Germany's Deutsche Telekom (DT) said on Friday that it plans to cover all of its electricity needs with renewable energies by 2021.
DT is also taking aim at reducing its CO2 emissions from gas, oil and other sources of energy by 90% by 2030 compared to its emission levels in 2017.
The renewable energy goal, which includes T-Mobile in the U.S., revised a previous target by DT to reduce its emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 2008. That goal is still in place, and DT is on track meet it, according to a blog post.
DT is also focusing on emissions from the supply chain that its customers generate when they use its products and services. DT is working toward reducing the CO2 emissions per customer by 25% compared to 2017. DT said it planned to include T-Mobile U.S. in its climate projection target in the future.
“We want to build the future, not obstruct it,” said Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges, in a prepared statement. “Climate protection is one of the key challenges of our age. With the new targets for the period 2021-2030, we are taking our responsibility seriously and are acting decisively, quickly and, at the same time, in a sustainable manner. Furthermore, this sends an important signal to our customers because sustainability is becoming increasingly important as a purchasing criterion.”
On the customer side, DT cited cloud computing as one way to promote energy-efficient processes because organizations can put their servers and storage in the cloud. With cloud computing, small and medium-sized enterprises can reduce their emission levels by 21 metric tons of CO2 a year on average.
RELATED: Verizon issues $1B in green bonds to fund companywide environmental initiatives
Earlier this year, Verizon and Telefónica issued "green" bonds to fund their renewable energy initiatives. Telefónica said the proceeds of its green bond sales would be used to convert more of its copper lines to fiber.
Verizon said it would use the bond sale proceeds to fund various sustainability initiatives including renewable energy, green buildings, energy efficiency, and sustainable water management. In addition to being more environmentally friendly, DT, Verizon and Telefónica also stand to cut down on the cost of their power consumption by going green.
Last year, the cable industry's SCTE and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), announced a U.S. patent in the area of energy management. The SCTE launched its Energy 2020 program in 2014 with the goal of having energy and power-related best practices and standards in place by 2020.