG emissions by 38% in 2011 compared to 2007 levels (Cisco 2012d). With a market size of 13,500 (installed ‘video endpoints’ in Australia; best estimate from Cisco, 2012e), a penetration of 1.03 MtCO2 savings was estimated to be achieved in 2012.

3. Estimated market size of 13,500 (installed ‘video endpoints’ in Australia; best estimate from Cisco, 2012e).

figure a.14Carbon opportunity 7: Quantifying the high definition video conferencing opportunity.The value of this opportunity has increased by 46% since 2007, along with a 53% increase in the potential to reduce emissions.

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case study: telepresence – australian department of finance Telstra has partnered with Cisco Systems to provide the Australian Department of Finance with TelePresence conferencing facilities. Since adopting TelePresence conferencing, the Department of Finance has saved up to $70,000 per meeting for more than 760 meetings. This equates to more than $5 million in travel savings. As well as financial savings, the reduction in travel has also provided abatement of more than 1 KtCO2-e of greenhouse gas emissions.

hdvc’s potential direct action contribution:

1.0 MtCO2-e 0.7% of ERF $8.3 million / year value

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appendiX b: additional results

table b.1Value of carbon price abatement for the seven ICT-enabled low-carbon opportunities.

Carbon value ($M AUD) $9 AUD/tCO2-e $25 AUD/tCO2-e $50 AUD/tCO2-e $100 AUD/tCO2-e

Remote Appliance Power Management 18.5 51.3 102.6 205.3

Context-aware Power Management 26.8 74.4 148.8 297.5

Decentralised Working 25.1 69.8 139.7 279.4

Personalised Public Transport 22.9 63.5 126.9 253.9

Real-time Fleet Management 43.5 120.8 241.5 483.1

High Definition Video Conferencing 8.7 24.1 48.1 96.2

Increased Renewable Energy 101.7 282.4 564.8 1129.6

table b.2Potential abatement, dollar value and carbon price value for the seven ICT-enabled low-carbon opportunities; compares 2007 and 2014 values.

Carbon opportunity

2014 emissions abated - penetration (Mt CO2-e/yr)

2007 abatement - avoided emissions (Mt CO2-e/yr)

2014 abatement - avoided emissions (Mt CO2-e/yr)

% Change

2014 abatement % of national emissions

Fraction of target

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2014 Saving ($M AUD)

Direct action value ($M AUD)

2007 carbon value @ $9/tCO2-e ($M AUD)

2014 carbon value @ $9/tCO2-e ($M AUD)

Opportunity 1 Remote Appliance Power Management

0.48 1.55 2.05 32.09% 0.35% 1.47% $264 $565 $17.6 $14.0 $18.5

Opportunity 2 Context-aware Power Management

0.13 2.64 2.98 12.62% 0.51% 2.13% $449 $819 $25.5 $23.8 $26.8

Opportunity 3 Decentralised Working

0.97 3.00 2.79 -7.03% 0.48% 2.00% $1,355 $1,730 $23.9 $25.1 $25.1

Opportunity 4 Personalised Public Transport

0.05 2.60 2.54 -2.52% 0.44% 1.81% $1,174 $1,572 $21.8 $23.4 $22.9

Opportunity 5 Real-time Fleet Management

0.48 4.17 4.83 15.97% 0.84% 3.45% $1,471 $2,249 $41.4 $37.5 $43.5

Opportunity 6 Increased Renewable Energy

0 10.70 11.30 5.62% 1.95% 8.07% $690 $762 $96.8 $96.3 $101.7

Opportunity 7 High Definition Video Conferencing

0.42 0.63 0.96 52.94% 0.17% 0.69% $823 $1,203 $8.25 $5.66 $8.7


table b.3Estimates of abatement achieved and dollar value already captured, versus their future potential, for the seven ICT-enabled low-carbon opportunities.

