Enabling a low-carbon economy

Our strategy to shape the low-carbon economy is two-pronged. First, we work in partnership to develop intelligent ICT-enabled solutions for our customers, including primarily operators but also utilities, transportation, governments and others. And second, we actively engage with stakeholders and policymakers nationally and globally to inform public policy, and to drive initiatives that will accelerate the potential of broadband to transform cities, reduce carbon, increase efficiency, spur innovation, and enhance life quality.

Sustainable Cities

Half the world’s population lives in cities today, rising to 70% by 2050, according to the UN. Since 70% of CO₂e is generated by cities, pressure is on to reduce cities’ carbon footprint. Ericsson is working with cities around the world on a range of ICT-enabled solutions within health, education, energy-efficient buildings, collaboration tools for remote working, smart grids and smart meters and deployment of intelligent transportation systems to reinvent the city. Hear the stories of transformation.

Stockholm Royal Seaport

Ericsson is leading the Smart Communication project at Stockholm Royal Seaport Innovation, which envisions a climate-positive city district by 2030, utilizing a climate-smart and efficient infrastructure connecting 10,000 homes and 30,000 workspaces. ICT will be used across several dimensions of the project and Ericsson is leading the ICT aspect of the Urban Smart Grid project that is a key part of the infrastructure. The first inhabitants moved in at the end of 2012.

City of Johannesburg, South Africa

In Johannesburg, South Africa, Ericsson is providing a network and systems integration for a next-generation, fiber optic network and strategic advisory services to help the city reach its 2040 Growth and Development Strategy. The network will provide broadband technologies to city offices across Johannesburg, making Johannesburg the first true Digital City in sub-Saharan Africa.

New Cities Foundation

Ericsson is a founding member of the New Cities Foundation, a non-profit Swiss institution dedicated to improving the quality of life and work in the 21st-century city, with a particular focus on innovation and exchange, fostering urban solutions through new partnerships between the public, private and academic sectors.

SymbioCity

SymbioCity, an initiative by the Swedish Trade Council, helps export Sweden´s experiences in building sustainable cities, highlighting synergies between urban systems for waste management, water supply, energy, buildings, and more. Ericsson contributes with ICT expertise.

Networked Society Cities Index

Ericsson and Arthur D. Little have created the Networked Society Cities Index which measures the extent of ICT-enabled benefits in cities .In 2012, Ericsson published the third edition, “Triple Bottom Line Benefits for City Business,” which ranked New York, Stockholm and London highest on their ability to use ICT to benefit business.

Intelligent transport

Fully integrating transport infrastructure, vehicles and users with ICT has been shown to significantly reduce environmental impacts and deliver improved safety and efficiency, and enables the connectivity required to support infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Smart Charging for electrical vehicles

ICT will play a critical role in the infrastructure to enable mass deployment of electric vehicles (EV). Charging large numbers of cars simultaneously across the electricity grid is challenging. With ICT-enabled solutions, real time information can be used to control EV charging and manage peak energy demand on the grid. This allows utilities to handle the added demand with only modest changes to the distribution network.

Connected buses in Curitiba

The 3.2 million citizens of Curitiba, Brazil and public transport operators are benefiting from an electronic ticketing and fleet management system enabled by mobile broadband in a joint project with Telefonica Vivo, Dataprom, and Ericsson. The city’s bus fleet serves 2.4 million passengers daily and is connected through a high-speed mobile broadband network that provides up-to-the-second information on a range of services. An Ericsson study found that a significant potential for CO2e savings as a result of the increased efficiencies.

Smart buses in Serbia

Under an agreement between the city of Pančevo in Serbia, Telekom Srbija and Ericsson, the citizens of Pančevo use the “smart services” of Eco Bus and Bus Tracker which make it possible for citizens to check the quality of the air in the city and the position of the bus in public transport at anytime or anywhere.

Research

Ericsson undertakes research and case studies, and contributes thought leadership in the shift towards a low-carbon economy. Life-cycle assessment is one way to assess the potential carbon dioxide emission reductions from Ericsson products and services as well as the enabling effect to other sectors of an ICT-based service. See our series of studies exploring ICT solutions and the potential carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions reductions they can achieve.

Climate Advocacy

Ericsson is actively engaged in driving a global policy agenda and raising greater awareness so that decision makers can hasten and strengthen ICT’s role to accelerate global progress towards a low-carbon economy. We take part in fora such as the global climate negotiations and the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, as well as the Broadband Commission and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), to advocate for greater uptake of ICT to achieve sustainability aims.

Rio+20

The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) brought together world leaders at a pivotal point in history. Ericsson and partners Mashable, the UN Foundation ad the 92nd Street Y extended that global conversation in the social media event, Rio+Social, featuring a wide range of thought leaders on many of the topics being debated at the conference. Listen to the conversation. In the lead-up to Rio+20, the report, “The Broadband Bridge: Linking ICT with Climate Action” was released by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development. The work was conducted by the Commission’s Working Group on Climate Change, chaired by Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg.

UNFCCC and COP-18

For several years, Ericsson has joined with other industry partners to represent the ICT industry in conjunction with the Conferences of the Parties (COP) annual sessions to assess progress and advocate the role of broadband as a solution industry in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process. At the COP-18 in Doha, Qatar in 2012 Ericsson supported the GeSI launch of the “SMARTer2020” report and also, together with the Broadband Commission, released the Arabic translation of “The Broadband Bridge: Linking ICT with Climate Action”, now available in six languages.

The Broadband Commission

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a public-private initiative, seeks to highlight broadband’s role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and in 2012 released its report, The State of Broadband 2012, signaling the need for greater digital inclusion. Ericsson’s CEO is Chair the Climate Change Working Group of the Broadband Commission which released the report, “The Broadband Bridge” in 2012 with high-level policy recommendations on ICT’s role in tackling climate change. A new study on broadband’s role in increasing access to education features case studies on two key initiatives from Ericsson and partners, Connect to Learn and Peace Earth.

UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

A new initiative to support sustainable development problem solving at local, national and global scales.

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative

Ericsson works actively as a member of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), a strategic partnership of the ICT sector and other organizations committed to creating and promoting technologies and practices that foster economic, environmental and social sustainability. Ericsson is a founding member, Board member and helps lead GeSI’s public policy work.

European Roundtable of Industrialists

In 2012 Ericsson joined the European Roundtable of Industrialists and its Working Group Energy and Climate Change, to futher dialogue on ICT’s role to address areas facing Europe such as energy security and emission reduction policies and regulations.