The Sustainable Network: The Accidental Answer for a Troubled Planet

The Sustainable Network demonstrates how we can tackle challenges, ranging from energy conservation to economic and social innovation, using the global network–of which the public Internet is just one piece. To help solve a myriad of problems today, author Sarah Sorensen points out that the best tool for enacting change already exists, lying literally at our fingertips. This book demystifies the power of the network, and issues a strong call to action.

The Sustainable Network For the first time see your relationship with the global network

Can you really save the planet by using the Internet more? The quick answer to that question is yes. The thoughtful answer is explored in The Sustainable Network, which takes a look at the role the Internet and all the other networks that connect the world’s computing devices have on the way we are living our lives, conducting our politics, running our businesses and impacting our planet. The network offers us a sustainable platform for change, but to use it to its full advantage we must understand it; we must understand how it works, how it’s integral to our daily lives and how its potential can be tapped more effectively to tackle our toughest environmental, social, economic and political problems. Here are four things you can do now to support a sustainable network:

The network is more than just wires and cables; it’s the answer to our future

Evaluate and recognize the impact of networks on your life today. The Internet has more than likely changed your relationships and many ways that you go about your daily life. It’s important to recognize, in real terms, both the possibilities and holes created by the network in your personal, civic and business activities. Take stock of the new prospects it’s created, new challenges you face, and the level of your reliance on it every day. The goal is to identify how you want to maximize potential and minimize risk.

Invest in the future to take advantage of the opportunities created by the network. Learn as much as you can about what the network really is. You should be able to define it (broadband, 3G, smart grid, etc.) and link that to your future opportunities. Learn how to use new network tools to establish connections to information and people, to give you access to the resources you need to make informed decisions. In business, evaluate your infrastructure in terms of scaling and new requirement adaptability. Investment, time and financial, is critical to participating in the digital world.

A sustainable earth involves everyone, connected and informed

Protecting your personal information, intellectual property and digital assets. It is critical to be aware of the risks you are taking when sharing information and resources online. There are precautions and security measures you can take to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of your online activities. Risks in the digital world need to be understood before they can be combated, and it’s important to understand the tradeoffs, strengths and weaknesses of the digital world as an alternative to the physical one.

Test new ideas. Look for additional ways you could leverage the network to achieve your plans, improve economies of scale or reduce your impacts. Examine your mindset, regulatory landscape, business culture, process and policy environment and ask whether they support change. The more willing a government, business or person is to take a look at the way they normally operate and identify opportunities for improvement and innovation, the better the chance they will be able to effectively leverage the network and new technologies to solve problems and accelerate success. It’s critical to identify and then clear the hurdles and embrace necessary changes to keep up in this fast-paced world. Thinking and answering these broad questions in our own, individualized terms will enable us to find our place in this global network. And then together we can develop more sustainable environmental, economic, social and political models. The Sustainable Network sets out to help each of us understand the network and its role in our lives, so we can nurture our relationship with it–our individualized and collective futures depend on it.

Photos courtesy of Kate Richards.

Sarah Sorensen is the principal of Sorensen Consulting, a sustainability and strategic communications consultancy. She spent eight years at Juniper Networks in a variety of product and corporate marketing roles. During her tenure, she created and managed the Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability strategy and was a founding member of the company’s Green Taskforce, which is responsible for driving energy efficiency initiatives within the engineering and product teams. She also managed Juniper’s business announcements, crisis communications and public sector outreach, and spent half a decade marketing the company’s security technologies. A graduate of UCLA (1996), where she majored in English and was a member of UCLA’s Division 1 women’s soccer team, she has focused her efforts in branding, marketing, communications, and public relations for both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. She has developed and written dozens of white papers, byline articles, and presentations on and about the networking and security industries.