This week, all eyes will be on Glasgow, Scotland, as the world leaders come together at the 26thUN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), to discuss how to tackle climate change.
But government intervention and regulation is only one piece of the puzzle. We will only be able to increase action on issues affecting the climate if communities and organisations change the way we do things.
The good news is that businesses are already on that journey, us included. However, as a provider of the technologies that can help businesses cut emissions and run more sustainably, we know we have a dual role to play in response to Climate Change, both for ourselves and in partnership with others.
One particularly exciting area where we can see this is in our work on the Internet of Things (IoT) which is evolving how we work and collaborate with our customers in the name of climate change.
Addressing our footprint
As a global organisation active in 70 countries, I’m aware of the impact we have on our planet.
That is why last year, we committed to eliminating our own carbon emissions, becoming net zero by 2040 and by reusing, reselling or recycling 100% of our redundant network equipment by 2025. And we’re already making headway, launching our Eco-Sim cards across Europe, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa and having shifted our European operations to renewable energy sources.
We call this the Green Gigabit Net. Available for our customers across 11 markets, our European network is entirely powered by renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydro energy.
Around four-fifths of the energy used across our networks will be from renewable sources obtained directly from national electricity grids via PPA and green tariffs, with the remaining fifth covered by credible Renewable Energy Certificates. Where feasible, we are also investing in self-generation on site, mostly via solar panels.
Enabling others to accelerate change
Alongside our own commitment we have also given ourselves a target to help our customers reduce their carbon emissions by a cumulative total of 350 million tonnes globally between 2020 and 2030 – which will largely be delivered via IoT.
From wineries and farms, to ice cream stores and flour mills, IoT is being used to transform business operations by autonomising processes and creating better access to data.
Less than a year after we made our commitment, the Carbon Trust has calculated that we helped our customers avoid an estimated 7.1 million tonnes of CO2e during FY21, with more than 54% of our 123 million IoT connections directly enabling customers to reduce their own emissions through services such as logistics, fleet management and smart metering.
Our commitment to you
Using our leading IoT platform is just one way we can maximise efficiency and optimise operations whilst having a positive impact on the environment.
As a founding member of the European Green Digital Coalition, Vodafone Business as a whole, believes success shouldn’t come at the cost of the planet. We are committed to making a change ourselves and to supporting our customers to make their operations more profitable and more sustainable at the same time.
Together we can tackle climate change and achieve sustainable business success.
