Steve Rogerson listened to Vodafone’s Marc Sauter explain how IoT can help with sustainability.

Sustainability is one of the big buzzwords across all industries these days. Now, I admit, I am not a big fan of buzzwords, as it usually involves a word or phrase that gets corrupted to mean whatever the speaker at the time wants it to mean. And, yes, that is true to some extent with sustainability.

However, the big difference, and I think in this case it really is a difference, is if we don’t get it right, if we don’t meet our net-zero targets (another buzzphrase, is that a word?), if we don’t tackle climate change, then everything else we do shrinks to an irrelevance as we won’t have a liveable planet.

Ok, I will put a halt here. There are scaremongers in the sustainability camp, and I don’t believe everything is quite as bleak as some say, but that should in no way stop us tackling this and doing our bit. And the thing with the IoT industry, is not only can individual companies contribute to sustainability but the technology we have can help others do the same. Take Vodafone (www.vodafone.com), for example.

I was at a talk this month at the Move mobility show in London given by Marc Sauter, head of IoT product management for Vodafone. He gave the now routine company pledges of achieving net-zero by 2040 plus reuse and recycle promises for next year. But, he also talked about the benefits IoT as a technology can contribute.

“We want to use IoT to avoid 350 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030 for us and our customers,” he told the audience. “That is an example of the impact IoT can have on our planet.”

Note the “and our customers” bit. That is the difference for IoT companies, he explained, for there are millions of IoT devices out there collecting data all the time. Those data can be made available in real time to drive better decision making when it comes to achieving sustainability.

And, of course, they give the now known benefits of increasing productivity with predictive maintenance, improving the customer experience by giving them peace of mind about what is happening with their products and services, letting firms develop new business models, and so on and so on.

Marc focussed his talk on three key IoT technologies – NB-IoT, LTE-M and iSIM.

“NB-IoT lets us enable many more uses cases with better indoor coverage to reach gas and water meters and underground pipes and cables,” he said. “It is very integrated, so a smaller package and it uses less energy.”

He said LTE-M was good for replacing 2G services and enabling many more use cases. But he kept his biggest praise for integrated SIMs, or iSIMs.

“I am super excited about iSIMs,” he said. “With iSIM, a SIM card is not needed. It is software that runs on the existing silicon in the device, so you need fewer raw materials. We don’t need to produce two million SIM cards every year. And it is more efficient when it comes to power consumption.”

To back up his promotion of these three technologies, Marc looked at some specific use cases. For NB-IoT he explained how LeakSafe (leaksafe.com) was using this to prevent water damage by detecting leaks earlier.

“Water is a very precious resource, which you don’t want to waste,” he said. “A leak can also cause extensive damage to buildings.”

Sensos (sensos.io) is improving supply chain efficiency and parcel tracking using iSIMs.

“They have developed an intelligent smart label that can be attached to a parcel that can monitor where it is and whether it has been opened,” he said. This is a dual-mode NB-IoT module with an iSIM embedded into the label.

Sycada (www.sycada.com) is using IoT to manage public transport electric fleets as they navigate the transition from fossil fuels to electric vehicles.

And, finally, One Solar (onesolar.de) is using IoT to monitor and connect solar parks.

“This gives access to how the solar panels are working anywhere in the world using industrial SIM cards,” said Marc.

So there we are. An IoT company not just explaining its own sustainability targets but providing practical help to others to do the same, from monitoring solar panels to preserving water.

“With IoT, you can connect anything, everywhere and at any time to transform life or business,” said Marc.