Citizenship and Sustainability
Overview
We strive to minimize our environmental impact in ways that are relevant to our business and important to the communities we serve. We're committed to taking meaningful steps to become more energy efficient and to engage our employees in helping us reduce our environmental impact.
Measuring Our Carbon Footprint
While we have measured the carbon footprint for certain areas of our business, in 2008, we began the extensive process of measuring our corporate-wide CO2 emissions and determining base lines.
Bringing together four distinctly different operating companies with the mergers of SBC, AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular brought with it the challenge of integrating many different data systems that provide the inputs to an accurately calculated corporate carbon footprint. And so we have focused on integrating these separate systems to ensure data integrity.
We're confident this process will allow us to do three important things: accurately report our company's carbon footprint, better understand how to reduce our consumption in the most cost-effective manner and position our company for the future.
While we have made progress in our effort to measure our corporate emissions, we still have work to do, and in 2009 we continue our effort to finalize our base line measurement of corporate wide emissions. We plan to disclose our domestic carbon footprint by the end of 2009.
We currently report our CO2 emissions for our California operations through the Carbon Disclosure Project and the California Climate Action Registry.
Managing Energy, Improving Efficiency
Energy Efficiency Initiatives
We connect more than 300 million people a day, and every day those connections increasingly carry with them more voice, data and video content. That increased amount of data and content means more capacity, and thus
more power, is required to run the network.
We're taking meaningful steps to run an efficient network and explore alternative energy, and we have established a metric for our energy use that measures our electricity usage intensity to the area that is linked both to our growth and to our energy usage — the total amount of information transmitted over our network, including our global backbone IP network, voice and video traffic.
For 2008, we utilized 654 kilowatt hours per terabyte of data carried on our network. For 2009, we have set a goal to reduce that intensity by 15 percent.
In 2008 we undertook many initiatives targeted at improving our energy use in the following areas:
- Network Initiatives
- Data Center Initiatives
- Facility Initiatives
For more details on our efforts in these areas, view our current report.
Exploring Alternative-Fuel Technologies
AT&T operates one of the largest commercial fleets in the United States with about 85,000 vehicles. We recognize the economic and environmental implications of maintaining a fleet that size — which is why reducing fuel consumption and emissions is an ongoing priority and challenge for us. Finding cleaner, more efficient methods of powering our fleet is one of the most important steps we can take.
After careful research of available technologies, we selected three types of AFVs to try in 2008:
- compressed natural gas (CNG) vans
- electric hybrid conversion work trucks
- electric hybrid OEM vehicles
Over the course of 2008, we rolled out 105 AFVs in more than 30 cities across 17 states. That deployment of vehicles helped us conserve nearly 34,395 gallons of fuel in 2008, reducing our CO2 emissions by more than 300 metric tons, according to the U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
Building on the knowledge we gained in 2008, we've created a long-term goal — announced earlier this year — to expand our alternative-fuel fleet to more than 15,000 vehicles. With this action, we hope to help signal demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles to be produced in this country.
Rather than waiting for the production of vehicles to become standard, we're teaming up with domestic suppliers to meet the needs of our business now. We also hope that our investment in CNG technology will help update our country's transportation infrastructure and create new jobs.
Alternative Energy
In 2008, we announced two important alterative energy efforts.
Through Austin Energy's GreenChoice renewable energy program, we began purchasing wind power for 10 percent of our electricity consumption in all AT&T facilities in Austin, Texas. This effort promises to help us avoid 7.2 million kilowatt hours of fossil-generated electricity each year.
We also installed a 1-megawatt solar power system on our facility in San Ramon, Calif. The 3,700 solar panels will generate more than 1.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year and reduce the building's normal power consumption by more than 4,300 kilowatt hours per day.
Our goal is to learn from these pilot efforts and determine the suitability of wind and solar projects for additional locations in the future. Our energy teams are currently evaluating potential opportunities for renewable energy deployments in 2009.
Reducing Waste
From e-waste to copper telecommunications wire to office supplies, we're working diligently to expand our waste management and reduction efforts so we can make a real impact.
E-waste
As electronics become ever more important in our daily lives, the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) also grows — as does the importance of disposing of it in a responsible manner. We take our commitment to ensuring such waste is properly cared for seriously, as it can contain toxic metals and other hazardous materials.
In 2008, we developed an enterprise-wide reporting system to capture the electronics we are donating, recycling or reusing. Last year, this comprised almost 68,000 computers, monitors, servers and other equipment.
Solid Waste and Recycling
We recognize the importance of recycling in our buildings, which is why we currently maintain paper or cardboard recycling at more than 300 locations, and we recycled more than 10 million pounds of material in 2008.
Beyond traditional recycling such as paper and cans, we maintain a robust program to reclaim network resources such as copper telecommunications wire and central office exchange equipment. In 2008, we kept more than 75 million pounds of such "scrap" from landfills.
Engaging Employees
At AT&T, our sustainability commitment reaches across the company. We recognize that the dedication, passion and support of our nearly 300,000 employees are what make our sustainability efforts possible.
Champions of the Environment
Across the country, our employees are doing their part to contribute to a cleaner environment, and their efforts don't go unnoticed.
Now in its 15th year, the annual AT&T Champions of the Environment program honors individuals and teams who've made noteworthy environmental contributions in their communities and at AT&T in the last five years.
Each year, we select five community winners for their efforts to become more environmentally sustainable and five winners for environmental projects undertaken in the workplace.
In 2008, winning projects included an employee who makes her own biodiesel fuel and another who installed a windmill generator in his backyard. Team winners included a low-flow toilet installation project in San Antonio that is expected to save the company nearly 13 million gallons of water and $52,000 each year. Another award went to a team that developed ways to reduce annual paper use by 15 tons.
All winning projects receive a $1,000 donation to the environmental nonprofit of the winner's choice.
AT&T EcoSystem Site
In 2008, we worked to develop a comprehensive employee engagement program to make our sustainability communication relevant, frequent and easily accessible. Our goal is to communicate with our employees on a regular basis and involve them on a personal and professional level.
A key milestone toward this commitment was the launch in late 2008 of an employee Web site, AT&T EcoSystem, specifically focused on our environmental sustainability efforts. The site provides our employees with a resource to help them stay connected to our latest initiatives and allows them to join the conversation by sharing questions and suggestions with our team of sustainability experts. Employees can also check out hints for sustainable living or learn about colleagues who are already making a real difference, at work and in their communities.
AT&T Pioneers
We also involve our employees in our environmental efforts through our volunteer organization, the AT&T Pioneers. While our Pioneers devote hours of their time and talents to a variety of causes, many of our chapters undertake specific projects to help the environment. Some initiatives in 2008 included:
- AT&T Pioneers in Mississippi celebrated Arbor Day by planting magnolias — the state tree — in communities across the state. These Pioneers took the opportunity to educate communities about the origins of Arbor Day, the value of such plantings and what it means to give back.
- In Florida, Pioneers worked with a local school, staff and parents to build an outdoor learning center — a lush botanical garden with a fish pond and waterfall.
- Pioneers in Alabama created a "3 R's Challenge" and essay contest to tap into the imaginations of sixth-grade students and get them thinking about preserving and protecting our planet.
Across the country, Pioneers also participate in park, river, street and beach cleanup and beautification projects. And our volunteers are integral in our support of the charity Cell Phones for Soldiers by leading community cell phone recycling drives. In 2008, AT&T Pioneers brought in more than 25,000 devices through such drives.
