On the Sustainability of Communications and Networking

For what concerns sustainability, information and communication technologies have always been perceived very positively since they enable the deployment of innovative solutions for energy efficiency, resource consumption reduction, environmental monitoring and control. However, the pervasiveness of these technologies, combined with the popularity of the provided services and products, are transforming the sector in a remarkable responsible of carbon emissions and, hence, of climate changes. The sector has to be viewed under a new perspective, new design paradigms have to be developed for a sustainable future of these technologies and new energy-aware attitudes towards the provided services and products have to emerge.In this paper, we review some of the data behind the concerns about information and communication technologies sustainability. We then identify possible actions such as the systematic integration of renewable energy sources, the development of energy-aware mechanisms for the operation of the infrastructures, the proposal of new circular and sharing economy models.