Telefónica: Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability
Medio ambiente y cambio climático
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Climate change - Green ICT
At Telefónica we conceive Green ICT as a series of processes and activities that enable us to generate value for the company and our clients and to contribute to the promotion of a low carbon economy through Information and Communications Technology.
Our strategy involves three work fronts: Global Green ICT, structured to position us as the leader in this field, Green from ICT, to promote internal energy efficiency and reduce our CO2 emissions, optimising the use of resources and making the most of scale benefits, and Green by ICT, aimed at the development of competitive Green ICT solutions and services to improve our clients’ efficiency.
In these areas, Telefónica has, among others, with these objectives:
- Reduce our energy consumption in networks by 30%, measured in kWh/equivalent access, and by 10% in offices (electricity and fuel), measured in kWh/employees; the target date is 2015, with figures compared to 2007.
- Cut by 30% our direct and indirect emissions of CO2 by the year 2020, compared to the figure of 1.7 million tonnes for 2010, measured by equivalent customer access.
To meet this new commitment, Telefónica will act in three major areas: firstly, improving energy efficiency in the network with projects to reduce electricity consumption, which is responsible for 85% of CO2 emissions; secondly, reducing the consumption of fossil fuels in generators, replacing them with more efficient and clean energy sources, and in vehicle fleets, by reducing their number, using low-consumption, hybrid or electric vehicles or cutting the number of kilometres driven by improving fleet management; and, finally, encouraging and promoting self-generation of renewable energy where access to electricity is difficult.
Governance
Our action in this field is the responsibility of the Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Office, promoted by the General Technical Secretariat of the President’s Office.
Given the overall transverse nature of the project, the Office has 5 points of action of which the head of each line is in charge: Operations; Suppliers; Employees; Customers; and Society.
A key figure in Operations for carrying out the energy efficiency initiatives are Energy Managers, who are based in the countries where we operate; one of their main goals is to reduce energy consumption.
Risk and opportunity management and transparency form the basis of trust in interest groups, hence Telefónica’s efforts in this respect.
Our work has been recognised by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), consisting of two indices that show the information and role of companies in climate change to 655 institutional investors with assets worth 78 billion dollars.
In 2012, for the third year in a row, we are one of the leading telecommunications companies in the CDP. More specifically, Telefónica has achieved a score of 92 points out of 100 (90 last year) in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), which assesses whether companies manage – as part of their core business – the opportunities and risks associated with climate change with a long-term vision.
Futher information:
> Telefónica and The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
The real quantification of reducing GHG at an internal level in ICT companies and other sectors, as a result of using ICT services, requires suitable methodologies.
For this purpose, at Telefónica we have opted for sectorial labour. Hence we take an active part in group No. 5 of the ITU-T1, entrusted with developing the methodologies to quantify impact on the ICT sector in terms of CO2, and products and services for the end client. This work group is the only independent group made up of companies and governmental entities to define suitable methodologies as a benchmark for the sector.
At present, the ITU, the United Nations’ agency for telecommunications, has three recommendations for Green ICT: ITU-T L1000- Standard for the universal charger and the solution for charging mobile telephones and other hand-held ICT devices (May 2011), recommendation ITU-T L.1410 – Methodology for the evaluation of the environmental impact of ICT goods, networks and services (September 2011) and ITU-T L.1420 – Methodology for measuring ICT energy consumption and greenhouse effect gas emission in organisations (September 2011).
Futher information:
> ITU regulations
Telefónica’s global innovation strategy aims to transform the possibilities provided by the new digital world into reality and become one of its main players. Within the different development units for products and global services, such as for example Cloud Computing (services in the cloud) and M2M (machine to machine connections), we are working on identifying new Green ICT products and services. In 2011, we invested 15 million Euros in R&D for services based on M2M that have an impact on energy efficiency.
At the same time we are taking part in various European Commission projects through our company Telefónica R&D, such as Instant Mobility, in order to provide smart cities with a green mobility system, andFINSENY (Future INternet for Smart ENergY), to identify the requirements for a smart electricity network in the field of ICT. And in 2011 we successfully concluded BeyWatch (Building an Energy Watcher), whose goal was to develop and demonstrate new technological solutions to prepare the way towards a sustainable energy system.
And so in 2011 we were considered the leading telecommunications company in Europe in solutions for energy efficiency to promote sustainable businesses, according to the Verdantix “green quadrantâ€. Telefónica was in the top five global companies operating in Europe that best integrate energy efficiency criteria and sustainability into its products and services.
