T-Mobile pledges to become a net-zero emissions carrier on all counts
T-Mobile has now committed to becoming a net-zero emissions carrier industry player by 2040. It has also signed the Climate Pledge which puts “a cross-sector community of companies and organizations working together to solve the challenges of cutting global carbon emissions for a sustainable future.”
The Un-carrier says that it will become the first US carrier to fulfil the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Net-Zero Standard requirements for achieving zero emissions across its first scopes such as direct emissions from tower and facility operations, plus indirect ones from any third-party electricity suppliers it will be using. According to Mike Sievert, the carrier’s CEO:
As we know sustainability is important to our customers and stakeholders, T-Mobile has made great progress in reducing our environmental footprint – and now we’re taking even bigger steps to reduce our carbon emissions with a commitment to meeting SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard. We are proud that we are doing our part to create a sustainable future for all – including becoming the first in U.S. wireless to set this bold target. And we hope companies like ours — and the partners and suppliers we work alongside — will join us in setting their own aggressive longer-term goals like these.
Not only that, but T-Mobile is committed to go even further in greenifying its total footprint by covering scope 3 of the SBTi’s net-zero standard, namely emissions “produced by suppliers, customer device usage, materials and fuel required to ship products, employee travel, and more – which represents roughly two thirds of the company’s carbon footprint.”
The goal is nothing short of ambitious, but T-Mobile has now become the 5G network leader in the US, both in terms of coverage, as well as when it comes to download or upload speeds, thanks to a mix of its own low-band assets and the swath of mid-band frequencies it acquired during the merger with Sprint and subsequent 5G deployment on these.