Mobile telecommunications

The mobile telecommunications industry

All mobile operators affect the environment through the operation of networks, phone usage, offices and retail stores. This effect spans the life cycle of a mobile phone: from sourcing components through to manufacture, phone use and final disposal or recycling.

Our environmental procurement policy reinforces our environmental commitment across our supply chain.

We also want our handset recycling schemes to be available for our customers to encourage the responsible recycling of end-of-life handsets.

Our challenge is to cut overall carbon emissions in the context of increasing energy consumption, mainly of electricity. We are growing – and will continue to do so. The electricity we use to run our mobile networks accounts for 85 per cent of our energy use. Our networks are expanding to cope with faster applications and the move to more data-rich services.

We believe there is a lot we can do, even while our business continues to grow.

This includes:

• Actively identifying and deploying energy-saving initiatives.
• Reducing business travel.
• Increasing the life of phones and network equipment.
• Encouraging investment in energy-efficient network technology.
• Sharing more base stations with other operators.
• Using more refurbished parts or recycled materials in new networks.
• Using renewable energy wherever we can.
• Reducing packaging and finding re-usable packaging solutions.
• Safely disposing of waste.
• Raising the number of old phones returned for reuse or recycling.

The future of mobile

We believe that the mobile industry – and the global information and communications industry as a whole – has a real opportunity to help people do things differently. We are keen to support new ideas to:

• Create more efficient transport systems – see our recent cooperation with the AA.
• Reduce travel needs – through video conferencing or mobile and home working.
• Cut the overall number of devices by including more functions in handsets, such as music players, computers and calculators.
• Create ways for direct interaction that cuts paper use – paperless billing and e-ticketing, for example.
• Invest in technologies that directly support the environment – such as a new O2 trial with Cambridge University to build CO2 sensors into mobile phones.
• Develop new applications, products and services that benefit the environment – such as our new Energy Saver tariff.

Since our acquisition by Telefónica we have become part of one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the world, with a combined research and development budget of €588 million. O2 hopes to play a part in the Group’s bid to develop products and applications that create better, healthier lifestyles and a cleaner environment.

High-street chains are failing to inform customers which electrical goods are the greenest, according to new research by the National Consumer Council (NCC).

The NCC is calling for firms to label products, such as televisions, DVD players, laptops, MP3 players and games consoles, with energy consumption details.

It also wants to see the greenest goods subsidised by the Government, enabling poorer families to reduce the size of their carbon footprint.
The Independent, 19 March 2007

Structured for constant improvement

We work to improve our performance by setting targets to reduce our consumption of resources and generation of emissions.

We measure and record progress through management reporting and we are reviewed externally as part of our registration to the international environmental management standard ISO 14001.

O2 achieved a Group-wide certification to ISO 14001  in 2005. The business in the Czech Republic, which joined us during 2006, is also accredited and operates an environmental management system.

We expect our suppliers to manage their effects on the environment and, when appropriate, we measure them against our environmental procurement policy, which is approved by the Board.

Targets and measurement

Our environmental policy specifies that we continuously improve our performance. Each year we review our targets and measure our performance against them. You can review our progress in meeting our 2006 targets and view our new environmental targets for 2007 in our separate targets and objectives section.

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