Inspiration, Innovation & Adventure

I saw this article in the Sunday times on the weekend and it sparked my interest. It’s good to see that Vodafone are addressing this. I wrote a similar article about O2 and it’s abundantly clear that running a network of masts, repeaters and buildings etc consumes a significant amount of power. I’m not too sure who provides the power for the Vodafone network but with the ESB’s 22bn investment in harnessing wind and hydro electric power I certainly hope to see operators move onto greener platforms for both the significant savings and the moral obligation to reduce power consumption and carbon emissions.

Brian H Fitzsimons

Sunday Times (Supplements), page 2
Vodafone developing responsible soiutions to environmental challenges
Author/Credit: Unknown @ Sunday times

Energy efficiency is a key item on the agenda of our cross functional Environmental Management Team who meet fortnightly. This team is challenged with meeting the overall Vodafone Ireland objective of reducing our energy consumption per megabit of phone traffic by 50 per cent by 2011. Fundamentally this commitment means the business aim to keep energy consumption sustainable while continuing to grow our network coverage and capacity.

It’s not only the internal management team who are driving this agenda, we have found that harnessing the interest and commitment of our employees in the area of climate change has resulted in environmental rewards. Our internal environmental messaging via e-zine, monthly employee presentations and face to face activities all support the engagement of Vodafone employees to ensure delivery against our environmental targets. So what are we at Vodafone actually doing? What makes us different?

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Air conditioning

As part of our Energy Efficiency Programme, we have identified those Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) sites across our network with inefficient cooling system configurations. Since 2003 we have:

• Replaced older air-conditioning systems with more efficient Inverter-driven units at over 150 BTS sites

• Reconfigured existing systems at a further 100 sites

• Replaced older air-conditioning systems with ventilation at another 200 BTS sites

• Planned our network, so that less than 10 per cent of new sites need to use air conditioning

These measures have led to a BTS energy savings totalling 3,000,000 kWh in the last three years.

This means that, while the last three years have seen a 20 per cent increase in BTS sites, total energy consumption for this period across all our business operations has increased by less than 5 per cent. So, as our business expands, we’re beginning to break the link between economic growth and energy consumption. This is a crucial step on our journey as a responsible modern business.

Headquarters

We’ve implemented a number of energysaving initiatives at our MountainView Headquarters. These include:

• Optimising operating hours: aligning the operating hours of the building services with staff working hours

• Consolidating staff operations: concentrating ‘out-of-hour’ staff operations in one block of the building, allowing all services in remaining blocks to be turned off

• Reducing light levels: dimming lights to match required levels of operations. Light levels have now been dimmed to an average of 70 per cent. Decorative lighting in non critical areas have been turned off permanently

• Using off-peak presence detection: employing presence detection technology to turn off lights in unoccupied building areas between 7pm and 7am

• Using variable speed drives: allowing for the adjustment of ventilation rates to match ventilation requirements during times of low building occupancy

• Reducing the threshold for the use of fresh air ventilation

Since our headquarters Energy Efficiency programme began in 2004, it has delivered an annual reduction of electricity consumption of 2M kWhr, and total savings of 6.3M kWhr. This is a saving equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 1800 houses.

Between April 2004 and February 2008 we made annual gas savings of over 3M kWh, with a total gas consumption reduction over the past four years of 9,700,000 kWhrs. This saving is equivalent to the annual heating requirement of 500 houses.

Vodafone has been shortlisted for the Thermal Energy category of the Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) Awards for the gas savings made at our head office Energy initiatives

We’ve also made progress in promoting and implementing renewable energy initiatives:

• Our retail outlets now use 100 per cent renewable energy

• Vodafone, where possible, purchase renewable electricity for our BTS network with 90 per cent of power purchased from green suppliers

•We have held employee energy awareness weeks where information has been provided on the Vodafone energy saving initiatives”. Copies of good practice guides for employees on energy awareness in their home have been provided

WASTE MANAGEMENT

In February of this year we engaged a new waste management contractor, Greenstar. They were chosen based on their reputation, collaborative approach to providing tailored solutions to suit Vodafone and their pioneering programmes.

“When Vodafone approached us about developing new and innovative waste management systems it was clear they were determined to make significant changes to create a positive impact on the environment. One of the key changes was the installation of a pilot Food Waste Programme in the Vodafone Staff restaurant. We are currently one month into the scheme and results are already extremely encouraging. We look forward to reviewing data in the coming months where we anticipate dramatic reductions in the amount of food waste that will be sent to landfill land a corresponding increase in the amount being tmmjbmed into compost. The benefits we have created will be significant; it not only costs less than landfill but it is a more substantial solution in the long term.”

Gregg McDonald, Account Manager,

Greenstar

RECYCLING

• Our rolling waste management plan has been developed to 2010

• For the year to March 2006, we recycled 93 per cent of our network waste against a target of 85 per cent

• A larger proportion of office waste is also now being recycled instead of going to landfill, recycling 39.38 per cent of our office waste against a target of 45 per cent, in the year to March 2006 we recycled 60 per cent against a target of 50 per cent (a 20.62 per cent increase).

• Overall waste target is 55 per cent of all MountainView and Dundalk waste. Typically achieving 51/52 per cent Waste streams measured and reported on are: – Cardboard, Wood, Paper, Food, IT Hardware

All of the programmes outlined are part of a continuous journey for Vodafone. A dedicated internal management team is constantly investigating innovative ideas which all aim to ultimately reduce our carbon footprint and impact on the environment in which we work. We are making a real commitment to challenge our systems, by critically assessing them and ensuring that they are reaching the optimum level of benefit to the environment at all times. This is actively supported by every individual in Vodafone. We want our performance to be seen as best practice and act as an industry role model. For Vodafone these changes are not only a significant investment for the company in the here and now but represent potential rewards in the future for our staff, customers and ultimately the environment

“Vodafone’s approach to addressing environmental challenges is continually innovative and inspiring, and the commitment to purchasing renewable energy provides an excellent example of this. Issues are changing at such a fast pace that the need to respond at an equally fast pace is critical, Vodafone do just that. The environmental programme at Vodafone should demonstrate to other businesses that making a few changes and stopping at that is not enough, this is an evolving journey on which each company must stay on track.”

Eva Geluk, Corporate Responsibility Consultant, Business in The Community

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