LEADING provider of technology services to telecoms operators, Ericsson has said that the transformational power of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can help spur socio-economic development and put the world on the path of a low-carbon economy.According to Ericsson, in order to achieve a low-carbon economy, it will continue to deliver solutions that will result not in incremental but rather transformative change: where video conferencing substitutes business air travel, intelligent utility grids reinvent how we access and use energy, and cities are designed to be low-carbon.This, according to Ericsson President and CEO, Hans Vestberg, would not only create a safer environment, but would further ensure that ICT remains a catalyst for more sustainable development, in which the world has just began to tap the possibilities of the networked society.Ericsson in its yearly Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report titled Technology for Good, released last week, highlights the companys ongoing efforts to apply innovation to market-based solutions that empowers people and society create a more sustainable world.The report reveals the transformational power of ICT solutions to solve global energy, environmental and social challenges, adding that the networked society brings many opportunities and challenges.It noted that as data traffic grows, the ICT industry needs to increase network energy efficiency to reduce its contribution to global CO2 emissions, adding that absolute energy consumption is expected to increase over the next 10 years, primarily due to adding approximately three times the number of subscribers and about a thousand fold increase in data growth.Ericsson however said the research reveals that network energy consumption is not on the same growth path as the increase in volume of traffic, but instead, there has been an impressive decrease of energy needed to produce the data traffic (kWh/GB) due to technology and product improvements, in combination with increasing data rates of 3G/WCDMA technologies.In Sweden, for example, we have seen a 90-fold decrease in energy consumption per amount of data (in kWh/GB) just over four years (2006-2010). Reducing our own environmental impact and that of our products is an important part of Ericssons sustainability focus. Ericsson is on track with the group target to reduce its carbon footprint by 40 per cent over five years (2009-2013), it stated.In the report, Ericsson restates its commitment to helping the world to meet the 2015 targets for Millennium Development Goals through the various applications of technology.Ericsson stressed that its partnership with Swedish telecom site solution supplier, Flexenclosure developed an innovative product called the Ericsson Community Power Solution as part of a portfolio of innovative products and services for the Millennium Villages Project.It stressed that the revolutionary product allows the distribution of excess energy produced for powering communications equipment to a nearby community for various applications and is designed with full mobile integration.
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