Vodafone last week announced that its European network will be powered by 100 percent renewable electricity no later than July 2021, creating a Green Gigabit Net for customers across 11 markets.
The company said sustainably will eventually be achieved using only power from wind, solar or hydro sources. Around four-fifths of the energy used by Vodafone’s networks will be from renewable sources obtained directly from national electricity grids via PPA and green tariffs. The remaining fifth, supplied by Vodafone’s landlords on buildings and other infrastructure, will be covered instead by credible Renewable Energy Certificates. Where feasible, Vodafone will also invest in self-generation on site, mostly via solar panels.
Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said, “As society rebuilds and recovers from the COVID-19 crisis, we have an opportunity to reshape our future sustainably to ensure that recovery does not come at a cost to the environment. Our accelerated shift to 100 percent renewable electricity on our European networks will change the way we power our technology for good – reducing our reliance on fossil fuels while helping our customers manage their resources more effectively and reduce their carbon emissions.”
Read said the new carbon reduction target was developed with support from global carbon and sustainability experts, the Carbon Trust. The Trust calculated the total quantity of emissions Vodafone has helped business customers avoid and has modelled potential future scenarios to inform Vodafone’s target setting in this area.
The Carbon Trust Chief Executive Tom Delay said: “There is a growing and important opportunity for the ICT sector to develop and enable new solutions that help drive decarbonisation and this target represents a very high level of ambition for Vodafone to continue to drive this strategy, further developing its IoT and other services, and engaging with its business customers.”
Vodafone’s markets in Europe include Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Romania, Albania, Czech Republic and Hungary.
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