Carbon Disclosure Project 2011


Conclusion


Rising costs and increased competition for natural resources, particularly oil, are constraints confronting economies (big and small, established and emerging) everywhere. The cost and uncertainty associated with relying heavily on natural resources to power our day to day operations, in combination with climate change causing GHG emissions, has led us to a crossroads; a decision point. As we have argued several times in this paper, those economies who see this constraint as an opportunity, and seize this moment to revolutionize the way they operate to generate increased value using fewer resources, will be the most competitive.


The future points toward a communications driven economy, where economic opportunities are not limited by time, distance or geography.


In the future, innovations in telecommuting and teleconferencing will reduce our need to commute and travel long distances, saving money, time and reducing environmental impact. E-commerce and advances in the technologies that enable distance learning and virtual doctors’ visits, mean more people will have access to quality products, services and resources, regardless of where they live. And the dematerialization of the things we create and how they are consumed (e.g. e-books, streaming video, iTunes®


) will


continue to transform the global economy.


Really, this communications-driven economy is not so far off.


Imagine for a moment a world where instead of hearing the thud of the morning newspaper against your front stoop, you take in the day’s news on your tablet.


(A phenomenon happening the world-over already, but was unthinkable to most merely two decades ago.) Instead of driving your car or taking the train to the office, you access your employer’s network from your home computer, and participate in a couple of meetings via videoconference. Over your lunch hour, you participate in a three-way high-definition videoconference with your elderly mother and a new medical specialist she’s been seeing. After dinner, you attend a graduate school class offered by a major university a continent away.


The world as we know it is changing, to a world that is cleaner, more inclusive and unbound by where you live. The key to unlocking the potential of all these technologies, is an efficient and reliable communications network. We have an opportunity to create an environment where more people can access ICT products and services that will help us grow our economy with less environmental impact, and fundamentally transform the way we live, work and play. Failure to continue to invest in advanced broadband – so it can reliably meet rising demand – has the potential to stifle economic growth and diminish our standard of living.


The agricultural revolution of the 19th century and the manufacturing revolution of the 20th century, changed the way we work, live and play. In many ways, the 21st century communications economy is already here – and it is up to us to revolutionize the economy once more, this time based on bits and bytes.


21


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