According to developers, “The technology has been developed with the support of Amazon, Microsoft, Sky and the Carbon Trust. While 4 billion connected devices consume a global energy volume similar to that of France, this is the first innovation in the methods of accurate tracking and reduction of carbon emissions created by them.”.
All of these IoT-enabled products-including smart TVs, home assistants, and many others-consume huge amounts of energy, and most of their carbon footprint is consumed in the “use phase” or the period while a device is in active use and sipping power. The companies are aware of the fact that this phase requires accurate measurement and have therefore designed a method that will help companies approximate real-time emissions with accuracy, instead of older estimates of lifetime emissions. This program will support better energy use but also give consumers more control over their energy footprint.
Use-Phase Emissions
The actual lifecycle emissions impact of a device therefore is very much attributed to its use phase. As such, this phase stands out as one of the greatest contributors to carbon emissions for the tech industry, which happens to occur when the devices are actually using energy directly from the power grid. Through Samsung and its partners’ new emissions quantification method, firms will now be able to calculate the actual emissions and make intelligent, data-driven decisions that relate to reducing the carbon footprint of their business.
Developed in cooperation with the Carbon Trust, a global consulting organization at the forefront of sustainability, the Samsung-led project is one example of concerted efforts by some of the major technology players to address the environmental footprint of connected devices.
Advanced Monitoring: With Samsung’s SmartThings Energy App
Along with the adoption of this emission-tracking feature, Samsung is focusing on equipping its customers with the resources to actively reduce their energy usage. The SmartThings Energy application enabled Samsung to help its users track their usage through connected devices and also inform them about the potential savings on energy usage. Hence, it is important to enable the consumers to develop healthy habits of sustainable energy consumption in their daily lifestyle in light of growing connectivity in today’s lives.
Using the SmartThings platform, Samsung enables the consumer to quantify and control their energy use. That is how this plays out within the firm’s broader sustainability goals. More than that, it also comes together with AI-driven recommendations to help the user further minimize their carbon footprint by using the SmartThings Energy app.
Working Together for a Global Challenge
This collaboration between the likes of Samsung, Amazon, Microsoft, Sky, and the Carbon Trust is a big alignment of industry leaders in terms of cohesively addressing use-phase emissions. Each organization contributes its own unique expertise to the table and permits a shared methodology to be applied across the tech industry. Involvement by the Carbon Trust also ensures that this initiative will meet international standards on sustainability, an approach that balances technological progression with environmental responsibility.
This is an industry-wide acknowledgement that as connected devices increase in number, so does their associated footprint. However, new data now suggests that the energy consumption of connected devices is now the same size as that of entire countries, thus making it more pressing for technology companies to design in solutions that proactively seek to manage and minimize the footprint.
An Industry-wide Impact on Sustainability
With this effort to measure and offset its use-phase emissions, it can be considered the most promising step toward a more sustainable technology. It allows companies in the industry to move ahead and take proactive steps regarding the control of emissions, the optimization of energy use, and the establishment of new standards of sustainability for connected technologies.
This new approach, supported by huge technology firms, shall make it an industry practice. The coming years shall use these innovations to mold how companies account for their emissions and guide product design toward energy efficiency.
Future of Emissions Management for Connected Devices
Further refinement and application of this methodology by Samsung and its partners will make this approach a common methodology in so many industries, including technology, but not limited to healthcare, transportation, smart cities, and many more. Greater integration of AI and IoT technologies calls for relevant data on emissions to foster sustainable innovations in these spaces.
The most significant progress in the context of the tech industry would be designing and launching equipment that could measure energy consumption and even modify it in real time. This, in turn, would significantly help save carbon footprints. Additionally, with a tool such as Samsung’s SmartThings Energy app offering emission data, consumers will become active contributors to the reduction of energy consumption and serving environmental purposes.
Conclusion
Samsung Electronics, Amazon, Microsoft, Sky, and the Carbon Trust have come together in a new partnership to meet the growing urgency of sustainable solutions in technology. Now that connected devices are most probably taking an even larger place in people’s lives, the initiatives from energy consumption to reduction in emissions should not be ignored. In companies using this cooperation, a precedence in accountability and sustainability may be set and give birth to guidelines that may define tomorrow’s connected technology.
This new measurement methodology for use-phase emissions is actually an important step forward in the global pursuit of reducing the environmental footprint of technology. The more companies adopt these tools and empower the consumer to monitor energy usage, the more meaningful steps the tech industry at large could take to ensure climate goals and reduce its impact on earth.
Source: Samsung Electronics