Sustainable Subsea Networks
Publications
Industry Reports + White Papers
Report on Best Practices in Subsea Telecommunications Sustainability
A report that chronicles the best practices for sustainability in the Subsea Cable industry, and provides additional recommendations for a sustainable future for the industry.
By Nicole Starosielski (Lead Author), Iago Bojczuk, Anne Pasek, George N. Ramírez, Nicholas R. Silcox, Anjali Sugadev, and Hunter Vaughan
Jan 2024
Peer Reviewed Academic Articles
ICT Environmentalism and the Sustainability Game
By Hunter Vaughan, Anne Pasek, Nicholas R. Silcox, Nicole Starosielski
This article describes how the term sustainability has been deployed by tech companies, and how these efforts have also been contested – and strategically mobilized – by activist environmental non-profits and critical scholars seeking to reform tech sector practices.
Nov 2023
Flying the Skies to Wire the Seas: Subsea Cables, Remote Work, and the Social Fabric of a Media Industry
By Iago Bojczuk, Nicole Starosielski, and Anne Pasek
This study investigates air travel in industry operations, the industry’s response to COVID-19 and remote work, and its implications for mobility and sustainability.
Sept 2023
Disaggregated Footprints: Infrastructural Literary Approach to the Sustainable Internet
By Nicole Starosielski, Hunter Vaughan, Anne Pasek, and Nicholas R. Silcox
In this article, our team argues for an approach to addressing the sustainability of the internet that emphasizes local conditions, including local infrastructure needs, local climate, local environmental contexts.
Aug 2023
Sustainable Subsea Networks: Connecting Ports, Ships, and Cables
By George N. Ramírez
This short article demonstrates one of the key inflection points in creating a sustainable internet: attention to the ports and marine vessels that are imbricated in the subsea network.
Jun. 2023
The World Wide Web of Carbon: Towards a Relational Footprinting of ICT's Climate Impacts
By Anne Pasek, Hunter Vaughan, and Nicole Starosielski
This article assesses debates around footprinting the ICT sector, arguing that, due to data frictions and incommensurate study designs, the question is likely to remain irresolvable at the global scale. In response, we propose an alternative approach that reframes the question in spatial and situated terms.
Jun 2023
Climate Change Impacts on Subsea Cables and Ramifications for National Security—A Legal Perspective
By Anjali Sugadev and Nicole Starosielski
In this legal study, we explore the lack of existing policy for ensuring cable protection against environmental threats, particularly those facilitated by climate change.
Apr. 2023
Magazine and Press Articles
Why Sustainability Matters to Us
By Nicole Starosielski
In this article, we interviewed our team members, including researchers and industry participants, and had them explain why our work is important to them.
Sept 2024
Generation Connect: An Interview with Alwyn Du Plessis on Cable Recovery and Recycling
By Isabelle Cherry
In this column, we are launching a new series in which we have a undergraduate or young member of our research team interview members of the industry. In this case, Isabelle Cherry -- an undergraduate researcher -- interviews Alwyn De Plessis of Mertech Marine about recovery and recycling.
Jul 2024
Sustainability Best Practices for Subsea Cables
By Isabelle Cherry and Isabel Jijon
In this editorial in Sea Technology Magazine, two of our researchers summarize and advertise our findings from the Best Practices Report, highlighting emergent ocean technologies for the magazine's audience.
Jul 2024
“ستدامة لأنظمة الكابلات البحرية: بناء مستقبل أخضر (Sustainable Subsea Networks: Building a Greener Future for Global Connectivity"
By Hesham Youssef, Habiba Salem, Mariam Reda, Isabel Jijon, Iago Bojczuk, and Nicole Starosielski
In this editorial in TelecomArabiaReview.com, our global research team amplifies our work so far and calls for more participation among the cable industry in the MENA region.
Jun 2024
What's in an Efficiency Metric?: The Case of PUE at the CLS
By Iago Bojczuk, Ella Herbert, Michael Brand, Hesham Youssef, and Nicole Starosielski
We explore the most common metric used for sustainability in data centers and cable landing stations -- power usage effectiveness (PUE) -- and details its usefulness and limitations for measuring sustainability for the subsea industry.
May 2024
The Role of Regulation in Recovering Decommissioned Subsea Cable
By Anjali Sugadev, Isabelle Cherry, Michael Brand, and Michelle Else George
In this special feature, our team explores the role of environmental regulation in encouraging or preventing subsea cable recovery and recycling, a key strategy for the sustainability of the industry overall.
