In its 2021-2025 Strategy, BEREC committed to contributing to the green and digital transition by supporting the ICT-related parts of the European Green Deal and international environmental targets.

In June 2022, BEREC published a Report on sustainability: “Assessing BEREC’s contribution to limiting the impact of the digital sector on the environment”. One of the toughest challenges identified in the Report was the lack of available data, as well as the need to adopt a harmonised approach to methodologies and standards for assessing the environmental impact of digital technologies. BEREC says that it is “committed to addressing these challenges”. Accordingly, in its Work Programmes for 2022 and 2023, BEREC included a new workstream on developing sustainability indicators for electronic communications networks and services.

BEREC’s draft Report provides a summary of the main findings from a BEREC call for input in 2022, which involved two questionnaires and a series of workshops with stakeholders to establish an overview of sustainability indicators currently used and perceived as relevant for assessing the environmental footprint and performance of the electronic communications sector.

The Report also presents a preliminary assessment of the main challenges and teachings regarding sustainability indicators for electronic communications networks and services.

The deadline for providing comments on the draft Report is 12 April 2023. To access the draft Report, click here.