Vodafone Essar announced the release of Footprints
2010-11 that outlines practices in the supply chain management, ethics,
customer service and marketing in the Responsible Marketing section.
The Eco efficiency section of the report highlights
environmental initiatives and programs such as waste management, Green IT,
Energy and Responsible Network Deployment. The Society segment of the report
covers a bouquet of social responsibility activities undertaken by Vodafone at
circles.
The report also has a special section on the green
initiatives on the network by Vodafone. It focuses on series of initiatives
undertaken by the company (both in the active and passive infrastructure)
towards its endeavour to reduce carbon emissions.
Highlights of Vodafone Essar FootPrints 2010-11
Green Efforts in the network
Shutting down associated cabinets and extra transmitters
during low traffic so as to reduce energy consumption. This has resulted in
saving nearly 4 Mn kW of electricity and reduction in CO2 emission by 3,240,000
kg per annum
Solar Powered Sites – piloted this concept at 4 sites in
2010, and we seek to replicate this, where there’s an absence of grid power. We
foresee a decrease in diesel dependency to the tune of 2.8 Mn kgCO2 per annum
Hybrid Solutions – deployed hybrid solutions (diesel
generator and battery working in alternate mode) at 2200 sites that have
reduced diesel consumption by 2,628,548 litres or 7 Mn kgCO2 in the FY 2011
Virtualisation of Servers as they reduce space and power
requirements to run and cool the servers. By virtualising 504 servers, our
reduction in environmental footprint translates to 3.7 Mn kgCO2
Waste Management in operations
Lead acid batteries – These are either returned to the
battery manufacturer itself or are sold to authorised recyclers. By the end of
FY 2010, we had already prevented nearly 3000 batteries from going into
landfills and recycled 248 tonnes of waste. This includes lead acid batteries,
IT equipment & Network equipment
Electronic & IT waste – Most of our IT equipment is
managed by IBM and is recycled under IBM’s Global Asset Recovery Services
Employees have volunteered more than 5000 hours to work
with the hearing impaired, visually challenged and to teach English to slum
children. ‘Jagriti’ and ‘Learn English’ presented in the community section are
examples of such volunteering
Launched a campaign demanding zero tolerance in 3
critical areas: driving safety, electrical safety and working at height. We’ve
incorporated seven rules, one of which is ‘unique’ to the Indian environment –
the additional rule is for 2- wheeler driver safety
Under the guidance of the Universal Service Obligation
Fund of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT-USOF), launched ‘Sanchaar
Shakti’, a gender budget scheme for mobile connectivity and ICT-related
livelihood skills for Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in March 2011
Vodafone’s Biometric telephony introduced in Tihar
Jail. Of the 14000 inmates, only 12000 are eligible to register forthis
facility. About 4000 inmates are currently using the facility. Each inmate has
usage of 40 mins per month.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
