BT Carbon Network Dashboard Debuts

January 20, 2023

BT made new digital tools to help multinational customers measure and optimise the carbon impact of running applications and cloud workloads across their network.

While the Carbon Network Dashboard gives a real-time view of power consumption, the Digital Carbon Calculator helps customers estimate their network’s carbon footprint.

The Dashboard uses machine learning to detect and predict anomalies based on historic usage. This includes which network devices are consuming the most power. Customers can also forecast total energy use based on their network inventory and historic utilisation.

To help understand how electricity consumption translates into carbon emissions, the Dashboard includes data from regional power grids showing their carbon intensity. In future, it will draw on wider real-time information sources such as renewable energy on national grids and in datacentres.

The Calculator scans the customer’s network inventory to estimate its carbon footprint and can track how this responds to changes and upgrades over time. It includes lifecycle management, highlighting devices at the end of service to prioritise for replacement. Customers can also choose to use the calculator by uploading an inventory of their network equipment for analysis.

The launch of the new tools will be extended to BT’s UK enterprise customers in the near future. It marks the latest step in the company’s delivery of its manifesto pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. According to Gartner, Scope 3 emissions — those generated across an organisation from its supply chain through to product or service delivery — are the most challenging to measure yet can account for over 95 per cent of the total.

Sarwar Khan, head of digital sustainability, Global, BT said: “With customers hosting more of their applications across multiple clouds, networks are now increasingly vital for all elements of business performance, including carbon impact. Our new tools empower customers to reduce their Scope 3 emissions by optimising their network or scheduling digital workloads when renewable energy is available, helping them to achieve their net zero goals.”