Green Networks Index: round one

While there are several indicators and metrics in the telecoms sector, there is not yet a comprehensive or holistic metric to measure environmental sustainability. Thus, GSMA Intelligence has developed the Green Network Index (GNI), which proposes a single figure that attempts to summarise overall environmental sustainability for networks and outline an evolutionary path. This recommended figure includes 10 elements, including resource and emission efficiency, renewable energy usage, network performance, availability and vertical enablement, among others.

Despite the challenges and limitations of condensing these ‘green’ environmental
sustainability factors, the GNI attempts to provide a single overarching score of 0–100. GSMA Intelligence harvested 12 months of data from six networks across four regions, which collectively serve nearly 1.11 billion mobile connections worldwide and represent 13% of total cellular connections.