TELECOMS & SUSTAINABILITY
not going into the office on a daily basis .” By removing the majority ( or even all ) of the demand for enterprises to have a physical presence , digitalisation – along with the increasing shift towards using renewable energy and several other factors – becomes a powerful tool for reducing a business ’ carbon impact . “ Due to the shift to the public cloud , we ' re not seeing a linear increase in power consumption tied to IT services . Enterprises are getting more out of every kilowatt hour due to the economies of scale that are created by the public cloud ,” Erlandsson explains , adding that , “ the movement of things like devices to home use will not have much more than a marginal effect on power consumption .
33 % dematerialisation front-runners who expect to use allrenewable energy by 2030
Things like the need to heat offices – which is one of the major energy consumption factors for a modern enterprise – for example , will be dramatically reduced by the dematerialisation process , as more and more people work remotely .”
The global shift to remote work that Ericsson predicts will be a big contributor to dematerialisation , says Erlandsson , insofar that enterprises will , at a fundamental level , need less office space going forward – which also reduces the need for everything from heating , cooling and ICT infrastructure , to espresso machines and new ping pong paddles for the break room .
“ As we ' ve seen over the past year , technology really is enabling a significant shift towards a dematerialised workplace ,” Erlandsson explains . “ However , connectivity is a must .”
Essential Connectivity The past 12 months have already been an effective demonstration of just how essential connectivity – and the mobile network operators ( MNOs ) that provide it – have become to a world where hundreds of millions of people need the internet to work , not from their offices , but from their spare bedrooms , home offices and ( in the case of our editorial director ) the shed at the bottom of their garden .
If the dematerialisation of the modern enterprise continues , then the demands placed upon enterprises , MNOs and individuals are also about to undergo a fundamental shift .
Erlandsson , talking to me via Microsoft Teams , explains that , “ Right now , I ' m talking to you on behalf of Ericsson using a private fibre connection that I pay for myself . I ' m effectively subsidising
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