Vodafone UK Cuts Carbon Footprint by 25,000 Tonnes of CO2

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has managed to save 100 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy, equivalent to 25,000 tonnes of CO2 or a financial saving of around £10m, in the space of just three years. All of this will support their pledge to use 100% renewable electricity by July 2021 and to help customers save 350 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.

Apparently, the latest energy savings were achieved by optimising heating and cooling systems in offices and managing air flow to keep technical sites cool in the most energy efficient way (this was validated by third-party energy auditor EEVS). Vodafone has so far audited 90 of its buildings to assess energy usage and deliver efficiencies across lighting, heating and air conditioning systems etc.

At more complex locations, such as data centres and MTX (mobile telephone exchange) sites, where 24/7 power is essential to keep the network running, sensors that provide real-time data were used to identify energy saving opportunities. For example, temperature sensors in data centres enabled the airflow to be automatically adjusted up or down remotely, ensuring the correct environment in the most energy efficient way.

Lest we forget that, during the COVID-19 lockdown, all but essential technical staff were also moved to home working, meaning some buildings could be hibernated to help save even more energy. Admittedly this tends to shift the responsibility back to homes, which makes the calculations a little bit more complex.