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Media Kit: Sustainability

environmental sustainability

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Overview
Overview

At AT&T, we're deeply committed to environmental sustainability. By harnessing the scale of our network to deliver more sustainable solutions, we connect people and businesses seamlessly, increasing efficiency, minimizing impact and strengthening our connection to the world we all share.


Our environmental sustainability commitment is based on three tenants:

  • Minimizing Our Environmental Impact. We are working hard to reduce our own environmental impact with the same passion and leadership we bring to every aspect of our business.
  • Connecting People and Business. Our ICT products and services enable our customers to increase energy efficiency and productivity while also reducing carbon emissions.
  • Leading Innovation and Technology. We are committed to harnessing our technology and innovation to develop forward-looking technologies that meet environmental needs in unique ways.
Environment
Environment

We strive to minimize our environmental impact in ways that are relevant to our business and important to the communities we serve. From reducing our carbon footprint to investing in green technologies, we're doing our part to help protect and sustain the environment.


  • We began deploying a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles in 2008 to reduce our fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
  • Over the next ten years, we'll invest up to $565 million to deploy more than 15,000 additional alternative-fuel vehicles.
Recycling and Reuse
  • In 2008, we reused 4.5 million phones and 1.3 million pounds of accessories and batteries.
  • We encourage consumers to recycle their devices through our Cell Phones for Soldiers recycling program.
  • We produce phone directories that are recyclable, and we publish a phone number in our directories that provides recycling drop-off locations.
Energy Efficiency

This year, we're taking a number of actions to use energy more efficiently, including:

  • Rolling out new energy-saving software on 310,000 desktop computers. This will help us save more than 135 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity a year.
  • Installing high-efficient lighting, heating and air systems.
  • Adding automated controls — motion and temperature sensors — to cut unnecessary energy use.
  • Consolidating operations to optimize building occupancy to reduce heating and cooling costs.
  • Improving power efficiency in data centers and participating in the Green Grid consortium.
Wind and Solar Power
  • We use wind power for 10 percent of our electricity consumption in all AT&T facilities in Austin. This allows us to save 7.2 million kWh of fossil-generated electricity, enough to power 600 average homes in Austin each year.
  • We installed 3,700 solar panels on our facility in San Ramon, Calif. This solar power system generates more than 1.6 million kWh of electricity a year — enough to power more than 165 homes each year.
Related Links

Cell Phones for Soldiers Donation Drive Starter Kit
Cell phone donation drives make it easy to give your phone a second life.

Connections
Connections

We efficiently connect people and businesses with innovative and sustainable products and services. ICT products and services have the potential to help create a more sustainable future, enabling people and businesses to make more energy-efficient choices and reduce their own environmental impact.


In 2008, the U.S. Addendum to the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) sponsored study, SMART 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age, estimated that ICT-enabled solutions could cut annual CO2 emissions in the U.S. by up to 22 percent in 2020. This translates to gross energy and fuel savings of as much as $240 billion annually.

At AT&T, we offer a number of ICT solutions today that make our customers more efficient and productive while enabling them to do their part for the environment:

AT&T Telepresence Solution
  • Combines innovative video, audio and interactive elements to create a unique, virtual presence over the network — giving users an immersive, "in-person experience."
  • Benefits include increased employee productivity, increased collaboration, accelerated decision-making and reduced dependency on physical travel.
Fleet Management
  • Vehicle-based products combine the latest advances in GPS, wireless and Web technologies to make mobile workforce and fleet management an affordable reality.
  • Benefits include better management of miles driven, improved inventory management and reduced travel time and costs with real-time dispatching.
Smart Grid Solutions
  • Allow for two-way communication between the energy provider and the home or business. We provide the broadband and wireless communication backbone that smart grids need between virtually all devices producing, distributing and consuming electricity.
  • Smart grids allow: Electric companies to read meters remotely without sending technicians; Energy grids to more quickly and easily identify outages, or to correct problems before they lead to outages; Customers to receive real-time usage information and adjust their energy use accordingly, saving customers money and allowing the grid to reduce usage during peak times.
Related Links

Download the GeSI Smart 2020 Report and the U.S. Addendum

Telepresence Media Kit

Protect the Planet
Use broadband access to reduce your carbon footprint.

