Telenor Group’s scientific research unit 'Telenor Research' has unveiled the seventh edition of “Tech Trends,” highlighting how technology and digitalization can enable a green transformation which they believe will define the upcoming year. Grameenphone revealed the research findings through an engaging event at GPHouse on January 24, 2022.
2021 has been yet another year of extreme weather events and record-breaking temperatures. These underline the challenges humans, wildlife, and nature come face to face with a changing climate. Yet, technological advancements and an accelerating digitalization of society give reasons for hope despite the gloomy outlook.
The core impression of the predictions for 2022 revolves around global climate change and its impact on our ecosystem. The trends predict how new-era advanced connectivity, climate-friendly energy-efficient modern hardware, edge cloud, and 5G technology will be more eco-friendly, increased demand for green job skills with institutions and digital learning platforms offering climate micro-degrees, an optimization war between companies to make devices more energy-efficient and environmental-friendly, a surge in climate aware influencers and taking the next generation’s expectations with importance to mitigate potential threats of the ‘great resignation.’ The report also has three tips on how businesses can avoid this threat once the pandemic is over. The trends are primarily influenced by the ongoing global pandemic and its consequences.
Trend 1: Green clouds on the horizon
Due to the immense growth in data usage, there is higher energy demand. Hence, cloud computing has seen exponential growth, and also Edge computing is expected to take over by an acceptable margin in the coming year. “We predict that 5G networks worldwide will have the capability to do local breakout of data traffic to and from Edge data centres,” says Bjørn Taale Sandberg, Head of Telenor Research. “We believe that energy-efficient Edge data centres reachable from mobile devices over 5G networks will start popping up, at an increasing rate, in 2022. As a result, energy will also be saved in data distribution networks since part of the data traffic and electricity will be transferred locally only.”
Trend 2: Big appetite for climate micro-degrees
With modern careers requiring employees and employers to get climate-friendly, there is a need to adapt to lifelong learning on sustainability. Environmental policy and regulation will also increase the demand for green job skills in 2022. “A growing number of businesses will implement green micro-degrees and courses as part of their ‘curriculum’ to slake the green knowledge thirst among employees. The businesses that fail to facilitate opportunities to acquire green online learning credentials on-the-job risk being perceived as less attractive in the eyes of new talent,” predicts Sandberg.
Trend 3: Optimise everything
The global need for greater energy efficiency has the chance to trigger the “optimization of everything” battle between consumer electronic manufacturers. “Devices consuming electricity now outnumber humans by four, and they will become even more dominant in the future. Since transforming our energy supply will take time, we need to optimize everything – not least the use of energy by our devices,” warns Sandberg. “Going forward, more companies will put enormous sums of money on the table to acquire the knowledge and assets needed to come out on top of the optimization battle.”
Trend 4: Here come the greenfluencers!
It has become imperative for influencers to acknowledge the young people’s climate engagement, especially through social media. With the recent disappointments from the UN’s Climate Conference (COP26) and a grim outlook in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report fresh in memory, there is now an expectation of seeing a new movement shape the world of social media, that is coined ‘greenfluencing’.
Trend 5: Don’t lose out on the ‘lost generation’
With work-from-home and such trends reshaping organizational preferences and cultures, companies must take the next generation’s expectations seriously to avoid facing great resignation. During the continuation of the pandemic, it will be tough for the young to establish and grow a personal network and acquire a general understanding of the corporate lingo and culture, as forming new social relations using only digital communication is much more challenging.
Bjørn Table Sandberg, Head of Telenor Research
People everywhere are waking up to the need to act on climate change and environmental degradation. For us in Telenor, it is key to understand how technology can both avoid being part of the problem and help in the transition,” reflected .
Yasir Azman, the CEO of Grameenphone
With the evolving climate change, Bangladesh has frequently been facing extreme climatic events, hindering our vision of sustained economic growth. We have achieved remarkable progress in digitalization, and now our mission is to adopt a more climate-friendly approach and safeguard our future through a green shift. This year’s tech projections show how technology and digitalization can play a pivotal role in making data transfer more energy-efficient, a battle for optimization, and climate enlightenment through digital micro degrees and greenfluencers are some of the trends that will deliver a more sustainable future.
