O2 on course to achieve ambitious 2015 sustainability targets

Friday 6th September: O2 today released its annual Sustainability Report, revealing progress towards achieving its ambitious three year sustainability plan, ‘Think Big Blueprint,’ unveiled in February 2012.

By 2015, O2 aims to achieve the following ambitious objectives: 

  • Support 1m young people to develop skills for life and lead community projects across the UK
  • Help 10m people enjoy easier and more sustainable lives through O2 products and services
  • Deliver carbon savings to customers that are 10 times the impact of our network.

2012 highlights include:

  • Launching GoThinkBig, a youth employment accelerator with Bauer Media, designed to help young people overcome the ‘no experience – no job’ dilemma. GoThinkBig will offer 30,000 work experience opportunities over the next three years, including paid internships, apprenticeships and entry-level jobs.
  • Increasing the average Eco rating score – the UK’s first consumer-facing label informing customers of the ‘whole life’ sustainability credentials of the handset they are about to buy - from 3.6 to 3.9.
  • Leading the industry in becoming the first mobile operator to sell a handset without a charger
  • Recycling almost 300,000 devices through O2 Recycle
  • Leading the way on flexible working by hosting the UK’s largest flexi-working pilot, with 2,500 O2 employees working away from its head office on the same day. 

In addition, in 2013, O2 was awarded the smart metering contract by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, providing a great opportunity to help millions of customers lead more sustainable lives, accelerate the arrival of the ‘smart home’ and ultimately reduce carbon emissions.

While significant progress has been made towards the 40 goals the changing market has meant that O2 has encountered some challenges, as is to be expected with such an aspiring plan. As such, today’s update starts the process of reviewing not only internal targets and measures, but also some of the commitments themselves to ensure they will help O2 achieve its goals.

Reflecting on the progress made so far, O2’s Chief Executive, Ronan Dunne, said: “As I said 18 months ago, a truly sustainable future in an environmental, social and economic sense requires businesses like ours to take bold steps to tackle our shared social and environmental challenges.

“This blueprint is not simply a ‘nice to have’. In an era of heightened economic and social concern, it’s an essential part of our long term business strategy that will enable us to unlock sustainable growth and encourage positive environmental change. Although we still have a way to go, I am proud of what we have achieved in the past year and look forward to pushing towards these goals.”

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director and Trustee of Forum for the Future, says: “Telefónica UK (O2) is part of a small yet growing group of businesses that are finding ways to meet rapidly changing customer needs within increasing environmental constraints. O2 has continued to embed commitments from their Blueprint across the business, for example leading the mobile industry in taking chargers out of the box to reduce waste and communicating the environmental benefits to consumers.”

“The role out of 4G provides a potent opportunity for Telefonica to continue to develop services that will enable consumers to live more sustainable lives with significantly smaller environmental footprints.”

The Sustainability Report also illustrates O2’s commitment to helping young people gain valuable work-based skills and experience, as well as the realisation of the value of digital skills which many young people have in abundance. The online report was designed and built by two interns recruited through GoThinkBig – making the most of their skills to make the online report easy to navigate and responsive to be viewed on different devices.

The report was published during Campus Party Europe, a week long 24-hour a day festival bringing Europe’s brightest digital minds under one roof. The unique event aims to excite thousands of young people across Europe about the possibilities of new and emerging technology. The event’s digital skills market place will inspire a generation of young people and help create new pathways into digital careers.

To read the full report, visit www.o2.co.uk/thinkbig/report2012

O2 Press Office contacts

t +44 (0)1753565656

e: pressoffice@o2.com

All O2 news releases can be accessed at our website: www.o2.co.uk/news

About O2

  • Telefónica UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with over 22 million mobile customers and over 700,000 fixed broadband customers, as at 30 June 2011.
  • Telefónica UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc, a business division of Telefónica S.A. which uses O2 as its commercial brand in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and has 57.3 million customers across these markets.
  • Telefónica UK employs around 11,000 people in the UK and has 450 retail stores.
  • O2 is the naming rights partner of The O2, the world-class entertainment venue.
  • In October 2010 O2 was voted the UK’s best mobile network by the readers of both What Mobile and Mobile Choice magazine. 
  • O2 was ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2010.
  • O2’s UK 2G mobile network provides voice and data services which are available to 99% of the UK’s population.
  • O2’s UK 3G (HSPA+ 900 / 2100 MHz) network currently provides voice and high speed data services of up to 14.4Mbps (21Mbps in the coming months) which are available to over 84% of the UK population.
  • O2 was the first UK operator to deploy a 4G/LTE trial network which has demonstrated peak speeds of over 100Mbps to a mobile device.
  • Telefónica Europe also owns 50% of Tesco Mobile, which operates in the UK and Ireland, and 50% of Tchibo Mobilfunk in Germany.
  • For further press information about O2 go to www.o2.co.uk/news 

 

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