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By: Tim Young

“Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.” -Thomas Edison

Mind share is a thing so terribly easily lost.

A concept or movement that seems to be driven by limitless momentum, propelled by zeitgeist, can just as quickly become overexposed and wither. It is regretful that the “green” movement has shown signs of this overexposure. Massive greenwashing efforts have resulted in increased difficulty in telling meaningful effort from marketing hype, and terms like “sustainable” have been applied recklessly.

Yet, beneath the marketing noise, the smarter bits of the “green” movement are really about increased efficiency and responsibility. Communications service providers, like other major enterprises, have the opportunity to simultaneously increase their efficiency and enhance their bottom lines while simultaneously reducing harmful effects of their activities and enhancing their positive image among consumers. Legitimate sustainability is a win-win.

In this issue of Pipeline, we address the topic of efficiency as an opportunity for both cost reduction and decreased environmental impact. We explore how service providers are addressing energy use in their network infrastructure and data centers and how OSS/BSS vendors are helping to enhance that efficiency. We investigate how workforce and fleet management can ease the monetary and carbon cost of massive service fleets, and discuss whether eBilling is fulfilling its promise. We look at how major carriers are reducing their environmental impact today, and how that might continue to change as we approach a wide array of emissions reduction targets over the next few decades.

In all of this, we seek to uncover the solutions that exist right now that can address the problems that service providers will continue to face for years to come. There’s a great deal to be gained from avoiding waste through intelligence, which is what major OSS/BSS solutions are really all about.

Enjoy,

Tim Young, Editor-in-Chief