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Work item:
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L.1510 (ex L.KPIs_Infrastructure)
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Subject/title:
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Environmental key performance indicators for digital infrastructure adapting to climate change
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Status:
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Under study [Issued from previous study period]
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Approval process:
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AAP
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Type of work item:
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Recommendation
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Version:
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New
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Equivalent number:
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-
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Timing:
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2025 (Medium priority)
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Liaison:
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-
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Supporting members:
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China Telecommunications Corporation, Kenya, Telecom Italia and China
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Summary:
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Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential to enable infrastructure operators to measure their progress against their sustainability goals and to act where needed to ensure they remain on target. However, at present operators take different approaches to what KPIs they report, and the methodologies used to calculate the KPI values. As operators face similar green & low-carbon and sustainability challenges – and as other stakeholders – investors, end-users – will increasingly wish to understand and review the sustainability of businesses – it makes sense to review the sustainability KPIs used in the industry and to seek the development of industry agreed KPIs. This recommendation takes up the challenge of identifying KPIs for green and sustainable digital infrastructures adapting to the challenges of climate change.
In this Recommendation, the key performance indicators on assessing the environmental impact for digital infrastructures are presented. These KPIs include greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, water usage, power supply, ecosystem, waste and indirect enablement of GHG emission reduction, etc.
For adoption and use of green and sustainable network KPIs, the following points are considered:
– Identifying key metrics and developing a unified methodology for the industry.
– Industry efforts to identify and adopt KPIs enabling more granular reporting. For example, allowing operators to drill-down on the specific issues such as energy use in each part of the network – mobile, fixed, core – and ideally, at least for internal assessment, to the level of specific geographies and sites.
– Definition and adoption of structured and evolving reporting standards to facilitate the evaluation of the KPIs in an automated manner.
This Recommendation is intended to build upon and utilize the best practices of other telco sustainability benchmarking frameworks and related KPI definitions (such as ones proposed by GSMA [b-GSMA ESG Metrics]), and also leading consulting companies [b-ABI research] [b-STL Partners] [b-GlobalPartners]. The KPIs and the review framework are presented as a first step towards in-depth analysis of the sustainability requirements. As the industry gains experience with the metrics, the KPIs and the framework are expected to ensure that it is fit for purpose. This ensures that the KPIs and framework continue to be aligned with work in other industry bodies – with the ultimate aim of ensuring a single set of industry wide agreed KPIs.
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Comment:
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-
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Reference(s):
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Historic references:
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Contact(s):
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First registration in the WP:
2022-07-07 15:48:47
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Last update:
2025-06-13 12:31:56
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