Our thinking

Drum roll please…

13 October, 2023

Last week, our friends at Virgin Media O2  (VMO2) launched two Carbon Footprint Calculators that calculate the carbon impact of two of their telecom services offered to their business customers: mobile plans and SD-WAN solutions (software-defined wide area networks: put simply, a way to make sure businesses can share their internet connections between different places).

Our climate services team worked closely with VMO2 on these calculators, in response to VMO2’s survey findings that more than two-thirds of business leaders aren’t receiving enough information to understand and track the emissions associated with the products and services they purchase.

Designed to equip business leaders and decision makers with the insights they need to inform future emissions reductions, Carbon Footprint Calculators generate a report that provides data on emissions associated with each aspect of the contract lifecycle, from manufacturing and logistics to energy used and waste disposed. This allows the customer to understand the key drivers of emissions per contract and evaluate where actions can be taken to reduce emissions year-on-year. The model behind the calculators has been certified by the Carbon Trust as conforming to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Lifecycle Standard, and to put the icing on the cake, the calculators are available free for new and existing VMO2 business customers.

Developing the calculators meant working closely with VMO2 – engagement across the business, understanding the products and services, creating a user-friendly interface, fine tuning and checking to ensure it all worked properly, and then training teams and providing roll out support ahead of launch.

The outputs mean that businesses can look beyond the financial costs of their contracts and start to accurately assess the carbon impacts of purchases as well. For VMO2, it shows commitment to supporting customers to better measure their carbon footprints and to find ways to help them with their net zero journeys.

Better measurement and visibility of carbon emissions mean better decisions. An assessment of the full lifecycle emissions of products and services is an important tool that can help businesses understand and address the impact of carbon in their supply chain.  If you’d like to learn more about the Carbon Calculators or find out how we can do the same for your business’s products and services, please get in touch!

By Bertie Bateman