Carbon opportunity

Applicable sector

Annual emissions from sector (Mt CO2-e/yr)

Current achieved abatement (Mt CO2-e/yr)

Percentage of sector emissions avoided

Total potential abatement (Mt CO2-e/yr)

Total value (excluding carbon value) ($M AUD/yr)

Percentage of opportunity captured

Value of opportunity captured ($M AUD/yr)

Abatement still to capture (Mt CO2-e/yr)

Remote Appliance Power Management

Electricity 187.0 0.481 0.26% 2.05 $565.07 23.43% $132.39 1.57

Context-aware Power Management

Electricity 187.0 0.135 0.07% 2.98 $819.09 4.53% $37.12 2.84

Decentralised WorkingPassenger vehicles

42.6 0.973 2.28% 2.79 $1,729.58 34.83% $602.47 1.82

Personalised Public Transport

Passenger vehicles

42.6 0.050 0.12% 2.54 $1,571.91 1.99% $31.25 2.49

Real-time Fleet Management

Freight transport

32.3 0.478 1.48% 4.83 $2,248.88 9.89% $222.52 4.35

Increased Renewable Energy

Electricity 187.0 0 0% 11.30 $761.55 0% $0.01 11.30

High Definition Video Conferencing

Domestic aviation

19.5 0.422 2.16% 0.96 $1,202.57 43.82% $526.94 0.54


appendiX c: additional information on ict trends

table c.1Power consumption targets of end-use equipment for networks, comparing 2007 targets with those for 2013-14.

Equipment (old) Equipment name (new) Tier 1: 31.12.2007

Tier 2013–2014: 1.1.2013–31.12.2014

Off [W] On [W] Idle-State [W]

On-State [W]

ADSL/VDSL-modem USB powered DSL-modem powered by USB

0 1.5 1.5 1.5

ADSL/modem (Ports: 1 DSL, Ethernet 10/100, 1 USB device, 1.1/2.0 firewall, Cable modem PLC modem

ADSL2plus 0.3 6 2.4 3.4

VDSL-modem (max ports: 1 DSL, Ethernet 10/100, 1 USB 1.2/2.0 firewall

VDSL2 (8, 12a, 17a, but not 30a)

0.3 8 3.2 4.6

Each additional function of the following: WLAN 802 11h/g, WLAN 802 11a FXO, FXS/VoIP, hub switch for several ports, DECT, Bluetooth

2

USB - not load connected 0.1 0.1

Bluetooth 0.1 0.3

FXS 0.3 1.2

DECT GAP 0.5 1

Wi-Fi interface single band IEEE 802.11g or 11a/h radio with up to 23 dBm EIRP

0.2 0.4

WLAN access points Wi-Fi access points with single band IEEE 802.11b/g or 11a

0.3 6

VoIP device VoIP telephone 0.3 5 2.7 3.5

Small printer server Print server (without Wi-Fi) 0.3 5 1.8 3.6

Small hubs and switches Small hubs and non-managed 4 port Layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet switches without CPU (no VPN or VoIP)

0.3 5 1.5 2.8

Source: European Commission

figure c.1Energy efficiency performance improvements between two generations of Cisco integrated services routers; 2004 and 2009.

Adapted from: Cisco 2012d

1000

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

ATIS

TE

ER

(NO

RM

ALI

SE

D B

ITS

/WAT

T)

2901

2911

2921

2951 3925

3945

3825 3845

285128212801 2811

Cisco ISR G2 2009 ProductsCisco ISR G1 2004 Products


Acronyms and abbreviations

BAU – Business as usual; see glossary

CO2-e – Carbon dioxide equivalent; see glossary

GDP – Gross domestic product; see glossary

GHG – Greenhouse gas; see glossary

ICT – Information and communication technology; see glossary

IP – Internet protocol

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Telco – Short form for ‘telecommunications’ company or carrier

RAPM – Remote appliance power management (opportunity)

CAPM – Context aware power management (opportunity)

DW – Decentralised working (opportunity)

PPT – Personalised public transport (opportunity)

RFM – Real-time fleet management (opportunity)

IRE – Increase renewable energy (opportunity)

HDVC – High definition video conferencing (opportunity)

Glossary of terms

Abatement (i.e., of greenhouse gas emissions) A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Anthropogenic The result of human activities.

