AT&T has realized annualized energy savings of more than $191 million from 18,800 energy efficiency projects implemented since 2010, according to the company’s recent Annual Update, released Tuesday.
Besides energy efficiency, other highlights from 2013 include progress on supplier engagement, water efficiency and AT&T’s education initiative, Aspire:
Supply chain
AT&T reports that its top suppliers achieved an average score of 63 percent on the company’s Citizenship and Sustainability Scorecard. The scorecard grades suppliers in four key categories including policy breadth, rigor of goals, reporting transparency and governance. This moves AT&T closer to its goal of achieving an average score of 80 percent from its top suppliers by 2017. The company also set an additional goal that, by the end of 2015, a majority of spending with strategic suppliers will be with those who track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and have specific GHG emissions goals. Supplier engagement is important to finding opportunities to streamline operations, reduce environmental impacts and influence positive social change while mitigating long-term costs.
Water
In 2013, AT&T teamed up with Environmental Defense Fund to develop a free toolkit that could save up to 28 billion gallons of water annually, if implemented across US commercial buildings.
AT&T Aspire
AT&T Aspire is AT&T’s signature education initiative, focusing on school success and workforce readiness. The company has invested more than $94.6 million over the past two years as part of a $350 million commitment. Employees also are mentoring students at risk of dropping out through Aspire Mentoring Academy. Through the program employees have provided students more than 339,000 hours of mentoring since the program’s October 2012 launch. The company is on track to meet the goal of 1 million hours through the end of 2016.
Other highlights from the Sustainability Update include:
- Reaching the halfway mark toward the goal of deploying 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by 2018. AT&T has deployed 8,230 alternative fuel vehicles and reduced unleaded gasoline use by 4.6 million gallons in 2013.
- Contributing 5.3 million volunteer hours by employees and retirees.
- Increasing veteran hiring by nearly five times, compared to 2012.
- Reaching 95 percent of postpaid AT&T branded devices being rated as 3 or above out of a potential rating of 5, using the Eco-Rating system.
- Receiving more than 4 million pledges to never text while driving through the It Can Wait campaign.
- Investing $21.2 billion in IP (Internet Protocol)–enabled networks.
Last year, AT&T became the largest wireless carrier to join the SmartWay Transport Partnership program, a collaboration between the EPA and freight and transport divisions of companies representing the manufacturing, retail, freight and logistics sectors to voluntarily improve fuel efficiency and curb emissions. The company also was ranked number one on CR Magazine’s 2013 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, which ranks companies based on disclosure and performance measures covering environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance and philanthropy.
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Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Jun 25, 2014 1pm EDT / 10am PDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST