Sustainable Subsea Networks
Remote Work Carbon Emissions Savings Calculator
May 2022
Based on data provided by industry partners, SSN researchers develop the first calculator in the industry to measure carbon emission savings in transitioning to remote work. Plot the meeting frequency, timeframe, number of participants per meetings, as well relevant information related to travel to find out how much CO2 your organization can save per each project.
R&G Partners with the SubOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks Initiative to Strengthen Best Practices and Sustainability Programs in Latin America
Mar. 2022
R&G joins a global initiative and pioneers a journey towards net-zero emissions with important milestones.
Focused specifically in data center sector and subsea telecom services.
WFN Strategies Announces Suboptic Foundation Partnership
Feb. 4, 2022
WFN Strategies, LLC, a leading submarine cable planning, engineering, and implementation firm with significant sustainability expertise and experience announced the commencement of a partnership with the Sustainable Subsea Networks Initiative of the SubOptic Foundation.
SubTel Forum & the SubOptic Foundation Announce Sustainable Subsea Column
Jan. 2022
Submarine Telecoms Forum Inc. and the SubOptic Foundation announce the creation of the Sustainable Subsea Column in SubTel Forum’s Bi-Monthly Magazine.
Uptime Punks - “Forget about the satellites”
Aug. 12, 2021
In August 2021, Nicole Starosielski was featured on Uptime Punks, a podcast that interviews experts and professionals involved with digital technology. In the interview, Nicole offers a background for subsea cables, including the book The Undersea Network, and gives insight into the underappreciated role of subsea cables in internet infrastructure, highlighting the work of the Sustainable Subsea Networks research project. For anyone who is unfamiliar with subsea cables, their role in global communications, this interview is a good place to dive in and start to forget about those satellites.
“Blue Solutions to Greening the Internet” presented at “The Cost of Convenience” at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Cambridge
Jun. 17, 2021
Two of our researchers, Anne Pasek and Hunter Vaughan, were invited to participate in a workshop on technology and the environment in June 2021, hosted by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge. The presentations from the workshop were published in a zine. Their contribution, “Blue Solutions to Greening the Internet,” suggests that research into the subsea cable network would not only expand our understanding of the environmental impact of subsea cables, but might offer a “Blue Solution” for a more sustainable internet in general. Through conversions to renewable energy and expansion of internet data traffic along the subsea network, subsea cables can replace the need for terrestrial, carbon dense data centers. This would have broader social and political implications, especially for the small island nations and coastal municipalities that host cable landing stations and which face uncertain energy futures and increasing rates of sea level rise.
International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) Virtual Plenary 2021
May 19-20, 2021
In spring 2021, two members of our research team, Nicole Starosielski and Anjali Sugadev, introduced the Sustainable Subsea Network research project at the ICPC plenary to members of the subsea cable industry. This presentation offers an excellent primer and background for our team's mission, activities, goals, and motivations. In the talk, our researchers describe the significance of our study for the subsea telecommunications cable industry. We highlight the existing sustainability initiatives of the industry and alert the public to subsea cables' value to a more sustainable internet infrastructure in the future. The research team also offered a survey for industry feedback.
WLRN - “In Hope To Quantify Carbon Emissions Of Internet, Miami Plays A Major Role”
Mar. 10, 2021
WLRN, Miami and South Florida’s public radio station, featured a story in March 2021 that focused on the area’s local connection to the subsea network. Miami and South Florida are hubs for the flow of information between the Americas and Caribbean Islands and are areas that are already experiencing the direct impacts of climate crisis. Two of our primary researchers, Hunter Vaughan and Nicole Starosielski, were interviewed for the story and offered their expertise on the relationship between environmental issues and digital media infrastructure. Additionally, the story highlights the Sustainable Subsea Networks research project’s role in understanding the overall impact of internet infrastructure on the climate and environment. This story, like our research project, brings attention to the specific, local conditions and contexts of the communities implicated in the subsea cable network, such as Miami.
Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference 2021
Jan. 17-20, 2021
At the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference in January 2021, our team recorded a video poster introducing the Sustainable Subsea Networks project to members of the subsea cable industry and details some of the project’s history, emerging from SubOptic’s Global Citizen Working Group. Featuring all of our team’s primary researchers as well as representatives from the subsea cable industry, the poster outlines our research questions, the scale and scope of the project, and plans for eventual research results and deliverables. This video provides a succinct overview of the project and would be useful for anyone looking to understand what our project intends to accomplish.
