Environmental management

The Telefónica O2 Europe Board reviews the performance of our environmental strategy, policy and objectives twice a year.

Key environmental areas to address are:

• Fuel, energy and water.
• Waste management in our offices, retail stores and networks.
• Minimising impact on local environments.
• Emissions and transport.
• Managing the environmental impact of our supply chain.

Our environmental policy is in line with the European Commission's Environmental Action Programme - 'Environment 2010 - Our Future, Our Choice' - to tackle climate change, protect nature and wildlife, preserve natural resources and manage waste, environmental and health issues. It also supports the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the effects of global warming.

Our Group-wide certification to ISO 14001¹, the international environmental management standard, commits us to:

• Be independently assessed by a third party to ensure our systems meet national and European standards.
• Show we are committed to operating in an environmentally responsible way.
• Assure compliance with environmental legislation.
• Improve the management and control of our environmental risks.
• Demonstrate corporate governance of our environmental management.

A Group-wide Environment Forum reports at six-monthly intervals to the Board through our Environmental Champion Richard Poston, Director of Corporate Affairs. We publish information outlining our aims and achievements every year in our Corporate Responsibility report and we keep a register of significant environmental risks.
 
Individual operating businesses are held responsible for controlling and managing the effects of their businesses. Each O2 business has an Environmental Champion appointed by its CEO. They attend, or are represented, at a forum twice a year, chaired by the Telefónica O2 Europe Environmental Champion, where they report on the progress of their operating business. In addition they each have an environmental steering group and a local environment manager. All line managers are expected to ensure compliance with our statutory obligations.

Recent internal and external audit reviews highlighted the need for further improvements in environmental data reporting. Main areas of development are to enhance existing guidance on environmental indicators and estimation methods and to ensure the completeness and transparency of data sets. The Telefónica O2 Europe Board has addressed the matter at several of its meetings during 2007 to ensure a marked improvement in environmental management reporting.     

Our environmental managers work closely with several environmental groups, including the international Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative (MPPI) and the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP). We are a member of the UK's Institute of Environmental Management Assessors (IEMA) and take part in the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group (APPCCG).

In 2006 the UK Government issued a new consultation - Energy Performance Commitment - for large companies and we are taking part in the DEFRA consultation process.

Environmental projects

We have several environmental projects that aim to win the hearts of our employees and customers. We want good practice to become a way of life at O2.

In January 2006 we held an employee workshop in the UK to identify ways of making the Company a 'Better Place'. Participants contributed ideas that are now helping to improve our environmental performance. 

During the year, we implemented our internal Blue and Green campaign in the UK to separate and recycle office waste. This is voluntary, but we have already seen an increase in amounts being recycled.

We also run environmental projects that support local community initiatives. For example:

• We launched a successful pilot scheme, It's Your Community, in the UK to support local environment, urban renewal and conservation projects.
• Airwave is involved in a school biodiversity project.
• In Germany we work with WWF (World Wild Fund For Nature) to help reclaim the meadows of the River Elbe through volunteering, and proceeds from the handset recycling programme also benefit the WWF.
• In Ireland we support the Tree Council of Ireland through the sponsorship of National Tree Week (NTW).
• O2 UK's handset recycling scheme helped to finance projects for youth at risk through the charity Weston Spirit.

In Ireland, we also appointed a dedicated team representing a cross-section of our employees and headed by a Director to bring our new green initiatives into action throughout our offices in 2007.

¹ Excluding O2 Ireland retail operations and Telefónica Deutschland