Elements of Sustainable ICT pt. 10 (On Sustainability In ICT Business Context)

Telco is about logistics, you can think about it as in transferring data (goods) from place A to place B. Telco uses the most energy in Mobile Access (first principles dictate this).


Kalle Tolonen
March 27, 2025


Telia would like to halve the emissions in value chain by 2030 and reach net zero by the same date, also zero waste by 2030, this is done, ie. via a supplier code of conduct that mandates the rules of doing business with Telia. This is probably a good approach, since most of Telia's emissions come from it's supply chain.

Corporate emissions are calculated from spend/revenues, which is not ideal, but it's a starting point. Telia communicates that sustainability is important to them. They have a third of their annual report dedicated to the topic. Corporate customers are interested in sustainability and consumers don't really care about it in a same manner. Telia doesn't really use it's batteries for energy arbitrage (used for USP-uses as mandated by regulation). Finnish electricity network is good, so we have same price on the whole country. Big companies can make PPA's for electricity, when they agree to buy x amount of electricity from a wind farm or some other form or generation. The forms of PPA are: - Virtual PPA (Supports renewable generation) - Sleeved PPA (Via an electricity company) - Physical delivery (Actual energy from utility)

Key learnings

  1. Phone leases actually increase phone lifespan, since the leasing company is paying for the lease if the device is at someone's table drawer
  2. Electricity price lock in is problematic, since the prices are dynamic
  3. Dollar cost averaging is a good strategy
  4. Telia used 95% in energy, 4% in district heating and 1% in fuel
  5. KPI for energy is kWh/GB with good enough quality

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