Communications services enable energy savings in a range of sectors and generate therefore significant positive externalities. In this context, the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 for Europe and the green transition go hand-in-hand in what is qualified as a “twin transition”. However, the energy consumption of communications networks is also increasing fast, and it is important to tackle the energy consumption of the networks themselves to reduce the energy impact.

The report reflects the following elements and provides:

1. The main findings from an analysis of the related literature and the state of the art in telecommunications sustainability indicators and recommendations from governmental, industrial and academic domains.
2. The results of an analysis of the current regulatory and standardisation framework for sustainability in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in general and telecommunication infrastructures in particular.
3. The results from the survey conducted between 26 May and 23 June 2023 where stakeholders from all relevant telecommunication sectors (e.g., telecom operators, telecom vendors, auditors and so on) provided input for the prioritisation of the indicators, potential areas to improve and challenges to address to implement and effective monitoring.
4. The findings from the stakeholder workshop conducted on 10 of October 2023 on sustainability indicators in telecommunication networks. More than 50 participants participated to the workshop with the objective to assess the preliminary findings from the JRC analysis and the results from the survey. In addition, participants shared their experience and the lessons learnt in implementing sustainability activities in telecommunication networks.

Among the 19 indicators analysed, the report identified 8 indicators that could be considered as high priority for the sustainability of telecommunications networks and are therefore classified as “Must Have”, 6 indicators with medium priority and therefore classified as “Should Have” and 5 indicators with a low priority and therefore classified as “Nice to Have”.

The identification and analysis of the main sustainability indicators is to prepare the ground for a future Code of Conduct for sustainable telecommunications networks – a related task under the Digitalising the Energy System Action Plan.