Vodafone Ireland is now 100% Renewable

Vodafone has announced that their entire Irish operations including mobile and fixed networks, data centres, retail and offices are now 100% powered by electricity from renewable sources. This also includes any operations where Vodafone is a tenant on other landlords’ sites. Vodafone Ireland typically uses 113 GWh (Gigawatt Hours), equivalent to the annual energy use of 27,000 Irish homes.

This significant move in becoming a Green Network, coupled with its ambitious plans to reduce its carbon emissions, Vodafone Ireland is also offering Irish consumer customers eSIMs on 25 of its top devices from July 2nd, making it the first Irish operator to do so. eSIMs are virtual SIM cards that provide the same service as a physical SIM card, but with the data stored in a few lines of code on a dedicated chip in a phone rather than on a plastic SIM. This eliminates the need to manufacture and ship the associated plastic, thereby reducing carbon emissions.

Vodafone Ireland CEO Anne O’Leary said: “We are delighted today to announce that we have reached our revised target of using 100% green energy by the middle of 2021, having originally planned to reach this milestone by 2025. Vodafone customers across Ireland can be assured that the connectivity they use is now entirely green, powered by electricity from renewable sources. This is a major landmark on our journey in Ireland to achieve ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2030, helping our customers reduce their own environmental footprint, and continuing to build an inclusive and sustainable digital society here in Ireland and across all of our markets.” 

Reducing carbon emissions and driving energy efficiency

Vodafone’s entire European operations will be completely powered by electricity from renewable sources from the 1^st of July 2021, following its investment of €65m in 2020 in energy efficiency, including deploying more efficient network equipment and decommissioning legacy networks and equipment. This investment has already led to annual energy savings of 135 GWh, and a 30% reduction

in the company’s total Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions to 1.37 million tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent).

The move to entirely renewable energy marks a key step towards Vodafone’s approved 2030 Science-Based Target of reducing its own carbon emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2030 and across the company’s entire value chain by 2040^. This is in line with the carbon reductions required to keep global warming to 1.5^oc, making Vodafone the first major telecoms operator to follow the emission reduction pathway developed for the ICT sector.

Primarily through its Internet of Things service, which improves the efficiency of logistics, manufacturing and other activities, Vodafone Group has also committed to helping its business customers to reduce their annual carbon emissions by 350 million tonnes by 2030 – an amount equivalent to Italy’s entire carbon emissions in 2019.

Reducing waste and helping to build a circular economy 

Vodafone has also pledged to reuse, resell or recycle 100% of the company’s network waste by 2025. In FY21, 98.7% of Vodafone’s network waste in Europe, excluding hazardous waste, was sent for reuse and recycling during, with an overall reduction in network waste year-on-year of 22.5% to 6,307 tonnes from 8,138 tonnes in FY20.

All of the network equipment in Ireland is recycled or reused by another market, with 11,455kg of telecoms equipment sent for recycling by Vodafone Ireland in FY19/20. Since 2020, Vodafone’s internal asset marketplace across Europe has resold or repurposed excess stock or large decommissioned electrical items like masts and antennae. This has avoided over 1,250 tonnes of CO2e and saved more than €10 million in Europe.

On average, every adult in Ireland has two devices they no longer use, with 4.9 million smartphones shelved here. Vodafone Ireland encourages them to consider using its Fix and Go device repair centres and its trade-in offers, as part of the company’s circular economy. The company is also striving to refurbish and reuse fixed-line equipment multiple times.

In May 2021, Vodafone joined forces with four of Europe’s leading network operators to launch a new pan-industry Eco Rating labelling scheme for mobile phones to help consumers and suppliers make sustainable choices.

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