Greentech Lead Europe: TeliaSonera on Tuesday said it would target to reduce CO₂emissions by 20 percent per subscription equivalent by 2020 compared to 2012.
The telecom major will also increase energy efficiency by 20 percent per subscription equivalent by 2020 compared to 2012, TeliaSonera said in its annual report for 2012.
The targets — previously announced its January 2013 — will be reviewed annually by TeliaSonera’s management.
During 2013, the mobile giant will define how these targets will be integrated into business plans in practice, with measures designed to speed up their implementation.
The ICT sector was estimated to contribute 1.9 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 2011 and this share is expected to increase to 2.3 percent by 2020.
TeliaSonera decided to set targets that apply its knowledge of annual average energy consumption levels per subscription type, obtained through our performed life cycle assessments.
Subscriptions for services such as IPTV use more electricity than M2M subscriptions, for instance. The company therefore need to calculate a weighted average figure for subscriptions and this figure we have named “subscription equivalent”.
TeliaSonera’s environmental work
The company is presently running many newly launched and on-going initiatives designed to reduce emissions and increase energy-efficiency.
These initiatives mainly aim to reduce energy consumption, hence reducing costs.
Though TeliaSonera identified more than 20 such projects across the Group in 2012, it has not yet defined a coherent way to measure their overall impact for example in terms of quantifiable emission reductions.
Examples of these initiatives include:
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A Gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certificate awarded to TeliaSonera Finland’s head office building in December 2012. To obtain this globally recognized third-party audited certification, improvements were made in the premises’ electricity consumption, water usage, lighting, heating and cooling. We were both first telecom operator and first with such a large building to receive LEED certificate in Finland.
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The increased use of solar powered base stations for instance in Nepal and Uzbekistan.
The SMARTer2020 report claims that 16.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions could be prevented. The sectors where ICT solutions can reduce emissions particularly include agriculture, transportation, buildings, energy production and manufacturing.
Awareness of the significance and consequences of climate change and global warming varies in the different countries where TeliaSonera operates.
The SMARTer2020 report points out that opportunities to mitigate emissions through ICT solutions in different countries will depend on local conditions including ICT penetration, economic structures, public awareness of climate change, political will, and income levels.
The role that the ICT sector can play in enabling other industries to reduce their carbon footprint is widely recognised. This makes intensity target relevant. To the emission scope we include Scope1 and Scope2 emissions from GHG protocol.