ICT investment could reduce carbon pollution, says Telstra

Telstra has released the report ‘Connecting with a Low-Carbon Future’, which quantifies the potential benefits of seven key ICT opportunities to Australian businesses and consumers in 2014. The report was launched by Telstra Group Managing Director Paul Geason, who said investing in smart technology is “one of the most effective” methods of improving productivity while growing the bottom line.

“Today’s report examines the potential value of seven identified opportunities and estimates while some opportunities are already delivering savings of $1.6 billion per annum, at this point the most profound conclusions from this report are that Australians are leaving around $6.5 billion in savings on the table by not investing more in ICT,” Geason said.

“Technologies such as telepresence have proven a strategic and sound investment that can reap significant savings for businesses with employees in multiple locations. However, the potential of this and other ICT solutions to realise further carbon and cost savings is only expected to increase in the future with rising energy consumption and prices.”

The report claims that the seven ICT opportunities could save business and consumers an estimated $8.1 billion in energy and travel costs and cut national carbon emissions by 4.7%, or 27 million tonnes. This is equivalent to taking around two thirds of Australia’s cars off the road for a year.

“In addition to having the potential to increase productivity and new business opportunities, modern information communication technologies also have the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions,” Geason said.

For example, the initial telepresence solution (installed in 2009) for the Department of Finance in Canberra hosted 1031 meetings during the first 18 months of operation. The cost avoided for travel and associated expenses were estimated to be up to $70,000 per meeting. As a result, government was able to avoid costs in excess of $12 million during this period.

Geason said Telstra first identified the seven ICT opportunities for Australian businesses in 2007. Now, he said, “We’re seven years smarter and excited that innovations have emerged that could further benefit business, including smart cities and infrastructure and mobile carbon guidance.

“The opportunity to further improve productivity, while responding to increasing societal pressure to reduce environmental impacts, is only expected to increase in the future.”

The report is available here.