[LINK] Broadband Minister Launching Prize for Environmental Telecommunications

[Tom Worthington]

The Minister for Broadband will launch this years  Broadband 
Environment Challenge on 20 August 2008. The prize is for the best 
paper in the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (published by 
the ACS) on how to use telecommunications for environmental benefit. 
The deadline for submissions is 6 October 2008: 
<http://www.tsa.org.au/Other/eckermann_tja_prize.html>.

The full text of last years winning papers are available in the journal online:

    1. Broadband communication enables sustainable energy services, 
by Mike Dennis, Haley M Jones: 
<http://publications.epress.monash.edu/doi/full/10.2104/tja07025?cookieSet=1>

       Australia's electricity supply infrastructure requires 
investments exceeding $100b over the next 25 years to maintain 
quality of service to domestic users. Being careful to distinguish 
energy service needs from electricity delivery, the case is made for 
distributed energy services which offer improved sustainability 
outcomes to the traditional monolithic generation model. A key 
enabling technology for commercial success of the proposed paradigm 
is a broadband communication infrastructure. Broadband is essential 
in meeting the cost reduction and performance targets that would 
allow a distributed energy service model to succeed. Using broadband, 
a large number of novel business opportunities arise. A case study on 
solar water heaters is presented showing that a broadband enabled 
smart controller can realise 20% greenhouse gas savings for a 
conventional solar water heater and 75% savings for an electrical water heater.

    2.      Broadband telecommunications and urban travel, by R J 
Nairn: <http://publications.epress.monash.edu/doi/full/10.2104/tja07026>

       Energy consumption associated with transport is one of the 
major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. As the information 
economy expands, the potential to use broadband to eliminate a 
percentage of daily trips grows. In particular, broadband can make it 
possible for a percentage of the workforce to work effectively and 
efficiently from home on at least one or two days a week.

       This paper explores key economic and environmental benefits of 
a hypothetical 5% reduction in daily trips. Using a simulation model 
to assess the impact on traffic flows indicates that such a reduction 
would result in a 5.6% reduction in greenhouse emissions in Canberra, 
a low-congestion city, and 17% in Sydney. It would also result in 
savings of 5.54% in road maintenance, accidents, motorists' time and 
fuel costs or about $145 million annually or $1,000 per household by 
2011. In Sydney these would be 10.5% or $5 billion annually or $3,300 
per household.

    3.      Broadband and the environment, by Roger Saunders: 
<http://publications.epress.monash.edu/doi/full/10.2104/tja07027>

       Availability of broadband to rural and remote communities 
would enable agriculturists to use Landsat, Geo-positioning and 
Agronomy to better manage the environment. Landsat imaging has 
developed significantly since the first Landsat satellite launch in 
1965. Data now available from these can provide beneficial 
applications including improved water management, crop assessment, 
land clearing, soil erosion, salt contamination and pollution. Access 
by farmers and graziers to information and analyses from commercial 
organisations via high speed broadband on land conditions and the 
effects of some agricultural practices provides an opportunity to 
prevent or minimise environmental damage and support effective use of 
water resources.

    4.      The role of broadband in the quest for environmental 
sustainability, by Tracey Dodd: 
<http://publications.epress.monash.edu/doi/full/10.2104/tja07028>

       Broadband is changing the way in which we work, communicate 
and access information and entertainment. These changes have 
significant implications for environmental sustainability. Broadband 
is increasing the speed and capability of the Internet, generating 
new possibilities and making online applications far more attractive 
for businesses and the community. This paper discusses the role of 
broadband in contributing to sustainability under three headings; 
social, environment and economic.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University