Chinese telecommunication operators are continuing on their green track. At a recent eco-friendly conference, China Mobile announced that it aims to reduce its electricity consumption by 40% in 2010 (from 2005). 73% of CM’s electricity is consumed by the 200,000 base stations across China. This measure comes on top of the recycling centers already installed and projects to develop solar power in base stations and telecommunication centers.

The eco-friendly technologies are provided by Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel and Huawei. Nokia’s solution for 5′000 metropolitan base stations is expected to reduce as much as 73,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year - equivalent to the emission of 21,000 cars. By putting parts of the network not being used on standby mode, Ericsson announces 10 to 20% energy-savings per base station.

But then you hear about Huawei. The company claims that energy consumption of the equipment itself accounts for only 40% of operators’ total cost of ownership, the remaining 60% coming from air conditioners and other equipment. Their intelligent cooling uses fresh air as an alternative to air conditioning, a system that could save 30 to 70% of electricity. So much for high-end technology…

If every object had a label indicating the greenhouse gases it emitted, the label on your mobile phone would be much larger than that of your fixed-line phone.

This week China Mobile has received the first batch of the smallest and most energy-efficient GSM base station on the market. According to the industry, in a large metropolitan city with 5,000 base stations, the technology can reduce as much as 73,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to the amount emitted by 21,000 cars - the plan is to save up to 70% of mobile networks’ energy consumption.

The solution includes minimizing the number of base station sites by using software features to increase coverage, as well as minimizing the need for air conditioning to cool the sites. Utilizing software features to optimize the use of radio access for wireless communications is another element of the solution (as night base-station traffic is much lower than peak daytime hours, part of the base station can be closed or set on power save mode).

China Mobile is to collaborate with 15 equipment vendors to deliver on its “Green Act” which in the end aims to establish an electronic supply chain management system that improves energy efficiency in the provision of mobile services.

 P.S.: Ericsson base stations have been awarded a prize from the Chinese government for a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions associated with construction and a 40% reduction in energy consumption.

You are probably familiar with the fact that a large majority of computers and electronic components are either produced or assembled in China. You can now close the circle: about 70 percent of the 50 million tons of electronic waste produced globally each year is dumped in China, with most of the rest going to India and poor African nations.

As usual, there is a strong economic rationale for this round-tripping: for the West, where safety rules drive up the cost of disposal, it’s as much as 10 times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries.

A large part of the old computer parts, video games, computer screens, cell phones and electronics of all kinds actually ends up in Guiyu where the e-waste industry employs an estimated 150,000 people - mostly migrant workers. Experts estimate that more than 90% ends up in dumps that observe no environmental standards. 

What a waste!

P.S.: Watch also the documentary e-dump made by Michael Zhao

Have you heard of Bedzed, the environmentally-friendly housing development near London? Well, you can already forget about zero-emission cars or zero-emission buildings. You can even forget about Bedzed. Since 2005 a British engineering firm has been working on a project to develop Dongtan as the world’s first eco-city on Chongmin Island, off Shanghai. That’s actually 2 years before the UK unveiled its first zero emission home.

In theory, Dongtan will produce its own energy from wind, solar, bio-fuel and recycled city waste. Clean technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells will power public transport. A network of cycle and footpaths will help the city achieve close to zero vehicle emissions while farmland within the Dongtan site will use organic farming methods to grow food.

Surprised? You shouldn’t. China may already have overtaken America in greenhouse gases emission. The government has taken courageous measures to tackle the issue by passing an ambitious set of environmentally-friendly policies (e.g., reducing new building’s energy consumption by 50%). It is also betting on the innovation spur generated by domestic and foreign companies joining the green bandwagon. 

The project has nonetheless caused controversy. Nicknamed eco-Potemkin city, its detractors question whether Dongtan will be an eco-city with heart and soul and point out that it is only a showcase project, distracting from the much larger environmental issues China fails to address.

That’s missing the point. For sure, the final result won’t be exactly as planned: like any urban development project, people will twist the design and adapt it to their daily realities and yes, China’s massive environmental problems won’t go away. But even if Dongtan lives up only to half its expectations, it will still send a powerful signal to developers and policy-makers in both developing and developed economies to think twice about discarding utopian urban projects from the outset.