The following is cross posted at Verizon’s Responsibility Blog.
You probably do not think of Verizon as an energy company, but when you stop and think about how our broadband and wireless networks enable energy efficiency you will understand how we are at the heart of the clean economy.
Last week, Verizon was recognized for the work we’ve done on this score. The recognition: the “Groundbreaker Award” from the Clean Economy Network for fostering the development and adoption of new technologies and business practices that advance the clean economy.
Here are a few quick examples of how our network investment is reducing the energy our customers use:
• Who goes to the video store anymore? You can now download your favorite movie on our FiOS network and watch it on your television, on your computer or on your smart phone.
• Who physically goes to the bookstore or the library? It is far less energy intensive to visit the bookstore online and download a book or newspaper electronically to your e-book.
• We conduct all of our meetings with our subsidiary in India via high definition videoconferencing. I am able to skip the trip, but not the meeting.
All of these energy efficient behaviors are facilitated by the communications network we are building and the entire Internet ecosystem of devices and applications that rely upon our smart networks. The networks, devices and apps are at the heart of the clean economy and will facilitate smart cities, smart medicine and smart education.
The opportunities for innovation and energy efficiency are endless. In fact, the Boston Consulting Group issued a report in 2008 entitled SMART2020 which indicates that smart use of broadband and information communications technology can reduce global carbon emissions by 15 percent.
Now, we require energy to operate our business. One of the things that makes me proud about this honor is that it recognizes that Verizon has a disciplined process when it comes to sustainability. We now have a very active, engaged and deep-thinking team that assesses what we need to do to run our buildings, our fleet and our networks more efficiently.
Our biggest breakthrough is a new measure we are rolling out this year that measures the energy unit cost of moving a terabyte of information across our network. We are going to use this metric to measure our performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
Our big picture goal is to make sustainability an integrated part of how our 200,000 employees do their jobs everyday. We want the scope of the effort to be so ubiquitous that sustainability is not looked at as a “program” or “initiative”, but simply a daily part of doing business....recognition that everything we do can in some way benefit the clean economy.