Thaindian News

New Delhi, August 8 (IANS) Telecom service provider Vodafone Monday said it is planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent globally by 2015.

“Our target is to take it (carbon emission) down. Globally in the emerging markets, Vodafone has a target of reducing its CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2015,” Samaresh Parida, director stategy, Vodafone Essar, told IANS.

“We are trying out different pilots with different sources of energy, solar energy extra,” he added.

Carbon footprint is the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organisation, event or product.

However, Parida also said that the company faces a few big challenges, including availability of adequate power and spectrum.

“We are present in the whole country with more than 110,000 towers, everywhere we do not get power. The second challenge which is specific to telecom industry is the fact that spectrum available to an operator in India is limited compared to what is available to the rest of the world,” he said.

“We are looking at alternative sources of energy but it is a long journey because we have to make it economically viable and also we are looking at lot of power saving mechanisms, including automatic switch offs.”

The company Monday released its first sustainability report for India — Footprints 2010-11 sharing information on renewable energy initiatives, social inclusion projects, waste reduction processes and health and safety projects at Vodafone.

The report which outlines practices in the supply chain management, ethics, customer service and marketing in the responsible marketing section was released by Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot.

“I am glad to see various initiatives taken by Vodafone India towards sustainability. While India Inc has made us a force to reckon with globally, its equally important to contribute to the community and environment that are an integral part of the overall growth of the nation,” said Pilot.

Global NGO Greenpeace has been alleging that major telecom players do not reveal measures taken to lower their carbon emissions.

The report highlights Vodafone’s effort of shutting down associated cabinets and extra transmitters during low traffic so as to reduce energy consumption. According to the report, this has resulted in saving nearly 4 million kW of electricity and reduction in CO2 emission by 3,240,000 kg per annum.

The company has also piloted solar powered sites concept at 4 sites in 2010 besides deploying hybrid solutions diesel generator and battery working in alternate mode at 2200 sites that have reduced diesel consumption by 2,628,548 litres in the financial year 2011.