SUSTAIN-6G publishes new deliverable on Sustainability Values and Key Value Indicators for 6G
The SUSTAIN-6G project has published its new public deliverable D2.2 “Key values and needs for sustainability, including KVI definition process”, providing a structured methodology to define sustainability requirements for future 6G systems.
As part of Work Package 2 “Sustainability landscape, needs, and methodologies”, the deliverable establishes a framework to identify sustainability needs, define key values, and develop Key Value Indicators (KVIs) that can support the assessment of sustainability objectives across different 6G scenarios.
The methodology developed by SUSTAIN-6G follows a six-step process, starting from the analysis of sustainability impacts and stakeholder identification, followed by the definition of sustainability needs, key values, KVIs, and finally sustainability requirements.
The approach has been applied to 11 use cases, including a mobile network operator scenario and use cases from three key vertical sectors:
- Agriculture: temporary connectivity for rural areas, edge task offloading, agricultural data services, and API-driven environmental protection
- Energy: 6G-enabled grid balancing, resilient grid operation, and joint 6G/smart-grid infrastructure planning
- e-Health: concurrent surgical planning, remote rehabilitation assessment, and federated medical data management
The deliverable addresses all three sustainability dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. It identifies common sustainability requirements across sectors, including improved energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, inclusive access to digital services, data protection and transparency, operational efficiency, market fairness, and supply chain resilience.
A key contribution of this work is the establishment of a traceable link between stakeholder needs, key values, KVIs, and sustainability requirements. This provides a common reference for 6G system designers, researchers, standardisation communities, regulators, and industry stakeholders working towards more sustainable communication systems.
The results will support further SUSTAIN-6G activities related to sustainability assessment and evaluation, contributing to the project’s objective of developing a holistic end-to-end sustainability framework for 6G.
The deliverable is publicly available on Zenodo:
https://zenodo.org/records/21394423
McCarthy, C., Sayrac, B., Fahimullah, M., Complido, E., Bezzi, M., Carwile, L. P., Briguglio, L., Fayad, A., Gede, B., Matinfar, S., Gavras, A., Reutemann, M., Gimpel, S., Becker, S., Jung, J., Novaresio, A., Goix, L.-W., Chiaroni, D., Anaba, B. E., … Koutantos, G. (2026). D2.2 Key values and needs for sustainability, including KVI definition process (Version 1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21394423
