Groundbreaking Report on Best Practices in Subsea Telecommunications Cable Sustainability Supported with Funding from the Internet Society Foundation
LONDON – 18 January, 2024 – SubOptic Foundation, the charitable arm of the SubOptic Association which focuses its efforts on education and research, today announces the publication of the Report on Best Practices in Subsea Telecommunications Cable Sustainability.
Subsea telecommunications cables have long been recognized as enabling a more sustainable future, while they themselves have a marginal carbon footprint. Thus, they have often been left out of studies of internet sustainability. Yet the subsea telecommunications industry is making efforts to reduce its carbon footprint to an even lower level. The Sustainable Subsea Networks Report describes an array of existing and potential sustainable practices for the subsea cable industry. These include accounting and disclosing CO₂ emissions, setting targets, sustainable design and operations, purchase and installation of renewable energy, and recycling and recovery, among other areas.
Erick Contag, chairperson of the SubOptic Foundation, summed it up,“This report is the first major stepping stone in the SubOptic Foundation’s efforts to encourage and support collaboration among the subsea telecommunications cable industry on vital issues for our future. With the recent extension of our grant from the Internet Society Foundation, we’re anticipating even greater contributions to the industry and the global communications footprint in the future. I’d like to thank all of SubOptic’s members and others throughout the subsea cable industry who continue to be part of making this a reality.”
The research team is led by Dr. Nicole Starosielski, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and supported by SubOptic Association members companies and their representatives, who have collaborated to establish industry-wide cooperation on the critically-important initiative.
The Sustainable Subsea Networks Report was funded by the Internet Society Foundation. In December 2023, the Internet Society Foundation awarded the SubOptic Foundation a $500,000 renewal grant to continue this critical work to enhance subsea cable sustainability.
For more information about the SubOptic Foundation visit: https://suboptic.org. The full report can be read or downloaded at https://suboptic.org/page/sustainable-subsea-networks-report.
About the SubOptic Foundation
The SubOptic Foundation, established early in 2021 as the charitable arm of the SubOptic Association, focuses its efforts on education & research. The Foundation’s educational programs are designed to support the development of the future subsea workforce. The Foundation’s research programs are centered in areas where broad research and cooperative data-sharing would benefit the industry as a whole, including sustainability and resilience. The Foundation’s success in all of its programs is achieved through collaboration amongst SubOptic member volunteers from an array of companies who serve the submarine cable industry. Since its inception, the Foundation has hosted 10 local language symposia across the globe, each of which introduced university and maritime academy students to the technology and business of submarine cables. The Foundation’s initial research (2022-2023) into the submarine cable industry’s sustainability practices is continuing in 2024-2025 with the extension of a grant from the Internet Society Foundation. The Internet Society Foundation also recently awarded the Foundation a grant to explore the resilience of submarine cable networks.
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