Telecoms operators have taken a wide range of circular economy measures, such as providing in-store phone repair services, implementing an eco rating scheme, and collecting network equipment for reuse. Telecoms operators also took actions to enhance their energy efficiency, including transitioning to low carbon fleets, improving network efficiency, and prioritising the roll-out of 5G.

Manufacturers have also actively been implementing actions to boost the circular economy, such as incorporating circular design, using recycled plastic, launching take-back programmes for devices, adopting recycling and resource recovery from solid waste, or imposing targets to reduce e-waste landfill. The most common energy efficiency measures implemented by manufacturers included increasing the average energy efficiency of their main products and improving chip design systems.

All of the studied companies are making efforts to increase their use of renewable energy, although manufacturers and operators with significant operations outside Europe and North America face more challenges in achieving this. Environmental actions on data centres included recovering and reusing waste heat, adopting more efficient cooling techniques, and using more energy-efficient equipment.

Cullen International’s updated benchmark covers the current or planned sustainability measures taken by selected major telecoms operators and manufacturers.

The research addresses the following sustainability measures:

•        energy purchasing;

•        data centre energy efficiency;

•        general energy efficiency;

•        supply chain mitigation; and

•        circular economy measures.

Other key findings are accessible in our full research.

For more information and access to the full research, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request access”, in case you are not subscribed to our Sustainability service.