executive
insight
Orange
Network energy saving measures are key to lowering the carbon
footprint of operators, and that presents a series of challenges
rench operator Orange bought ment such measures as electronic invoicing
F
into the European directive three and product recycling. The operator says
‘We are trying to
years ago to reduce CO2 emis- the WWF partnership is based on meas-
sions by 20% by 2020, compared urable actions, such as evaluation of the provide the carbon
to 1990 levels. Like all organisations, it environmental performance of products,
then faced the challenge of measuring that recycling, eco-design of shops and prod-
content of a service’
reduction: in 2008 it calculated carbon di- ucts, and reduced paper consumption.
oxide emissions at 5.28 kilos per customer, Currently, Orange is aiming to alert
Marc Fossier
says Marc Fossier, chief corporate social customers to the environmental impact of
responsibility officer for Orange Group. the mobile handsets they acquire from the in electricity consumption. DSL network
The operator is putting in place a series operator. In 2008 Orange introduced in equipment offers no easy energy fix, be-
of measures to meet its aims, but it will be France “eco etiquetage”, or eco labelling, cause current standards were developed
another decade before those combined for mobile phones, providing informa- without a standby mode causing the net-
measures make a serious dent in its carbon tion on the green footprint of handsets. work to use electricity even when not in
footprint: In the shorter term, a mix of In December it extended the practice to use, explains Fossier. “Simple telephony
new services and a growth in the number 75% of the handsets it sells in Spain and [uses] practically nothing,” when the line
of customers means Orange expects its in 2010 will do the same in other major is not being used he says. “[But] DSL is
electricity consumption to rise on average European countries. In France, data is practically always at the same level [of]
5% per year over the next few years. provided by environmental consultancy permanent [electricity] consumption”
Like other operators it continues to Bio Intelligence: measures include the whether a customer is using the service
face the challenge of how to measure en- carbon footprint of a phone generated by or not. “The standards could take one or
vironmental progress in the face of serv- manufacturing, transport and use, as well two years, and then three to four years for
ices that increasingly are centralised and as the use of hazardous materials. the equipment [to come onto the market],
delivered in the cloud. Nevertheless, it is Green energy sources will also help to so you could be looking at five to eight
facing up to that challenge. lower the mobile footprint. The Orange years,” says Fossier. As a result, equipment
When it comes to enterprise custom- Group, which operates in 14 African coun- won’t be widespread before 2015.
ers, Orange is working towards provid- tries, aims to run 25% of its basestations In the meantime Orange’s research
ing a carbon footprint for services. “Some in developing countries on solar power by and development labs are working on
enterprise customers want to know the 2015. The company will have 1,000 solar larger-scale network energy saving solu-
carbon footprint of telecoms services for basestations in place by the end of this tions, such as high voltage direct current
their own [environmental] reports,” says year, multiplying to several thousand in (HVDC), explains Fossier. HVDC has the
Fossier. “Most of the electricity [per serv- the next 2–3 years, says Fossier. advantage of losing less energy to wire
ice] is consumed on our network and the Broadband and content services are resistance than alternating current net-
customer doesn’t see it. We are trying— also going through the greening process. works. Such systems are also able to trans-
and enterprise customers ask for it—to In October, Orange released a new ver- mit large amounts of power over long
provide the carbon content of a service.” sion of its “livebox” set-top box, which distances with lower capital costs.
There are many factors to consider the company says can reduce energy con- Fibre access networks, which the com-
when establishing the carbon footprint sumption by up to 30% compared to the pany has started to deploy in France,
of a given service, starting with Orange’s previous model by providing a button to should also reduce network energy con-
own network. “It depends on the equip- switch off the WiFi signal. Fossier says the sumption. Orange favours GPON FTTH
ment…the temperature…the cooling energy consumption of set-top boxes is technology for several reasons, says
equipment…whether we have installed air only about 5 or 10 watts, but that clearly Fossier, including its lower rate of electric-
conditioning or not…It’s harder [to pro- mounts up across millions of boxes over ity consumption compared to point-to-
vide but]…Orange is engaged in this,” says the course of a year. Orange had 8.5 mil- point technology. During the first 15 years
Fossier. “We have already started to work lion livebox customers by the end of the of a fibre network’s life, the greenhouse
on [measures for] service platforms.” third quarter of 2009. gas emission savings amount to 330 kg per
Orange has been at pains to stress its The company’s ADSL base—it had user, with the deployment of a fibre access
green credentials to end consumers for 13.4 million ADSL customers in Europe at network accounting for more than 80% of
some time. Since 2005 it has collaborated the end of September—is one of the fac- its total greenhouse gas impact, according
with the World Wildlife Fund to imple- tors preventing an immediate reduction to the FTTH Council Europe. n
16
TOTAL TELECOM ENVIRONMENT SPECIAL
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36