Business as usual (BAU) Refers in this report to the emissions trajectory associated with undertaking activities without any measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. BAU trajectories may be compared to pathways that account for greenhouse gas mitigation policies to show the potential impact of these policies.

Carbon emissions See greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon footprint ‘The total set of greenhouse gas emissions (see GHG emissions) produced by a person, organisation, event, or product’ according to the UK Carbon Trust definition (www.carbontrust.com).

Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) The net effect greenhouse gas emissions is often presented as carbon dioxide equivalent, which is a conversion to the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. For example, the global warming potential for a tonne of methane is 21 times that of a tonne of carbon dioxide.

Decarbonisation ‘Denotes the declining average carbon intensity of primary energy over time,’ according to the IPCC.

Decoupling The separation of a growth trend of two elements that may have traditionally grown at the same pace, e.g. energy and emissions.

Energy intensity The emissions generated per unit of input or output.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) The economic value of a country’s annual production of goods and services.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions Gases in the atmosphere that adsorb and emit infrared radiation, which subsequently lead to global warming. Most common anthropogenic greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ozone (03), nitrous oxide (N20) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

Information and communication technology (ICT) Incorporates the integration of and convergence between the fixed and wireless broadband telecommunications networks and equipment that facilitates the storage, transmission and processing of data by managing and distributing analogue and digital signals. Converged ICT includes hardware and software on and between devices, all of which is necessary to deliver the applications of voice, video and data across both the Internet and private networks.

Mitigation An anthropogenic intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases,’ according to the IPCC.

Opportunity (i.e., low-carbon opportunity) In this report, a low-carbon opportunity refers to an identified ICT-related application that has the potential to cost-effectively reduce carbon emissions.

Stationary energy The combined use of electricity and gas for industrial, commercial and residential purposes.

Telework Telework typically entails full-time or part-time workers, who are remote from a central business location, connecting with employers or clients (ATAC 2006).

Unit measures and their abbreviations

Bytes – (i.e. giga/peta/zetta) – One gigabyte is equal to 1000,000,000 bytes, a unit measurement of digital information.

Mbps/Gbps – mega/giga bits per second – Measures of digital information transfer speed.

kWh – kilowatt-hour – Equal to 1,000 watt-hours, a unit measurement of energy.

MWh – megawatt-hour – Equal to 1,000,000 watt-hours, a unit measurement of energy.

Kt – kilotonne – One kilotonne is equal to 1,000 tonnes, a unit measurement of weight.

Mt – megatonnes – One megatonne is one million tonnes. Greenhouse gas emissions are often displayed in megatonnes carbon dioxide equivalent per annum (MtCO2-e/yr).

PJ – petajoule – One petajoule is equal to 1015 joules, a measurement of energy.

ppm – parts per million – A unit of concentration.

$M – millions of dollars – A unit of measure for graphing.

glossary


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the project team

01 Dr Karl MallonDr Karl Mallon is the Founding Director of Climate Risk. Karl received First Class Honours in Physics and holds a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. As a thought-leader in the climate change debate, Karl has worked in climate change mitigation, policy and technical analysis since 1991. He was editor and co-author of ‘Renewable Energy Policy and Politics: A Handbook for Decision Making’ published by Earthscan (London). Karl’s ground breaking work has him currently working in climate change impacts risk to local government, insurance, institutional investment and large corporations on opportunities for operation under carbon and climate constraints.

02 Janice WormworthJanice Wormworth is a technical researcher, writer and communications specialist for Climate Risk. Janice holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Journalism and has worked for more than fifteen years to communicate the science of climate change and energy issues. She has worked for public broadcasters in North America, and for national and international non-government organisations in Australia, Europe and North America including the David Suzuki Foundation. Recently she served as a communication adviser to the CSIRO. A published author, she recently co-authored, ‘Winged Sentinels’, a book about birds and climate change published by Cambridge University Press.

