Virgin Media O2 says it's well on the way to achieve major carbon-cutting projects

Sead Fadilpašić
·2 min read
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Virgin Media O2
Virgin Media O2

It’s now been a year since Virgin Media O2 unveiled its new sustainability strategy, and to celebrate the milestone, the company has released new figures to show its progress as it strives toward net zero carbon emissions.

Through its Better Connections Plan, the company managed to cut carbon emissions by almost a third (29%) - since 2020 and believes it’s still on track to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Through IoT applications such as smart metering, Virgin Media O2 helped make households and offices more sustainable, preventing more than 29 million tonnes of carbon from entering Earth’s atmosphere in the last 12 months, and with more than 70 electric vans now as part of the company’s fleet, the plan for a fully electrified fleet by 2030 seems to be at arm’s reach.

Circular actions

The company also supported consumers as they carried 2.4 million “circular actions” in 2020. These include buying refurbished tech, and using initiatives such as O2 Recycle. Virgin Media O2’s goal is to have 10 million circular actions carried out by 2025. Through O2 Recycle, more than 250,000 devices were recycled in the past year, with zero going to landfill. Consumers were paid out more than £36 million.

Since 2014, the company further explains, it refurbished and returned into circulation, more than 10 million routers and set-top boxes. Finally, it launched a £500,000 initiative called “The Time after Time”  which, as an e-waste fund, provides grants of up to £75,000 to community groups across the country. The winners are to be announced soon.

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Furthermore, the company “rehomed” more than 15,000 smartphones, combined with free data, texts, and calls for people in need, since 2020, through the Community Calling initiative.

“With the backing of the SBTi, as well as the Carbon Trust, we’re on track to deliver our net zero carbon plan by the end of 2040 - 10 years ahead of the UK’s net zero goal - reducing carbon emissions in-line with best-practice climate science,” commented Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2.

“We’ll build on this positive progress and continue to use our purpose, people and products to have a long-lasting impact on society and the planet so everyone can live in a greener, more sustainable world.”