Innovation
Innovation

We lead the way in innovation and technology and apply developments to make a sustainable difference in society. We are committed to harnessing our technology and innovation to develop forward-looking technologies that meet environmental needs in unique ways.


Addressing Environmental Challenges

Our work in innovation, research and development is focused on the communications industry, but we never lose sight of the impact that work has beyond our own business needs.

  • We're working to apply technological advancements developed for our business in ways that one might not associate with AT&T — to tackle global issues, such as climate change, through work on species migration and energy efficiency.
  • Applying the same software used to maintain resilient telecommunication networks, AT&T Labs researchers are making the environment more resilient and helping protect rare animals. This "Machine Learning" software, which is available online at no charge for nonprofit and research use, has been downloaded thousands of times — from about 60 different countries — for conservation efforts around the world.
  • In addition to helping animals in Madagascar, other techniques for designing reliable communications networks are helping protect rare vegetation from the impacts of climate change.
  • AT&T Labs researchers are also helping to design safe migratory corridors for rare mountain plant species in South Africa that are threatened by global warming.
  • We also have a 14-year history of enabling research on how the economy and the environment coexist. The AT&T Technology and Environment Awards Program funds research at leading universities that pursue advancements in our knowledge of how the environment is impacted by Information and Communications Technology (ICT), especially those products and services in which AT&T is directly involved.
Related Links

AT&T Technology and Environment Awards Program

Innovation Media Kit

Business Sustainability Council

AT&T has formed the AT&T Business Sustainability Advisory Council dedicated to advising AT&T on the powerful linkage between information and communications technology (ICT) and helping customers minimize the environmental impact of their operations. The council will work to further the cause of measurement, methodologies and technology use cases to help business customers better quantify the impact of ICT-enabled solutions for greenhouse gas reduction.

By arming companies with this information, the council aims to help businesses make smarter sustainability choices and investments and better prepare for potential environmental regulation. The advisory council is the latest milestone in AT&T's sustainability efforts, which to date have included:

  • Establishing an Energy Council comprised of key executives from all AT&T business units that directly consume energy in their operations or that design, develop or specify energy-consuming equipment. The Energy Council is responsible for advancing AT&T's energy strategy within the company by identifying and assessing ways to operate more efficiently;
  • Setting a goal to reduce electricity usage intensity (relative to data growth on the AT&T network) by 15 percent, compared to 2008 levels;
  • Initiating a series of data center initiatives aimed at improving AT&T's energy efficiency. Once fully implemented, AT&T expects to realize 96.4 million kilowatt hours in annualized energy saving, reducing its carbon emission by 69,231 metric tons – which is equivalent to the electricity use of approximately 9,602 households, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator;
  • Planning to deploy more than 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles by 2019 - that will save 49 million gallons of gasoline over the 10-year deployment period and reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons; the equivalent of eliminating emissions from more than 38,600 traditional passenger vehicles per year;
  • Exploring alternative energy sources, such as using wind power for 10 percent of the electricity for all AT&T facilities in Austin, Texas. AT&T also installed a 1 megawatt solar power system on its facility in San Ramon, California. The 3,700 solar panels will generate more than 1.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year and reduce the building’s normal power consumption by more than 4,300 kilowatt hours per day.

AT&T also released a white paper entitled Networking for Sustainability: the Network Offset Effect. The white paper introduces the network offset effect to describe the positive sustainability value creation that takes place when activities that have a high environmental impact can be replaced with low-carbon alternatives that use the networks of information and communications technology (ICT) providers. To learn more about how the network offset effect holds the potential to deliver efficiencies, check out the white paper here.

Related Links

Listen to Gloria Lewis, executive director of AT&T's business solutions sustainability program office, discuss AT&T's response to the SMART 2020 report.

White Paper:  Networking for Sustainability — The Network Offset Effect

Press Release: AT&T Forms Business Sustainability Advisory Council

Listen to Beth Shiroishi, AVP of Citizenship and Sustainability, discuss AT&T’s citizenship and sustainability efforts.

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