03 Cassandra ScottCassandra Scott works with Climate Risk on a consulting basis and has more than 20 years experience in public policy, management, media, communications, regulation and stakeholder relations with a special focus in telecommunications, both domestic and international. She has held senior roles in federal and state government, and as a Director at the ACCC. Cassandra has also worked as a General Manager at NBN Co and at Telstra as the CEO’s speechwriter. She was also a senior regulatory analyst for a Canadian telecommunications company. Cassandra is the Director of Contextual Communications Pty Ltd, specialising in C-level presentations, speeches, eulogy writing and delivery, reports, copywriting, strategic business development and children’s literature.

04 Julius AbsJulius Abs is a technical researcher and environmental risk analyst for Climate Risk. Julius wrote his bachelor thesis on ‘Optimization of household energy usage under consideration of electric vehicles and local energy producers’. Julius finished his Bachelor of Science degree in 2011 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. Julius specialises in operational risk management as well as environmental economics and renewable energy technologies. Apart from statistical and policy analysis, he develops economic models and projections that lead into adaption and risk frameworks.

05 Jacquelyn BohmJacquelyn Bohm gained a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management in 2011 at the University of Newcastle. Through her studies Jacquelyn acquired a deep and abiding interest in and passion for the environment and the environmental industry. Jacquelyn specialises in physical environment processes, geology and soils and data-analysis systems development. At Climate Risk she has been responsible for research assistance and database coordination.

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Peer Reviewers

06 Kellie Caught, WWFKellie Caught is National Manager – Climate Change at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia. She has been with WWF-Australia for six years, working on pollution pricing mechanisms, clean energy, energy efficiency and international climate change negotiations. Kellie has a broad range of experience, having worked in politics, academia, state government, the United Nations and non-government organisations. She holds a Bachelor of Science, a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology and a Masters of International Business.

07 Greg Bourne, ARENAGreg Bourne is the Chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Greg studied chemistry at the University of Western Australia and carried out research into refinery processes before joining BP Exploration. In 1988, Greg was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street, where he was Special Adviser on Energy and Transport. In 1992 he was head of BP Exploration’s activities in Australia’s North West Shelf and Papua New Guinea, and then worked as Director BP Scotland, and Regional Director – Latin America. Returning to Australia in 1999 he become Regional President – BP Australasia. Greg served as CEO WWF-Australia from 2004 till 2010 and is on a number of Commonwealth and state advisory groups primarily concerned with climate change, energy and sustainability. He was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the environment and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Australia for services to international business.

08 Glenn Platt, CSIROAn expert on the nexus between telecommunications and the delivery of low emissions energy systems to consumers, Dr Glenn Platt reviewed this report with regard to the relevancy of the identified low-carbon opportunities and their consistency with current industry trends. As theme leader for Local Energy Systems, Dr Glenn Platt leads research in energy efficiency, demand management and smart grids under CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship, to identify ways to use energy more efficiently, develop technologies to improve energy use in buildings and improve energy delivery by the electricity network. This work also seeks to integrate renewable energy into the electricity system. Glenn has a background in electrical engineering and wireless communications, and has held numerous industry roles, including experience as a research engineer at Nokia in Denmark. He was instrumental in establishing CSIRO as a key partner in EnergyAustralia’s Smart Grid Smart City consortium.

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09 Dr Hugh Saddler, Pitt&SherryDr Saddler is Principal Consultant – Energy Strategies, in the Carbon and Energy Business Unit of pitt&sherry and an Associate of both the Energy Change Institute and the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at the Australian National University. He has a degree in science from Adelaide University and a PhD from Cambridge University. The author of a book on Australian energy policy, ‘Energy in Australia’ and over 70 scientific papers, monographs and articles on energy technology and environmental policy, he is recognised as one of Australia’s leading experts in this field. Between 1991 and 1995 he was a member of the Board of the ACT Electricity and Water Authority, and he has served on many other government advisory bodies. Since 2001 he has been a member of the UNFCCC Roster of Experts with respect to greenhouse gas inventory issues and reviews of national communications. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy and a member of the International Association for Energy Economics. He is also a member of the Board of the Climate Institute and of the Grattan Institute’s Energy Reference Group. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy and a member of the International Association for Energy Economics.

