3 Ways to Reduce Carbon Emissions with Cloud Communications

As traditional communication solutions, which have a large energy footprint, fall short with sustainability, could cloud-based communications be the answer?

Environmental initiatives that still allow fulfilment of development goals have truly become the zeitgeist of our times. As traditional communication solutions, which are inefficient and have large energy demands, fall short with sustainability, we should ask the question, what can we do differently? Could cloud-based communications be the answer?

There are new solutions appearing every day, from carbon sequestration to space mirrors (yes, really), but what forms the base of all of these strategies, allowing for a truly global approach to the global problem of climate change?

A Connected World

Communications form the basis of the connected world in which we all now live, and therefore will be the bedrock of solutions that tackle climate change, allowing the sharing of ideas and data around the globe. But what can we do to ensure these communications themselves are sustainable?

The answer is CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service). Also known as a cloud communication platform, it allows companies to host their communications off-premise, which not only minimises a company’s communications carbon footprint, but has a multitude of other benefits including scalability, data sovereignty and high-level integration. So, let's break down the environmental benefits of a CPaaS solution.

• Use 70-90% less power and ensure renewable sources
  Efficiency is the name of the game. Reducing carbon emissions does not necessarily mean reduced output. A huge portion of power usage in business is wasted; in large offices it is much harder to keep track of energy draining devices. Migrating to a cloud solution eliminates the need for many of these devices, especially large hardware such as servers and the physical space required to house them, drastically reducing energy consumption.

  You may be asking “surely by moving to a cloud solution you are just shifting the energy requirements to another party?” This is true to a degree, however large companies use their enormous scale to their advantage. Data is considerably more efficiently stored at a large scale, and this scale also allows for more investment in policies and procedures that focus on sustainability.

  

  Amazon Web Services (AWS), which hosts Aculab Cloud’s data, leads this drive. AWS is on track with their pledge to power its operation with 100% renewable electricity by 2025. Considerable investment has already been made, with the building of solar and wind farms across the world. These projects, in combination with others such as responsible water Stewardship (for cooling data centres), results in a huge decrease in carbon demand.

  "When we factor in the carbon intensity of consumed electricity and renewable energy purchases, which reduce associated carbon emissions, AWS performs the same task with an 88% lower carbon footprint."

  Source: 451 Research, 2019.

• Work from anywhere, no need to commute

Working from home has become commonplace throughout the pandemic, with CPaaS forming part of the vital framework for this. By moving your communications off-premise, far less staff are required to be physically present to run the systems, and management of the systems can be managed from everywhere. Looking past the pandemic, the ability to work from anywhere has huge implications for carbon emissions (not forgetting productivity), with one study finding that 98% of an employee’s carbon footprint comes from commuting alone.

• Say goodbye to hardware, for good
  Communication hardware is not only expensive and energy consuming to run, it often becomes rapidly obsolete as new technology becomes available. Transitioning to a cloud-based solution enables you to keep your communications state-of-the-art, without having to repeatedly update, and consequently throw out, resource-heavy hardware. This could lead to drastically reduced, if not eliminated, capital expenditure on future upgrades, as new features can simply be added to a pay-as-you-go plan. Benefiting both the environment, and your wallet.

Looking to the future

Environmentally-orientated policies and procedures are no longer just a means of appeasing climate activists, they are crucial for the future of everyone: companies and consumers alike.

Cloud-based communications solutions are truly the future, allowing the world to continue to become ever-more connected without sacrificing the environment in the process.

To start building your cloud-based CPaaS solution, visit:
https://www.aculab.com/cpaas/

Written on 28 June 2022.