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Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
For Deutsche Telekom, developing and
propagating environmentally-friendly
technologies is not just an obligation
under the Global Compact and a moral
imperative, it is also a business opportu-
nity. According to the study Smart2020
Germany Addendum, around 207 mega-
tons of CO
2
equivalent can be saved
by 2020 with the help of intelligent
ICT solutions. Since 2007, the city of
Friedrichshafen has been Deutsche
Telekom’s future lab and partner under
the motto “T-City Friedrichshafen. Living
the future.” Taking a medium-sized city
in Germany as an example, the project
has realized examples of the Group’s
vision of connected life and work. The
findings from numerous projects are
currently being used across Germany,
for example in public administration,
as well as by energy providers, private
enterprise, and citizens.
From test to reality
Take, for example, De-Mail, the first form
of binding and secure electronic commu-
nication. Before this secure mail service
was launched across Germany on Au-
gust 31, 2012, De-Mail had already been
piloted for six months in T-City Fried-
richshafen with 40 participants from
companies and administration andmore
than 1,000 retail customers. The service
not only helps to save time andmoney, it
is also environmentally-friendly. The In-
stitute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut)
in Freiburg drew up the product carbon
footprint for De-Mail in accordance with
ISO standard 14040/14044 and calculates
that De-Mail can save 77 percent of the
carbon emissions produced in the send-
ing of conventional letters. Based on
2013,
this corresponds to 25,801 metric
tons of CO
2
or the annual energy re-
quirement of around 10,500 four-person
households. Even if some De-Mail users
also print out the relevant documents,
there is still a savings potential of 64
percent. For 2015, Deutsche Telekom
assumes even higher CO
2
savings.
In the energy segment, T-City
worked with Technische Werke Fried-
richshafen and other partners to ex-
tensively test the requirements for a
smart grid. In the future,
smart meters
and
smart grids
will offer consumers
greater transparency and thereby help
to manage their electricity consumption
in a more targeted way and save energy.
But real-time information will also be
required to make the grid fit for a future
in which electricity will increasingly be
generated locally by a large number of
different producers through the inclu-
sion of renewable energies.
The initial test phase in 2008 fo-
cused on smart meters. Some 300 in-
terested users tested the equipment in
their homes and gave feedback on the
Piloting the Future:
Environmentally-friendly
Technologies
Innovations are the key to ensuring the future of our society. Whether smart grids, networked
transportation, and mobility solutions or virtualization of products – information and com-
munication technologies (ICT) offer a wide range of solutions. But in order for a new invention
to make it, it has to go through stringent practical testing. In T-City Friedrichshafen, the
world’s largest living lab, Deutsche Telekom has been testing new environmentally-friendly
technologies for the last six years.
Deutsche Telekom
By Katja Brösse and Rainer Knirsch, Deutsche Telekom