By Joseph Waring
Qualcomm talks-up green credentials
Chipmaker Qualcomm’s Chief Sustainability Officer Angela Baker expressed optimism innovation across the mobile industry and increased collaboration between organisations and government will drive significant reductions in carbon emissions.
Mobile networks are being designed and built in a more efficient manner, with the implementation of 5G inherently more sustainable than 4G, she added. “5G’s ultra-low latency and extreme reliability bring new forms of services, including everything from monitoring water usage in real time to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
She told Mobile World Daily ahead of her participation in the Going Green: Are We Meeting Targets? session the tech industry can work together to deploy 5G-enabled applications for improved energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewable energy, reducing the environmental impact of energy usage and making grids more responsive to actual needs.
In addition, 5G sensors can be deployed across the grid to detect and respond to spikes in demand, reducing the chance of power failure and voltage fluctuations.
The Qualcomm Aware IoT platform, designed to streamline supply-chain processes, was announced in mid-February. Baker said it will enable electric utilities, for example, to save money by monitoring grid assets and managing of decentralised resources, enabling faster decision-making for improved reliability.
In terms of corporate ESG initiatives, Baker said the company laid out a roadmap to reach net-zero emissions, which includes transitioning to renewable energy via long-term power purchase agreements, decarbonising its operations and working across its value chain on environmental efforts.