Member company: Acome
Country or geographical scope: Europe
Period: 2021 and beyond
Company type: Vendor/Reseller
Product/service category involved: Drop cable
Abstract
Assessing the carbon footprint of the network infrastructure by using Product Environmental Profiles, (PEP), shows that a significant part (35% in our model) of the passive infrastructure carbon emissions comes from the last 100 meters. Drop cables are the necessary links that generate the main part. As small installation lengths are required and mostly handled by hand, drop cables usually come in drums of shorter length. This leads to an increase in the number of drums, and consequently to a reduction in the maximum shippable length per pallet. The redesign of the drop cable using an eco-design approach made it possible to go from 3 km of drop cable per pallet to 12 km, therefore drastically reducing the logistics carbon footprint.
Context
Assessing the impact in order to reduce it. Based on the principle that we cannot improve what we are unable to measure, ACOME evaluates the carbon impact of its products by using Product Environmental Profiles (PEPs).
A PEP is a type of EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). It can be used to create an environmental identity card for a product. A PEP is based on the results of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which takes into account all the life stages of a product, from the extraction of the raw materials, to the manufacture, right until the end of its life, not forgetting the transportation and use of the product.
Environmental impact calculations are carried out using dedicated life cycle assessment and eco-design software. Finally, all rules are verified by an approved third party, thus ensuring the compliance and neutrality of the data made available on the PEP ecopassport® website.
PEP ecopassport® is an international environmental reporting program created in 2009 by industrial partners and in collaboration with the European Commission with the aim of establishing a Europe-wide environmental regulation, the PEF (Product Environmental Footprint). The objective is to establish a common reference framework for calculating and then reporting the environmental footprint of a product in a rigorous and transparent manner. PEPs are therefore widely used in Europe. This standard framework for life cycle assessments (ISO14040 / ISO14025) was supplemented with the drafting of the PCR (Product Category Rules), which includes rules on the generic calculations for a family of products, and the drafting of the PSR (Product Specific Rules), which defines the sub-rules for specific calculations for optical equipment.
Different environmental indicators emerge from this rigorous calculation method, including the GWP or Global Warming Potential, also known as the “carbon impact” of the product. This indicator, whose unit is kg CO2-eq, counts the gas emissions contributing to the greenhouse effect that are produced throughout the product’s life.
Solutions
As the assessment framework is based on the environmental declarations produced, it is possible to calculate the carbon impact distribution across the passive infrastructure of an optical network.
By using on a simplified model that only takes the products into account (i.e. it excludes civil engineering and installation), we can sum up the different contributions of the elements that make up the passive infrastructure of the network and then break this down to a carbon weight per subscriber. In this analysis, it is already interesting to note that a PON architecture consumes approximately 65 kg CO2-eq per subscriber. This means that it consumes 40% less CO2 than a point-to-point architecture. This is due to the intrinsic pooling of fibres in this type of PON architecture and the use of passive coupling elements.
By analysing the overall impact per subscriber in a PON architecture (cables/connectors/cabinets), we can see that the "transportation" part only represents 5% and the "distribution" part 60%, but the "connection" part alone represents 35% of the overall carbon impact of the passive architecture.
Over the many kilometres of optical cables required to connect the central unit to the subscriber, you can see that the carbon weight is mainly accrued over the last few metres of the connection. In fact, the less fibre there is in the optical cable, the greater the impact of the fibre protection elements on the carbon weight. For example, a single-mode optical fibre has a carbon weight of approximately 2.6 kg CO2-eq/km. For example, in a 48-fibre cable the carbon weight per fibre is amount to 6.6 kg CO2-eq/km. All the optical fibres contained in this cable represent 40% of its carbon weight. For a single-fibre connection cable, the carbon impact of the cable can be up to a hundred kg CO2-eq/km, but the fibre itself only accounts for around 2 to 3% of this. The rest comes from the protection elements surrounding the fibre. In view of this information, it therefore seems quite logical that the carbon weight of products increases the closer the cable is to the subscriber.
So, let’s focus on the last few tens of metres of drop cable that link the optical connection point to the subscriber’s home. Let's look at the results of the eco-design methods that Acome uses to reduce the carbon impact of this last section of the infrastructure which is so significant when it comes to the overall carbon impact per subscriber.
Results
The example of eco-design used here is that of a subscriber drop cable which is widely used in the French market and designed to meet the connection needs of FTTH access networks. This drop cable is strippable and can be used for the overhead or underground connections of individual houses. It is an optical cable without intermediate splicing that goes from the optical connection point located in the street to the optical wall outlet located in the subscriber's home. This type of cable uses strippable technology. This means that the cable sheath tears when the cable is installed inside the home, saving time and reducing the TCO. By avoiding splicing, the optical budget of the FTTH network is also improved.
As explained above, the carbon impact per subscriber is largely in this section of the connection. It is therefore necessary to innovate in order to reduce this impact. The originally designed single-fibre drop cable, which meets current standards and specifications, had a carbon weight of 120.4 kg CO2-eq/km. The environmental assessment of the life cycle carried out showed that the main part of the carbon impact came from the manufacturing. Some of the processes and cable engineering have been redesigned to reduce inputs of certain materials. The new generation of drop cable resulting from this eco-design phase now has a carbon impact of 89.8 kg CO2-eq/km, a reduction of over 25%, but still has the same very good traction and handling performance which ensures the durability of these sections of the connection cable.
The distribution logistics also makes a signification contribution to the overall carbon impact calculated in the life cycle assessment of a connection cable. To reduce the impact, we need to rethink the distribution phase based on the idea that the truck that does not drive is the one that pollutes the least. More concretely, to reduce the carbon footprint it is preferable to optimise the filling of the truck with well-thought through, but also with more environmentally friendly packaging.
This type of drop cable is packaged on small 500 m drums, so that it can be easily handled on the field by the technicians that make the connections. It should be noted that the first generations of this cable were packaged by pallets of 3 km (i.e. 6 drums, with 3 levels of 2 drums). The desire for eco-design has forced us to come up with more innovative solutions. The new cable design made it possible to reduce the size of the barrel and cable drum, in order to increase the amount of drop cable per pallet to 9 km (3 levels of 6 drums). Finally, a final step in the optimisation of the packaging and a new arrangement of the pallets then made it possible to pack 12 km on a similar pallet (4 levels of 8 drums). All this work on packaging multiplied the truck filling rate by 4 and drastically reduced the carbon impact of the distribution logistics of these drop cables.
Conclusions
To conclude, we have seen that it is possible to act and innovate on all stages of a product's value chain in order to minimise its carbon impact. Whether in terms of the choice of materials, the production processes, the packaging or the distribution logistics chain, each choice can have a positive impact.
Here we have taken the example of an optical drop cable, which can seem like a small part of the picture as only a few tens of metres are used in the overall passive infrastructure of an FTTH architecture. However, analysis models show that these sections are actually very significant when it comes to the overall carbon impact per subscriber of the passive infrastructure of the network. The environmental analyses produced allow us to carefully assess and identify the areas where we can act and innovate to minimise our impact.
Further reading
[Publication] Impact of choices and uses on the network carbon footprint
[Magazine] ACOME INSIDE : Carbon transition
Contact
Xavier RENARD, Telecoms Marketing Director, Telecom Business Unit, ACOME
xavier.renard@acome.fr