Company Profile: AT&T
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AT&T likes to boast that it was the first in the telecommunications industry to join the California Climate Action Registry, when it did so in 2005. The registry, founded in 2001, helps companies track and reduce their carbon emissions to an auditable standard that is shared publicly. Tracking and transparency are certainly important aspects of reducing your carbon footprint, but it seems that AT&T is trying to make this much bigger than it is.
To start, the registry began in 2001. Just because other telecommunications companies hadn’t joined before does not mean that AT&T needed to wait until 2005. As well, the registry is just for operations within the state of California, so only shows a small portion of AT&T’s company wide carbon footprint.
Apart from this registry, AT&T has made some effort to cut their carbon footprint. They only purchase low emissions vehicles, although they don’t publicly state what they define to be ‘low emissions’. This has, however, produced some very positive results. Between 2001 and 2004 they decreased their consumption of gas and diesel by 10% and 20 % respectively. Certainly not accomplishments to scoff at.
AT&T has also focused on improving the efficiency of data centres to reduce their carbon footprint. Since 1998 energy consumption in their data centres has dropped by nearly 25%.
To their customers, AT&T likes to be seen as a very socially responsible company and has taken public steps to prove it. They actively encourage customers to bring back old cell phones, PDAs, and batteries to be properly recycled. The Yellow Pages they publish, which are giant stacks of paper printed each year, use up to 40% recycled paper. AT&T has also introduced online paperless billing so their customers can help reduce waste and cut their carbon footprint.
Finally, the actual products and technology that they sell to their customers gets a mixed review. Their technology can certainly have the benefit of reducing the need to travel and have phone conversations or video conferences instead. That being said, the vast amount of electronics uses up huge amounts of electricity and is a big contributor to global warming.
So how do they stack up?
Business Strategy: 2/5 – AT&T seems to recognise that energy efficiency will save them money on their bills, but that seems like a recent revelation as cutting their carbon footprint remains a low priority
Products & Services: 3/5 – they make possible the use of millions of pieces of electronic equipment that uses up electricity to charge and operate, but also prevents the need for a lot of travel
Leading By Example: 2/5 – AT&T likes to emphasize that they are the first telco to join the California Climate Action Registry, but they definitely are not the first company to join it and still seem to be dragging their feet on the issue of global warming
Overall: 2.3/5
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