María Elena Cruz Martín, Data Scientist en Telefónicay Managing Director de Girls in Tech España.
For the third year in a row, Telefónica is one of the leading telecommunications companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which consists of two rankings that show 655 institutional investors , with assets worth $78 trillion, which measure the transparency and the performance of companies with regard to climate change.
The company is one of nine Spanish companies present in the CDP and the only company from its sector.
More specifically, Telefónica has achieved a score of 92 points out of 100 (90 last year) in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), which assesses whether companies manage – as part of their core business – the opportunities and risks associated with climate change with a long-term vision.
Furthermore, Telefónica remains in category B of the Carbon Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) that includes companies with initiatives in progress, which they will conclude shortly, to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to increase their transparency in this area. There are five bands or categories in this index – from E to A/A – according to the level of engagement of companies.
In this area, the strategy of the Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Office at the Spanish multinational is working on three fronts: Green ICTs, the basis for positioning it as the leading company in this field; Green from ICTs, to promote internal energy efficiency and to reduce its emissions; and Green with ICTs, with initiatives to develop competitive solutions and services that improve clients’ efficiency.
On the Green from ICTs front, where the CDP focuses, Telefónica has reduced its network energy consumption by almost 20%, putting it at a third from reaching its target for 2015: a reduction of 30% compared to 2007, measured in kWh/equivalent access. To achieve this, the 30 energy efficiency projects developed in the company in 2011 have been essential.
Similarly, Telefónica consolidated the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions inventory development processes – essential for taking the right decisions – maintaining total greenhouse gases at 1.8 million tonnes. At the same time, for the third year running, AENOR performed a specialised energy and emissions review of all of the group’s operations, and for the first time, it noted a reduction in emissions generated by every project developed.
Referring to transparency, other valued aspect by CDP, Telefónica regularly informs its interest groups about it progress in energy and carbon management through various 2.0 channels, the Annual Sustainability Report and an annual workshop on energy and climate change.
For us, the CDP is a good reference for our investors. In this sense we will do our best to improve next year.
