Carbon and energy

We are working hard to reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to Vodafone Group’s global target to cut CO₂ emissions by 50 per cent by 2020. We’re focusing on improving energy efficiency in our network, offices and stores and purchasing renewable energy when possible.

As a large energy user, we participate in the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme.

In our first CRC Footprint Report, we announced that our carbon emissions in 2010/11 were 144,402 tonnes of CO₂. This figure takes account of carbon emissions created by energy usage only. Our total carbon footprint – including road and air travel and refrigerants – for this period was 169,000 tonnes which was a significant reduction on last year’s figure of 201,000.

However, although we have reduced energy usage and improved efficiency this drop will also be partly due to improvements in monitoring and analysis of consumption in line with the CRC reporting requirements. We can now accurately measure our energy use in 76 per cent of our sites through automated meter reading (AMR) equipment. We are unable to accurately determine the savings for the remaining sites as the majority of the bills are estimated.

Our figure this year is much more accurate and allows us to benchmark against other organisations.

See Environment data for energy and CO₂ figures.