Green IT Begins with a Sustainable Telephone System

Written by Laura Toffali | February 3^rd, 2022

On a global level, we are increasingly becoming aware of our environment, the climate crisis and the sharp rise in energy costs. The last doubts have been erased: environmental sustainability is at the top of the agenda of politics, science and administration. The future belongs to companies that invest in sustainability.
     

Companies need to take a holistic approach in order to be sustainable and to protect the environment at the same time. This approach encompasses three dimensions: ecological responsibility, social equity and economic performance. These three dimensions are intertwined and must be considered in context so that products have as little environmental impact as possible while providing economic benefits and high performance.

The telecommunications industry and especially IP telephony and VoIP can set the grounds for creating environmentally friendly “green” information technology (Green Computing / Green IT).  Let us take a look at some green aspects.

Eco Rating: The New Evaluation System for Sustainable Mobile Phones

The five leading European mobile network operators - Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, Telia and Vodafone – launched the very first eco rating initiative in June 2021. This green evaluation system helps consumers to identify the most sustainable mobile phones while it motivates the mobile industry to reduce the environmental impact of mobile phones¹:

Recyclability: How easy can a device be dismantled into the individual components? Can the recyclable materials be recovered? What information on the recyclability of the materials is provided?

Resource efficiency: This factor evaluates the impact of rare raw materials used within a device (e.g. gold for the production of electronic parts) in terms of the depletion of limited resources.

Durability: How about the robustness of the device? How does the battery life perform and what warranty is given by the manufacturer for the device and the components?

Climate efficiency: Here, the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) during the full life cycle of a device is being scrutinized.

Repairability: The effort of repairing the device is assessed. This includes the phone design as well as other supporting measures to improve the life cycle by enhancing repairability, reusability and the upgrading potential.

These key criteria used for the Eco Rating evaluation are perfectly suited to assess business communications. In a world where professional users increasingly become aware that sustainability is an indispensable factor, businesses need to achieve sustainability goals in order to be (financially) successful.

Why have innovaphone Solutions been Green Right from the Start?

Based on these five criteria listed above, we can say that the VoIP solutions by innovaphone have been green ever since the first gateways were developed. At the time, it was even suggested to us to use a larger box because the price for such a small unit would be quite difficult to justify. As you can see: The minimal use of resources has only recently been perceived as an ecological advantage.

One of the main sustainability factors is the circular economy (CE) where materials are ecologically recovered to reduce waste and landfill. Unfortunately, the electronics industry in Europe does not yet have a widespread system on industrial level. This is quite a pity because on the one hand, the continent only provides limited raw materials such as gold, on the other hand, we have so many valuable resources locked up in form of unused waste.

The alternative is to minimize waste by stretching the life cycles of products. innovaphone gateways - manufactured in Germany - are built and dimensioned to run for decades without additional computers or servers. They further guarantee:

• Unlimited scalability in any direction
• Software updates
• Availability of licenses also for outdated versions

Businesses can rest assured that they have a communications solution that is always in tune with newly available technologies and current needs

What if the system breaks down during the course of its long service life? As one of only few manufacturers, innovaphone offers a repair service for the own products. This is a service that is in line with the company’s sustainability philosophy and one that opposes the trend for disposable products.

Higher Energy Efficiency of Products for Greener VoIP

Energy consumption of the innovaphone PBX including the collaboration and conferencing platform is the lowest available on the market today: With all features for 150 extensions, it has an average consumption of approximately 5 watts / per hour. With an estimated operation of 8600 hours per annum and - for calculation purposes - a runtime of 5 years, the energy consumption is a mere 215 kWh.

The same calculation based on an equivalent platform with an average consumption of 500 watts would lead to an energy consumption of 21.500 kWh. This leads up to a lower environmental impact and substantial savings of over 10 tons of carbon dioxide.

In large enterprise communications scenarios with thousands of users registered at the PBX, the required energy of the innovaphone platform is between 20 and 50 watts. Other manufacturers require many thousands of watts for an equivalent solution. The larger the number of the company’s office sites, the more pronounced the difference between innovaphone technology and other VoIP systems or traditional telephone systems.

To Sum it Up:

There are already many technological solutions available that could help us become more sustainable in the way we treat our planet. What really is needed now is a stronger sense of responsibility and a profound rethinking of our individual and corporate choices.

What better resolution could there be for 2022 than to implement a sustainable telephone system?

¹ https://www.ecoratingdevices.com