Ericsson and WWF Sweden Partner to Promote Climate-Positive Solutions to Reduce Global CO2 Emissions

Many multinational corporations are making strategic moves to reduce their impact on the environment, improving labor standards, and increasing community involvement by implementing corporate responsibility programs. Ericsson, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of technology and services to telecom operators worldwide announced it was enhancing its corporate responsibility and sustainability program by partnering with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Sweden, which is the national office for the WWF, an international conservation organization "to encourage the smart use of telecom solutions across industries to reduce global CO2 emissions. To achieve this, they will work together to promote climate-smart telecom solutions, and introduce the concept of being 'climate-positive' to solution-driven companies in the ICT sector," according to a press release dated May 14, 2009.

The press release explains, "The partnership covers three key areas: a methodology for calculating CO2 savings from emission avoidance; the integration of low-carbon telecommunication solutions in climate strategies for cities; and a support platform for partnerships that promote a low-carbon economy."

While the information and communications technology (ICT) industry is responsible for approximately 2 percent of global CO2 emissions, the partnership will "help reduce more than 15 percent of the remaining 98 percent emitted by non-ICT industries and the public. The partnership aims to encourage other sectors, such as transport, buildings and energy, to better utilize ICT infrastructure and thereby reduce overall CO2 emissions."

"Ericsson and WWF Sweden estimate that smart use of broadband-enabled services can reduce CO2 emissions by a factor of 10-100, i.e. the use of a telecom service that emits 1kg of CO2 may enable a reduction of 10-100kg of CO2. Fixed and mobile broadband can play a leading role in improving basic services while reducing CO2 emissions - both by replacing physical products with services and by helping society to use resources more efficiently - and can accelerate the shift from physical to virtual infrastructure and services."

The partnership "will explore how to measure how an ICT company can help reduce significant amounts of CO2 in society with low carbon ICT solutions, thereby becoming 'climate positive', i.e. the use of a company's solutions are promoted and used in a way that result in much greater CO2 reductions than the company's internal emissions."

Ericsson's announcement concludes, "This partnership builds on seven years of interaction between WWF Sweden and Ericsson. Over the next six months, the partnership will focus on intensified effort to get ICT on the global policy agenda for the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen later this year." This is a good example how a corporation is partnering with a nongovernmental organization to make a positive difference on our planet.