Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
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ITU-GeSI report uncovers opportunity to decrease e-waste
External power supply standards to enable
truckloads of efficiency gains
Geneva, 18 September 2012 – A new ITU-Global
e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) report reveals that standards for the
manufacture of external power supplies (EPS) could enhance their reliability and
extend their lifecycle while decreasing their average weight by up to 30 per
cent. This could eliminate 300,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, the report
estimates. Putting this in context, this amount of waste, equivalent to sixty
per cent of current annual EPS e-waste, would form a 300km truck-jam, every
year.
In addition, the report highlights that standardizing efficiency
characteristics could reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions of EPS by between 25 and 50 per cent.
Finding a large variation in the weights of EPS, the report titled,
An Energy-aware Survey on ICT
Device Power Supplies, underlines a major opportunity to reduce the weight
of chargers across a range of power-supply categories, to increase their
reliability and lifecycle and enable their effective reuse. It also highlights
marked variations in the energy efficiency of different EPS, with some operating
at an efficiency level more than 10 per cent below the mean.
Noting that roughly four billion EPS are produced each year, weighing roughly
a million tonnes and resulting in 500,000 tonnes of e-waste, the report points
to an urgent need for standards to correct glaring inefficiencies in the EPS
production process.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré said, “An economic culture
prioritizing energy efficiency and environmental responsibility is the only
means through which we will create sustainable models of economic growth. In the
ICT sector, international standards present the ideal mechanism to encourage an
industry-wide commitment to these essential values.”
Luis Neves, Chairman of GeSI, said, “Every bit of e-waste we avoid or energy
efficiency we gain will translate directly into increased future capacity to
invest in innovation and progress; funds that would otherwise have been required
to retroactively correct mistakes of the past. I expect to see the
recommendations of this EPS report quickly reflected by international ICT
standards and the practices of equipment manufacturers.”
The study analyzes 300 commercially available EPSs, testing the correlation
between chargers’ weight, volume and supplied power. It is authored by Raffaele
Bolla, Roberto Bruschi and Luca D’Agostino (Department of Communication,
Computer and Systems Science (DIST), University of Genoa) and available from
ITU’s website
here and GeSI website
here.
The survey was commissioned to contribute to GeSI’s growing body of thought
leadership on ICT and sustainability as well as to assist in ITU’s
Standardization Sector’s (ITU-T) “green” standardization activities. Its
findings will provide input to ITU-T Study Group 5’s work on the second phase of
Recommendation ITU-T L.1000 on a
Universal
power adapter and charger solution. See
Press
release.
ITU’s second annual
‘Green
Standards Week’ (GSW), currently being held in Paris, 17-21 September,
features e-waste as a key topic for discussion. It aims to stimulate the
creation of international ‘green ICT’ standards with a view to advancing the
capabilities of ICTs to boost environmental efficiency across all industry
sectors.
Journalists wishing to attend should email Toby Johnson at
toby.johnson@itu.int. Remote
participation is also available via
https://join.microsoft.com/meet/t-veroha/Q7ZSLN0Z
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Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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Alice Valvodova
Executive Director
Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)
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Web: www.gesi.org/
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About ITU...
About GeSI
The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) is a strategic partnership of the
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)sector and organisations committed
to creating and promoting technologies and practices that foster economic,
environmental and social sustainability. Formed in 2001, GeSI’s vision is a
sustainable world through responsible, ICT-enabled transformation. GeSI fosters
global and open cooperation, informs the public of its members’ voluntary
actions to improve their sustainability performance, and promotes technologies
that foster sustainable development. GeSI has 31 members representing leading
companies and associations from the ICT sector. GeSI also partners with two UN
organizations - the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) - as well as a range of
international stakeholders committed to ICT sustainability objectives. These
partnershipshelp shape GeSI’s global vision regarding the evolution of the ICT
sector, and how it can best meet the challenges of sustainable development.
www.gesi.org