Challenges of a sustainable information age

The Internet and the ICT (information and communication technologies) are now accepted as building blocks for economics, technological and social advancement worldwide. The Information Age and the evolution towards an e-society promise substantial benefits as the availability of broadband access continues to spread around the globe. However, the infrastructure on which our e-society relies is consuming ever-increasing amounts of power. The generation of this power is producing a rapidly increasing carbon footprint. Today ICT contributes approximately 2% of humankind's carbon footprint and this contribution is growing exponentially. This raises the question of whether or not our ongoing move into the Information Age is environmentally sustainable. The Centre for Energy Efficient Telecommunications (CEET), located at the University of Melbourne, is a new research centre with a sole focus on the energy efficiency and sustainability of telecommunications networks. This article describes the areas of CEET's research and their outcomes to date. © 2012 Swinburne University of Technology.