Airtel pledges to help mitigate the effects of climate change and make the world more sustainable. Commits to a 50% reduction in GHG emissions across its operations by FY31.
- Commitment to the SBTi’s ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C’ road to a more sustainable world.
- Airtel is the first Indian telecom provider to join the United Nations Global Compact.
New Delhi, 20 September 2021 – Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”), India’s top telecommunications services provider, today announced its commitment to help alleviate the effects of climate change and create a more sustainable world.
Airtel has signed on to the Science-Based Targets Initiative’s (SBTi) “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” campaign and set goals to reduce its carbon footprint and emissions from network operations significantly. With this, Airtel joins a select group of global leaders that have committed to the 1.5°C route set by the SBTi, a collaboration of CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
• Airtel has pledged to cut absolute scope 1 and 2 Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 50.2 percent by FY2031 when compared to the base year of FY2021.
• During the same timeframe, Airtel also pledges to cut absolute scope 3 GHG emissions by 42 percent.
• Airtel plans to do this through a variety of measures, including rapid green energy adoption throughout its network operations, energy-efficient architecture and processes, and the adoption of sustainable business practices at its workplaces.
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“Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity. We must act collectively without further delay to ensure we do not go past the point of no return and have a sustainable planet. Businesses have a fundamental responsibility to contribute to this effort and Airtel has adopted an ambitious target in this direction and will report its progress transparently.”
Vidyut Gulati, Director – Legal, Bharti Airtel said in a press release
In a similar move, Airtel has become the first Indian telecoms company to join the UN Global Compact, which is the world’s largest corporate sustainability project. Airtel is aligning its complete Environmental, Societal, and Governance (ESG) activities to the UN Global Compact framework’s 10 principles spanning Environment, Human Rights, Anti-Corruption, and Labor by becoming a signatory to the UN Global Compact framework.
Airtel is already a participant in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It has a thorough environmental management system in place and is working to adopt clean, fuel-based power solutions for its towers, data centers, switching centers, and other facilities. It has achieved a 97 percent reduction in network emission intensity for mobile operations (since FY16), as well as a 25 percent rise in renewable energy deployment in operations during the same time period, thanks to several green power wheeling agreements that have helped save CO2. Airtel’s e-bills project saved 667 tonnes of paper sheets in the fiscal year that ended in 2021, and 5,554.3 tonnes of e-waste were recycled.
About Airtel
Airtel, based in India, is a significant telecommunications carrier with over 474 million customers in 18 Asian and African countries. [The corporation is one of the top three mobile providers in the world, with a network that reaches over two billion people.] [Airtel is India’s leading provider of integrated communications solutions and Africa’s second-largest mobile operator.] Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber, which offers speeds up to 1 Gbps and allows for convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming music and video, digital payments, and financial services.
For more details visit www.airtel.com