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GREEN NETWORKING
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Kennedy Miller , Technology & Sustainability Manager , Brand-Rex
www . brand-rex . co . uk
Exploring the concept of a circular economy and what it takes to create a greener society as the desire for faster networks increases
The phrase ‘ green networking ’ is frequently banded around the industry by manufacturers and service providers looking to jump onto the environmental bandwagon - but what does it really mean to be green ? And is it realistic to expect the IT infrastructure industry to reduce its carbon footprint when the demand for high-speed networks continues to grow at such a rapid pace ?
We all know that connectivity is now king and the number of connected devices is growing at an astronomical rate . The Internet of Things ( IoT ) is looming large on the horizon , and is expected to catapult the number of connected devices from around 10 billion today to between 25 and 50 billion by 2020 . As with all new technological advances , the IoT brings with it challenges and opportunities in equal measure . One of the more dynamic by-products of a smarter and better connected environment is the possibility of developing a true circular economy .
The circle of life There is now a long-standing trend to label products as green or energy efficient , and while this may be true in terms of the savings they offer the end user , often little attention is paid to the materials used to create the solutions and the manufacturing process itself .
The current linear ‘ take , make , dispose ’ model has been in place for as long as anyone can remember . But there are already early signs that the IoT is helping to increase efficiency . Relying heavily on plentiful , easily accessible resources and energy , the liner model has no long-term future . With a population expected to reach 9 billion by 2030 , the planet simply can ’ t provide the resources needed to meet future demand and if we continue to dig materials out of the ground , manufacture products with a short lifespan , then simply throw them into landfill , the tipping point will be reached before anything can be done to reverse the trend .
The fast moving consumer electronics market is often cited as one of the worst culprits when it comes to waste , chiefly because the technology found in computers , mobile phones and tablets rarely has a lifespan longer than a couple of years and the biggest vendors continuously churn out new versions , paying little regard to what happens to all of the discarded models that are often dumped unceremoniously by the consumer .
The IT infrastructure industry may not be the chief offender here but the overwhelming majority of vendors have a long way to go before they can truly categorise themselves as environmental pioneers . Copper is a valuable resource and making sure that the cabling infrastructure is recoverable at the end of its life should now be consideration
at the start of every building fit out and renovation . Simply laying new cables on top of old is no longer a viable option .
Buildings of all shapes and sizes typically contain a wealth of natural resources and , as such , can be viewed as a material bank . Taking new materials from the ground and expending huge amounts of time , money and energy on processing these finite resources makes little sense when we can simply pull materials from old buildings and reuse them .
The overall goal of a circular economy is to eliminate waste altogether through the design of smart products and buildings , enabling re-use and end of life recovery across the board . This may sound highly improbable given how long we ’ ve operated as a throwaway society . -However , research conducted as far back as 2010 suggests that a fifth of the UK economy is already operating in a circular fashion and , fuelled by the IoT , that figure could increase to 27 % by 2020 .
Intelligent assets Network solutions are the enablers that allow buildings and cities to become smarter , creating intelligent assets that have the ability to communicate information about their status and their surroundings . When assets are able to interact with each other in a smart and efficient manner the imagined circular economy starts to become a reality . This enables core characteristics such as :
• Extending the lifetime and life cycle of an asset – the lifespan can be significantly extended if the user knows when the asset is likely to fail , or when it ’ s in need of maintenance .
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