IEEE OFCCT 2023: Keynote 1.3: The IEEE INGR Drives Carbon Footprints & Enables a Sustainable Future

Sustainability is something we see getting increased attention these days and hopefully for motivation to drive actionable solutions toward more energy-efficient systems and reducing carbon footprints as opposed to simply paying lip service to the need to be more "green" or even mere carbon neutrality (a.k.a. - net zero). Most analyses of system energy consumption, whether it be systems physically constrained to a box or even widely distributed across geographies, tends to focus on the first-order energy footprint typically associated with the application lifetime, which is very closely related to the operational expenditures (OPEX) of the use case. Being green from an energy perspective is now becoming green economically, which is helping to drive massive investment and the switch to a net-zero mentality toward macro energy utilization. This keynote will first provide some terminology, metrics, and general assessment philosophies for defining the true energy footprint of a design and what aspects must be taken into account to fully and comprehensively articulate the complete embodied energy of a system from cradle to grave based on the most recent work of the IEEE International Network Generations Roadmap (INGR) Energy Efficiency Working Group.