The 5 ways in which we’re digitalizing ourselves to help the planet

End-to-end digitalization is one of the cornerstones of our company ‘We Choose It All’ plan. The reason? It allows us to be more competitive and efficient. But it also helps us to deal with the environmental challenges that affect society as a whole and offers us a unique opportunity to gain new revenues, reduce the carbon footprint, and take care of our planet.

In this article, we present five examples of digitalization that we’re already applying internally and with our customers to contribute to a more sustainable development.

Smart fleet to reduce fuel consumption

Did you know that more than 1,500 vehicles of our fleet in Spain are much more efficient thanks to our fleet management solution? This service, based on M2M (Machine to Machine) technology, allows us to save 15% in fuel.

In addition to using it ourselves, we commercialize it and provide it to our customers. It is already implemented in more than one million vehicles around the world, meaning that we have prevented 258 ktCO2, the emissions equivalent of what is generated by the electricity consumption of 28,000 homes in one year, from being launched into the atmosphere.

And this can be improved even more with LUCA Fleet, a digital tool that aggregates and analyses the data of the fleet in order to improve it. This is one of our biggest achievements and, at the same time, one of our greatest challenges.

Network with ‘Smart meters’: less energy consumption and more possibilities for renewable energy

Yes, they are also useful in the network. The smart meters that we are installing help us to control the consumption of energy as much as possible, and to detect outages in real time.

On the one hand, we save, and on the other hand we improve the service. We already currently have this equipment in more than 150 of our main buildings in Brazil, Colombia, and Chile, thus providing coverage to more than 4,600 base station booths.

But this isn’t our only source of energy savings. We have also reduced our air conditioning consumption by more than 10% thanks to the Unified System of Infrastructure Supervision (SUSI for its Spanish original) platform, which enables automatic and centralized control of different teams of critical infrastructure, and integrates a base stations physical security module which reduces theft by 90%.

Discover the second life of our cables and equipment

Did you know that in 2017 we received 42.6 billion Euros from the sale of waste? Most of it came from the cables that we discarded because of the transformation and modernization of our network.

In addition, we saved 27.3 million Euros in Spain alone by reusing customer equipment (for example, routers and decoders). Excellent numbers that we can, and must, increase. Thanks to GReTel, our new unified digital waste management platform, we’re improving traceability to be able to identify more recycling and reuse opportunities.

We are committed to digital processes and invoices to care of the environment

Every day we increasingly use the digital signature and electronic invoicing, option that has already been chosen by 53 million customers. In addition to helping us be more agile, the digitalization and automation of our internal processes also helps us to save and care of the environment. In total, in 2017 we prevented the cutting of 55,000 trees.

Our new digital solutions to save resources and generate revenues

Many of our services make it possible for us to help companies and cities better manage their resources and reduce their carbon emissions. For example, we have IoT and big data services aimed at improving the mobility, and promoting the energy efficiency, of our customers.

In addition, our cloud or video conferencing services also avoid the emission of greenhouse gases. In fact, thanks to these services, we prevented 939 ktCO2 in customers, the equivalent of the emissions produced by a car travelling back and forth between the Earth and the Sun 17 times.

Are we satisfied with this? No. Our challenge now is to promote other solutions to promote the circular and decarbonized economy.

And of course we need you to do so. Remember that every decision counts, and that with small daily gestures, such as turning off your computer when you leave your work station or using the energy saving mode, you can also contribute towards a better Telefónica and a better world.

>> More information about Telefónica and Environment https://www.telefonica.com/en/sustainability-innovation/environment/