Lourdes Tejedor / @madrid2day
Buenos Aires, 200 people, 2 targets: to increase our energy efficiency and reduce emissions. Telefónica’s Operation, Environment, Purchasing, Finance, Technology, IoT departments… and the technological partners of the company are key to achieving that goal.
These teams gather each year for three days in the Global Workshop on Energy and Climate Change to discuss how to tackle the challenge of energy and climate change in an increasingly connected world. Both the 5G and connected devices imply an increase in energy consumption. They recently held the ninth edition in Argentina.
These are some of the lessons to progress on. As Federico Rava, Chairman & CEO of Telefónica/Movistar in the country, said at the opening “working in a responsible manner is part of our DNA”:
Years of work with a spectacular 2018
The transition to a low carbon company cannot be done in two days. At Telefónica, we have been working on this for years! By the end of 2018, we will have reduced our CO2 emissions by 32% and energy intensity caused by data traffic by 65%. All this in relation to 2015, the date in which we set our energy and emission global goals for 2020 and 2030.
Thanks to the increase of efficiency measures -more than 800 projects-, the transformation of our network and the switching off of the legacy, at Telefónica we have quadrupled our energy savings. In 2018, it will exceed the 200 GWh, representing 38 million euros, 85 accumulated from 2015.
“Limiting the global warming to 1.5ºC is possible.” To achieve this, the world needs a 45% reduction in their emissions by 2030 and it needs to have zero in 2050”, according to IPCC
The key to move forward: renewable energy
By the end of this year, we will reach 52% of renewable energy in the group: we are already 100% renewable in Europe and in Brazil; in Mexico, the largest solar park in the country began to operate, which will provide 45% of our energy thanks to a PPA (agreement of purchase for 20 years) and, in Chile, 20% of our consumption is renewably sourced thanks to bilateral contracts in the free market.
More ambitious goals
And the best part is that we can go further. Juan Manuel Caro, director of GCTIO operations at Telefónica, revealed that the group will review their energy and emission goals in 2019 to consider more ambitious ones. “We are going to accelerate our energy efficiency programme, while we feed our network every day with more renewable energy and prepare ourselves to bring the 5G with the lowest carbon in the market,” he said.
“The new technologies can achieve a CO2 emission reduction of 20% by 2030”, according to Smarter 2030
Beyond emissions
Although the reduction of emissions in the world is urgent, it is also essential to make a rational use of other resources. Telefónica Argentina, the only country operator certified under the standard ISO14001:2015, provided some data from 2017 to remember: during the year, Telefónica reduced its water and paper consumption by 12.2% and 37.6% respectively. In addition, Telefónica recycled 79% of its waste. “We prioritise the reuse and recycling,” Rava said.
Technology helps… a lot
Geert Paemen, Telefónica’s director for sustainability and non-financial indicators, thanked more than 200 attendees, especially the company’s energy managers and the partners for knowing how to work together using new technologies to make more each day with fewer resources of the planet.
“Now it is time to accelerate with new solutions based on IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for internal improvements and help other companies, entities and cities to be more sustainable,” Paemen added.
All of this is the result of a great team!
