Summary Bullets:

• Virgin Media O2 reports significant direct carbon emissions reductions, climate-related efficiencies through smart meters, and progress in the circular economy with device refurbishment and reuse.

• BT’s trial of repurposed street cabinets for vehicle charging adds to initiatives and innovations that illustrate potential power of action by tech companies and customers.

In the week reported, the world’s oceans have broken temperature records every single day of 2023 and – shortly after – the UK government was defeated in court for not doing enough to meet its targets for cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it is encouraging to see telcos in the UK addressing the global climate crisis.

Virgin Media O2 reports it had reduced carbon emissions “by the equivalent of almost 15,000 UK homes’ annual energy use” in 2023. The company reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 (directly controlled/managed) carbon emissions by 23% year-on-year, meaning it is on track to meet its target of cutting these emissions 60% by 2025. Virgin Media O2 has also made progress toward having a fully-EV (electric vehicle) fleet by 2030.

Virgin Media O2’s ‘Sustainability Performance Update’ also shows that during 2023, its products and services have now prevented almost 60 million tons of carbon emissions entering the atmosphere through services such as powering IoT solutions like smart metering.

In addition, customers were able to carry out 2.2 million ‘circular actions’ through recycling old tech or by buying ‘like new’ refurbished smartphones. The company has achieved 4.7 million such circular actions against a target of 10 million by the end of 2025. The O2 Recycle scheme, which is open to all mobile users regardless of their network, saw almost 250,000 devices saved from landfill in 2023.

In parallel, BT Group has powered up its first EV charger from one of its ‘street furniture’ green cabinets, offered to the public free of charge as part of a nationwide pilot. The potential of this trial, if successful, is underlined by the fact that Scotland (the site of the trial) has 5,052 public EV chargers, which could be complemented by up to 4,800 such cabinets. Should EV charging become more widely available, it will help reduce ‘range anxiety’ (i.e., the fear that an EV will run out of charge mid-journey), one of the main barriers to EV adoption.

Despite great strides being made, the planet continues to grow warmer, and ‘low-hanging fruit’ solutions have been plucked. Increasingly, technology innovation and behavioral change will be required for long-term climate sustainability.

Aside from the responsibility we all hold to avoid climate catastrophe, it also makes sense commercially – a growing number of enterprises and consumers will only conduct business with telcos and other companies that provide demonstrable, validated commitments to address the climate crisis.