Energy and emissions
Our networks account for 83 per cent of our non-transport energy consumption, with our offices and shops accounting for the remainder. Our aim is to manage energy use carefully and we aspire to cut consumption over time while using more power from renewable sources.
It is difficult to get an accurate sense of our performance in this area at a time when our business is growing fast and when we are introducing new communications networks to accommodate technological advances. As we grow, we inevitably use more energy. To get a proportional view of our energy-efficiency performance we have begun to measure consumption in new ways. These include energy consumption per active O2 sim card and per base station. This reflects the size and output of our network, and consumption per customer. We have reported these measures for the first time this year, see the table below, and hope to establish our performance trend over the coming years.
Proportion of electricity consumption derived from renewable sources in 2004/05
We recognise that our energy consumption increased considerably during 2004/05 due to the introduction of our new 3G network, the completion of the Airwave network and greater uptake of data services. The consumption figure of nearly 500,000 Megawatt hours (Mwh) also includes the energy consumption of some switching centres which had not been captured previously, due to limitations in measurement activity.
We have engaged with the Carbon Trust to help us reduce our carbon emissions and to understand our impact on climate change. From this partnership we will develop a Carbon Management Programme concentrating on energy, emissions and transport. Initially we expect the initiative to help us map our carbon profile and to establish quantifiable carbon emission reduction targets by March 2006.
Summary of O2's environmental impacts in 2004/2005
Electricityb
| Energy consumption and CO2 emissions | Total consumption kWh | CO2 emissionsa tonnes | Consumption from renewable sources kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network (switching and cell sites) | 425,589,698 | 199,018 | 72,841,072 |
| Offices (including call centres) | 55,855,679 | 27,671 | 10,469,960 |
| Shops | 14,896,760 | 6,968 | 2,758,965 |
Natural gas b
| Energy consumption and CO2 emissions | Total consumption kWh | CO2 emissionsa tonnes | Consumption from renewable sources kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network (switching sites) | 5,995,569 | 1,139 | |
| Offices and shops (UK, Ireland and IOM only) | 17,757,314 | 3,374 | |
| Total | 520,095,020 | 238,170 | 86,069,997 (16.5%) |
| Total per active sim card c | 21.1 | 9.6 (kg) | |
| Total per base station e | 20,358 | 9.3 (tonnes) |
Travel, water, waste and recycling b
| Business road travel | 42,931,096 kms | |
|---|---|---|
| Water consumption | 121,247 m³ (excludes Airwave, O2 Germany and Manx Telecom) |
|
| Waste management and recylcing General wasted from offices and call centres |
Total kg: 2,827,445 | Recycled kg: 1,366,291 (48.3%) |
a) Factors used to convert kWh electricity to tonnes CO2: 0.00043 (UK, Defra 2004); 0.00049 (Germany, IEA 2002); 0.00067 (Ireland, IEA 2002). Natural Gas 0.00019 (Defra 2004).
b) Electricity and gas consumption are reported for all premises and operations where O2 is the direct customer. Some rented premises may be excluded.
c) A sim card is a tiny rectangular card found in all mobile phones that acts as an ID card for the phone. If the card is taken out, the handset stops working. The number of active sims is a good measure of the output of our phone network. At the end of 2004/05 we had approximately 24.0 million active sims.
d) General waste means all waste generated, excluding hazardous waste and electrical/IT waste.
e) There were 25,548 base stations at the end of FY 2004/05 (vs 19,581 last year).
Our uptake of electricity from renewable sources continues to increase. In 2004/05 we reached the highest levels so far of 16.5 per cent, ahead of our target to reach 10 per cent Group-wide by 2010. We are currently undertaking assessments of our offices and base stations to explore opportunities for alternative energy sources, e.g. through wind turbines on our mast constructions.