10 Andrew Ely, TelstraAndrew Ely is a Senior Environment Advisor in Telstra’s Chief Sustainability Office. With over eight years experience as an environment professional in the telecommunications and oil / gas industries, his current focus is on development and implementation of environmental strategy, and quantification of the environmental benefits of telecommunications products and services. Andrew has a double degree with honours in Environmental Engineering and Arts.

11 Pauline GreggPauline Gregg is Telstra’s General Manager, Environment, responsible for Telstra’s overarching environmental strategy. She is a senior corporate sustainability practitioner with over 20 years experience in sustainability in both the public and private sectors. Pauline has been the architect of sustainability programs in a number of ASX corporations, with a focus on driving corporate environmental strategies. She is also a Board Member of the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide.

12 Sami MäkeläinenSami Mäkeläinen is a Senior Environment Advisor at Telstra’s Chief Sustainability Office and an Innovation Manager at Telstra’s Chief Technology & Innovation Office. With over 15 years of experience in the ICT sector, Sami has depth and breadth of expertise ranging from network architecture research and standardization to global business development. He is passionate about helping corporations make a net positive impact and an advocate of resilience and anti-fragility in business. Sami holds an MSc degree in Computer Science from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

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about climate risk

Climate Risk Pty Ltd was founded in 2005 and specialises in applying climate change science to businesses and governments considering how to adapt to climate change and find opportunities in a low carbon economy. Climate Risk’s core strength is to provide practical solutions for challenging problems created by a low-carbon economy and the increasing impacts of a warming planet. The results include policy development, computational analysis and software development.

Climate Risk work on emission mitigation includes in-house emission modelling tools which have been used to assist and critique national and international emissions and energy policy development for the private sector. Furthermore, the company has worked closely with WWF, the Climate Institute and other NGOs to develop national and international policy approaches for avoiding dangerous climate change.

Climate Risk adaptation analysis focuses on infrastructure, the built environment and people. The company has worked on roads, rail, water, telecommunications and energy. Climate Risk developed one of the world’s first climate risk training packages for general insurance with Zurich Financial Services. The company has also built risk analysis tools to assess building resilience to manifold climate hazards. Climate Risk staff are committed to ensuring vulnerable people and groups are not left behind, and so have worked to secure projects for the social services sector to start the process of adaptation for high-risk parts of society.

Climate Risk would like to acknowledge the original contributions of Gareth Johnston and Donovan Burton to the 2007 Report, which has been built upon in this project.


Disclaimer

Climate Risk provides professional services in relation to climate change risks and opportunities. Our technical and professional staff endeavour to work to international best practice standards using experienced scientists, sector specialists and associated experts.

This document is intended to stimulate ideas and generate discussion amongst business government and society about the role telecommunications can play in reducing carbon emissions. While the information contained is drawn from reputable sources in the public domain, Climate Risk cannot take responsibility for errors or inaccuracies within original source material.

This report does not consider individual investment requirements or the particular needs of individuals, corporations or others and as such the report should not be relied upon as the basis for specific commercial decisions.

Telstra and Climate Risk support a constructive dialogue about the ideas and concepts contained herein.


Telstra provides network solutions and services to more than 200 of the world’s top 500 companies across 240 countries and territories, and to all levels of government in Australia. Through its world-class Telstra Next IP® network and Next G® network, Telstra connects customers to an innovative portfolio of secure and reliable solutions and services that maximise their business performance.

Together with its skilled team, including one of Australia’s largest and most qualified field and technical workforces, Telstra is committed to improving the way people and organisations work.

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aConnecting with a low-carbon future 67

Things you need to know

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All company or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Telstra retains ownership of all intellectual property in the contents of this document unless otherwise indicated and there can be no unauthorised copying or distribution without prior consent of Telstra. This document has been commissioned by Telstra Corporation for thought leadership purposes only. No reliance should be placed by any person on the material in this document without first checking its accuracy and currency (as relevant) with the originating source or parties concerned. Telstra Corporation Limited disclaims all responsibility for any errors or omissions in the document, and views expressed therein do not necessarily reflect the company’s views unless it is expressly stated otherwise.

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