Scope
This document/report, titled “Identifying common indicators for measuring the environmental footprint of electronic communications networks (ECNs) for the provision of electronic communications services (ECSs)”, was published in 2024 by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) (the European Commission’s science and knowledge service), which has the objectives to:
- analyse the sustainability of fixed and wireless telecommunications networks in terms of environment, climate, and energy aspects,
- identify sustainability indicators which can be commonly collected and reported across Europe,
- preparing the ground for a Code of Conduct for telecommunications networks is a related task under the Digitalising the Energy System Action Plan.
The objective is achieved by an extensive analysis of 19 sustainability indicators in the context of telecommunications networks, selected from ongoing activities in the area and parallel studies from various stakeholders in telecommunications: telecommunications operators, vendors, integrators, and regulators, most notably a study by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC 2023).
Its scope is restricted to network infrastructure and equipment of mobile and fixed telecommunications infrastructures. While important, this scope does not include users’ equipment like mobile phones, tablets, and even TVs or customer premises equipment (CPE).
Summary
The report provides key information that can be categorised into 3 points:
- an overview of the basic concepts in modern telecommunications networks and a description of the technological evolutions that may impact the estimation of the sustainability indicators for telecommunications networks.
- a review of the standards related to sustainability indicators.
- analysis of key indicators on the basis of the results from the survey, the feedback from the stakeholder workshop and the input from the desktop research.
1. Overview of concepts and the architecture
An overall telecommunications network architecture (see figure below) is introduced.

2. A review of the standards related to sustainability indicators
The main standards related to sustainability indicators are summarised, mainly within ETSI, ITU-T, ISO and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). A summary is provided in a table format in Annex C. The standards are summarised with number/ID, date, and title/short introduction.
Besides, the detailed relevance between the standards and the indicators is also summarised in 3.
3. Analysis of key indicators on the basis of the results from the survey, the feedback from the stakeholder workshop and the input from the desktop research
16 key indicators are discussed, including:
- Energy consumption, Energy efficiency, Use of renewable energy (rate), Carbon emissions, Use of renewable energy, Distribution or utilisation of recycled/refurbished/reused products, E-waste production.
- Recycled/refurbished/reused components used in products. Expected lifetime, Recyclability, Reparability, Raw Materials/Resources depletion, Waste heat recovery, Water usage / Water consumption.
- Land use, Eco toxicity, Human toxicity, Eutrophication.
All the indicators are studied from the perspectives of desktop literature research, stakeholder workshops, ranking, and outlook for a future Code of Conduct. Based on the studies, the significance of the indicator (relevance with network components, implementation cost, audit), standardisation progress, and metrics are discussed.
Besides, the report suggests priority for the indicators to be considered for the sustainability of telecommunications networks: bullet 1 as “Must have,” bullet 2 n 2 as “Should have,” and bullet 3 as “Nice to have.”
Relevance for EXIGENCE
The architecture is referrable to architecture; standard summary is referrable to requirements and scenarios, architecture, dissemination, exploitation; the indicator analysis is relevant to requirements and scenarios.