Purpose (continued) 42 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
This year, we introduced a target to collect 1 million used mobile phone devices for reuse, recycling or donation. This new target relates to our campaign to collect ‘1 million Phones for the Planet’, which was launched in November 2022 in partnership with WWF. Since the start of the campaign, we have collected an estimated 337,680 used phones for refurbishment and reuse, recycling or donation to social causes. Increasing the rate of collection of used devices is an essential step in building a more circular economy for mobile phones and preventing them from ending up in landfill. Partnering with WWF on this campaign has enabled Vodafone to raise the profile of the environmental importance of bringing back e-waste. Since launching the campaign, we have worked together with WWF on campaign communications and promotional materials that build consumer understanding and raise awareness of the issue of e-waste. Click to see how we are supporting more of our customers to switch to green vodafone.com/sustainable-business/switch-to-green Reuse Our ‘trade in’ service encourages consumers to extend the lifetime of their device by trading it in to be refurbished and resold. Our Group trade-in programme is now live in three European markets through a digital trade-in platform or via retail, offering customers a guaranteed price to make the trade-in customer journey convenient, cost effective and attractive. This year we increased the reach of our digital trade-in proposition by expanding our digital platform to Portugal and Germany. Together with our partner, Recommerce, we also launched our digital diagnostics solution in the Czech Republic, with other markets to follow in 2024. We are helping to build a more circular economy through our products and services for business customers too. For example, our Vodafone Business Device Lifecycle Management solution offers companies a managed device-as-a-service solution with reuse and recycling at end of life, helping our business customers to reduce the environmental impact of mobile devices used by their workforces. Recycling We continued our ‘One for One’ campaign in Germany, in partnership with Closing the Loop. This e-waste reduction initiative promises that for every phone purchased directly from Vodafone by consumers in Germany, one ’end-of-life’ phone will be collected and recycled. Closing the Loop is a waste collector that solely works in countries where e-waste is normally not properly collected and recycled. This campaign diverts e-waste from landfill or improper recycling while also enabling precious metals to be safely recovered from hazardous waste. As at January 2024, our One for One campaign has enabled the collection of over 1.1 million scrap mobile devices in Ghana, equating to over 63,000 kilograms of e-waste, from which about 5,000 kilograms of precious metals (gold, silver and copper) will be recovered. At least 3,000 monthly living wages have been created since the start of the collaboration, thus supporting the livelihoods of people in local communities and providing opportunities for them to gain income and develop new skills. Improving device sustainability Vodafone is a co-founder of Eco Rating, a pan-industry eco-labelling consortium for newly manufactured smartphones. It seeks to help consumers identify and compare the sustainability of mobile phones, enabling them to make more sustainable product choices. Through our work as part of the consortium, we engaged with mobile device manufacturers to encourage improvements in their Eco Rating score, by improving overall environmental impact, including device circularity and reducing GHG emissions – both of which also help to reduce the Scope 3 GHG emissions from Vodafone’s upstream supply chain. Eco Rating is now operational in 39 countries, supported by 22 manufacturers and a total of nine operators. Since its introduction, the rating has contributed to improving the environmental performance of mobile phones on the market, illustrated by the increase of the
average Eco Rating score from 74 to 77 out of a maximum 100 since it was launched in 2021. Vodafone now operates this initiative in nine markets, with over 275 handsets assessed and available to our customers. We also encourage our customers to consider purchasing ‘second- life’ refurbished devices. Purchasing a refurbished smartphone saves around 50 kilograms of CO 2 e, making its contribution to climate change 87% lower than that of the equivalent, newly manufactured smartphone, and removes the need to extract 77 kilograms of raw materials. 1 We offer customers high quality and competitively priced refurbished smartphone ranges in UK, Turkey, and Vodacom South Africa. We also design a number of home products including broadband routers and TV set-top boxes. We have begun integrating sustainability principles into the design process for our products and packaging. For example, our new Vodafone Hub family of broadband routers was designed using 95% post-consumer recycled resin, a mechanical design to enable simpler refurbishment, energy optimisation features and zero plastic packaging. This year, in recognition of the sustainable features of its product design (including use of recycled materials, durability, repairability and energy efficiency), we also obtained TÜV Green Seal certification for our first Vodafone branded product, a television set-top box. Nature Click to learn more about our work as part of Eco Rating: vodafone.com/sustainable-business/switch-to-green The world is currently undergoing a dangerous decline in nature with one million species threatened with extinction, impacting the lives of billions of people and economies. In December 2022, 188 governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework consisting of four overarching goals to reverse the loss of nature by 2050. We recognise the need for a sustainable approach to nature and in FY24 initiated a review of the biodiversity impacts, risks and dependencies of our business operations, products and services. Digital technology can be applied to enable interventions and actions to protect, manage and restore nature. The so-called nature technology market is expected to be worth $6 billion within 10 years. 2 Our review highlighted the variety of nature technology solutions Vodafone is already building across a number of ecosystems. Several of our operating companies are taking action on biodiversity through a range of initiatives appropriate for their local contexts. For example, in South Africa, Vodacom has created an AI-based technology solution to use cameras and hydrophones to identify and alert mussel farmers to the presence of marine mammals including whales in order to prevent entanglement in mussel farming ropes. In Romania, the IoT team has created a system based on acoustic sensors deployed in forest areas. The sensors pick up forest sounds and the AI can identify the specific sound of logging and trigger the sending of real time alerts with geolocation to forest administrators and directly to rangers’ phones so they can intervene immediately. This year, Vodafone Group has also successfully completed proof of concept for mTwiga, our digital technology solution for preventing human-wildlife conflict, which was developed by the winners of Vodafone’s in-house innovation accelerator programme, Launchpad, in 2022. mTwiga uses cameras with advanced video analytics and AI-enabled software to recognise predator species (such as leopard, hyena and lion) within close proximity to human settlements. mTwiga is able to send real-time alerts to communities and rangers and is designed to operate off-grid. Our field trials in Kenya in March 2024 identified a number of opportunities around bespoke AI models and species deterrents that we hope to build on during 2024. Notes: 1. Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de L’Énergie (ADEME), 2022. 2. World Economic Forum, 2022.
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