Mar 2024
PTC 2024: A Review from Gen Z
By Michael Brand, Isabelle Cherry, Ella Herbert, and Isabel Jijon
Our undergraduate researchers describe their experience at PTC '24, what they learned about sustainability, and offer insight into the younger generation's passion for a sustainable future.
Mar 2024
Sustainable Subsea Networks in the MENA Region
By Iago Bojczuk and Nicole Starosielski
For this month's column, we report on our experience at COP28 and the Egypt SubOptic Symposium and describe the sustainability efforts and subsea industry in the MENA region.
Jan 2024
What Does Greenhouse Gas Regulation Mean for Marine Operations?
By George N. Ramírez and Nicole Starosielski
In this column, we evaluate the IMO and European Commission's new marine regulations and provide guidance for marine operators on how to consider this regulation and future sustainable development.
Nov 2023
Carbon Offsets Versus Removals: Tips for Avoiding Scandal and Building Credible Sustainability Practices
By Anne Pasek, Nicholas R. Silcox, and George Ramirez
In this iteration of our column, we explore the world of carbon offsets and offer guidance for subsea companies interested in using offsets or carbon removals to reduce their net emissions.
Jul 2023
The SubOptic Foundation Congress on Sustainability
By Iago Bojczuk
The SubOptic Foundation Congress on Sustainability made subsea history as the first intentional gathering of members from across sectors and around the world to discuss metrics for sustainability in the subsea cable industry. This article discusses the conversations that took place in Bangkok, Thailand.
May 2023
Sustainability at PTC ’23: Three Takeaways
By George N. Ramírez and Nicole Starosielski
Sustainability was a hot topic at this year’s Pacific Telecommunications Conference. This article highlights three takeaways about sustainable practices and development: a focus on cooperation and collaboration, the need for immediate actions that build toward long-term sustainability, and a call for better metrics and data sharing.
Mar 2023
A New Era of Sustainable Network Hubs?: The Subsea Cable – Data Center – Renewable Energy Connection
By Iago Bojczuk, Nick Silcox, Nicole Starosielski and Hunter Vaughan
This month’s Sustainable Subsea column asks: how have certain locations emerged as cable hubs, and how did these cable connections become intertwined with the data center landscape? Given that companies are increasingly pursuing net-zero goals, how can networks of the future be connected to renewable energy developments?
Jan 2023
Greening of Maritime Ports: Is Regulation the Game Changer?
By Anjali Sugadev, Sorcha Ffrench, and George Ramirez
The subsea cable industry depends on a fuel-intensive marine fleet to install, maintain, and repair cables around the globe. Yet this fleet is almost entirely absent when it comes to discussions of the environmental impact of digital media technologies. For this article, we interviewed port authorities around the world to better understand their capacity to reduce emissions and pave the way for a more sustainable future.
Nov 2022
More Cables = Less Carbon?: The Internet's Contentious Carbon Footprint and a Subsea Solution
By Nicholas R. Silcox, Anne Pasek, Nicole Starosielski, and Hunter Vaughan
In this article, we describe why these debates have reached an impasse and how this lack of consensus can be expected to continue. We argue that the subsea cable industry’s smaller carbon footprint, high reliability, and low environmental impacts could be leveraged to create a lower-carbon internet infrastructure as a whole.
Sept 2022
Calculating a Subsea Footprint
By Kristian Nielsen
This column article discusses how Universal Jointing (UJ) can serve as a model for collaboration and points out five areas where progress can be made: systems design and engineering; survey; system manufacture and installation; operations; and life cycle. We also argue that sharing data across the industry can actually be helpful from a business perspective.
Jul 2022
Flying the Skies to Wire the Seas: Should the Subsea Cable Industry Stop Traveling?
By Nicole Starosielski, Iago Bojczuk, and Anne Pasek
For our third “Sustainable Subsea” column in SubTel Forum, we discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on travel across the subsea industry to explore the extent in which stakeholders will continue to rely on the new modalities of remote work.
May 2022
Energy + Telecommunications: Bringing Together Two Worlds at the CLS
By Nicole Starosielski and George Ramirez
In “Energy + Communications: Bringing together Two Worlds at the Cable Landing Station,” we discuss the ways cable landing stations can develop more sustainable practices.
Mar 2022
A Blue Industry Going Green
By Nicole Starosielski and Nicholas R. Silcox
Our first article in SubTel Forum's new “Sustainable Subsea” column, “A Blue Industry Going Green” highlights the sustainability initiatives of three subsea cable companies.
Jan 2022
Blue Solutions to Greening the Internet
By Anne Pasek and Hunter Vaughan
Featured in Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy's The Cost of Convenience on September 2021.
Sep 2021