(Credit: Pixabay)Verizon is back at the bottom of Green America’s Clean Energy Wireless Scorecard that grades the top US telecommunications companies on their renewable energy usage, with only 3-5% estimated clean energy use. Verizon previously ranked above Sprint, which has raced to the number two spot after being the industry laggard.
According to Green America’s updated “Clean Energy is Calling” report, T-Mobile continues to lead the industry through its commitment to reach 100% renewables by 2021. Second-place Sprint announced a goal of 100% clean energy by 2025 and its first renewables project to provide 30% of its total energy use. With T-Mobile merging with Sprint, T-Mobile has committed to release an updated timeline to move both T-Mobile and Sprint to 100% renewables. In third place, AT&T has acquired over 1.5 gigawatts of renewables since 2018, an estimated quarter of its total use. However, AT&T is now the only telecom without a public target or timeline on clean energy. In February 2020, last-place Verizon announced a new wind energy project as its first move to use part of its $1 billion green bond to reach 50% renewables by 2025. But its current clean energy contracts will only result in an estimated 3-5% renewable energy, according to the report.
While the telecom sector already uses enormous amounts of energy — the report says the four largest companies collectively use more than 3 million MWh of electricity each year — the new report discusses the impact of covid-19, including significant increases in usage since March likely to result in an uptick in energy consumption, which could outweigh the gains of energy efficiency in the networks. The report also includes a section on social responsibility of clean energy firms and how telecom companies can influence improvements in diversity and equity in the renewables sector.
When Green America launched its “Hang Up on Fossil Fuels” campaign in 2017, the sector used less than 2% renewables with hardly any significant commitments in place to increase. Now, Green America estimates that if all current commitments are met, approximately 45% of the four companies’ networks overall will be powered by clean energy. AT&T followed by Verizon use the most energy, so if they move to 100% renewable energy, it will bring the sector as a whole much closer to 100% renewable energy.
Each of the companies is graded on current commitments and actual clean energy being used. This is based on direct responses from companies to Green America’s Clean Energy Calling questionnaire and publicly available data through company announcements and the Carbon Disclosure Project, which reflects 2018 energy use.
