Today, transportation contributes more than 25% of the carbon footprint, highest in the world! Cars and airplanes are amongst the biggest contributors. Countries and companies try to find alternatives to decrease this impact. Objectives are set to achieve a “smaller footprint” or “better energy saves” with a massive investment made from G7 countries and beyond Europe (Cluster 5) reaching 97 billion Euros.
We can already see some transformations today. Going from fossil fuels to electricity and using materials that decrease the pollution in the final life cycle are one illustration of those changes. Suppliers need to adapt to this transformation, adjust internal procedures and evolve towards greener products and processes.
IT companies are the best ally to bring necessary technology to be greener. For example, new mobile applications help to adopt the new mobility model, MaaS known as “Mobility as a Service”. This concept focuses on connecting the energy charging points of a city. It provides necessary infrastructure to collect specific information and data processing. Using KPIs allow to continuously adjust the processes and technology applied with efficiency and security
This Green IT concept becomes more and more present in our day-to-day life, based on this definition: “Green IT is a set of studies and practices on the use of computers and IT resources in a more efficient and environmentally responsible way.”
To achieve the best efficiency and smaller footprint, IT companies are transforming their internal processes and manufactured equipment while simultaneously supporting customers challenges and needs.
Here are some of the Green IT applications:
- Integrating multimodal transportation options into a single interface, with a single payment mechanism.
- Cloud computing adoption.
- Optimization of the Data Center in terms of energy and refrigeration consumption
- Promoting Cloud backup.
- Servers and Services virtualized.
- More SaaS (Service as a Software) models.
- Adopting remote management support.
- Use of equipment adapted to the extreme environments demands, with low energy impact.
- Adapted life cycles and maintenance support to this specific market.
- Correct residual treatment, when in the end of equipment life cycle.
Many others are being added to this list. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, as a key player in IT communications and a big supporter of the Transportation market, is implementing best practices to reduce internally its footprint impact with a flexible offer. It starts by recycling in compliance with the WEEE Directive and its regulations, within the member states of the European Union. In 2019, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise achieved EcoVadis Silver certification (52%) with satisfactory sustainability practices. Last but not least, we achieved the Top 7% of manufactures for ethics, with the objective to become neutral in 2030.
Continuing with the annual corporate social responsibility assessments, the company’s evaluation is based on the ISO 26000 standard, as well as the principles of the Global Reporting Initiative and the United Nations Global Compact.
We have concrete practices to illustrate how we are becoming a greener company including:
- Controlling the environmental impact of the company’s product production sites,
- Complying with environmental legislation on product stewardship in the form of product end of life (WEEE) as well as the disposal of potentially hazardous materials (RoHS, REACH),
- Reducing the carbon footprint of our products. The efforts undertaken are aimed at reducing electricity consumption during the use phase. Evaluating their impact on the environment throughout their entire life cycle, from design to recycle,
- Properly recycling end-of-life products.
In addition, ALE is constructing and developing equipment that can help customers evolve towards greener practices themselves. Products that ensuren a limited environmental impact while operating your networks efficiently.
ALE products lines, Switches and Deskphones, typically support various standards.
IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) standard:
- Reduces the power consumption associated with Ethernet links during periods of low data activity – the goal is to reduce energy consumption by 50%
Dynamic Power over Ethernet (PoE) Allocation:
- Ensures that PoE is only provided to devices that are active/powered on, for better efficiency
Adaptive/Active Cooling:
- Allows ALE Products (primarily Ethernet switch products) to vary the fan speed, based on the temperature inside a product, reducing the cooling energy consumption
Products are designed to comply with requirements defined by 80 PLUS® and ENERGY STAR® certifications. Key elements in the design and operation of ALE products include:
- Power supplies that exceed the criteria defined by the 80 PLUS® power supply certification,
- Power supplies that conform to the 80 PLUS® Silver requirements with 85%+ efficiency with some power supplies meeting the 80 PLUS® Gold requirements with 87%+ efficiency.
ALE provides the best network solutions tailored to the Transportation industry while helping companies reach greener practices and objectives themselves.
Find in the next presentation the ALE vision and network equipment and solutions offer, that will contribute to this transformation:
