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Vodafone Group Plc
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Other information
Renewable electricity We consider grid electricity to be purchased from renewable sources if the grid electricity used in our operation is matched with renewable energy certificates (‘RECs’). RECs certify that power has been generated and added to the grid from a renewable source such as wind, solar or hydro. In addition, we purchase a growing proportion of our electricity directly from renewable generators through Power Purchase Agreements (‘PPAs’). We also generate a small proportion of the electricity we use ourselves, for example through rooftop solar panels. In some of the European countries where we operate, markets for purchasing renewable electricity (traceable using RECs) are not available. We match electricity used in these countries with RECs originating from grid-connected neighbouring markets. This means that the electricity used by our network in Europe is 100% matched with renewable sources. The European markets where we match the grid electricity we use with RECs for the financial year ending 31 March 2024 are: Albania, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom. Renewable electricity includes all renewable electricity from third-party suppliers which is traceable to Vodafone through a signed contract or provision of surrendered RECs. Renewable electricity excludes RECs passed on and retired by a third party.
Scope 3 GHG emissions The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard defines 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions. All 15 categories have been assessed for inclusion within our reporting, where categories are excluded because there are no emissions, this is reviewed annually to ensure it remains valid and as part of our continued efforts to improve transparency and completeness of disclosure for our total GHG emissions footprint. We are committed to continual improvement in the quality and completeness of our Scope 3 emissions data inventory. We partner with carbon accounting specialists at The Carbon Trust to model and calculate our annual Scope 3 emissions. The Carbon Trust are experts in sustainability and carbon reporting who support us in identifying improvements to the completeness and accuracy of the input datasets and making improvements to methodology in line with emerging industry best practice. This year we have completed a review of our methodologies resulting in restatement of our Scope 3 emissions for all reported periods. This was undertaken to improve our data quality and estimation approach alongside the need to reflect portfolio changes and latest developments in industry standards and emission factors. The methodological changes made this year are considered to be insignificant.
As the methodology for measuring Scope 3 GHG emissions is still developing and industry standards may change, we will continue to evolve our methodology, and this may result in in a need to amend or update our disclosures and/or our ESG ambitions, goals, commitments and/or targets or our evaluation against these. We calculate our emissions for upstream and downstream transportation and distribution using a hybrid approach of spend-based and product specific data, which does not differentiate between upstream and downstream transportation and distribution activities. In 2022 we improved our calculation methodology to enable emissions from capital goods and transportation and distribution to be reported separately from purchased goods and services. Prior to 2022, emissions from capital goods were included in the data reported for purchased goods and services together with emissions from all transportation and distribution. The table below provides a breakdown of our Scope 3 emissions alongside an overview of the methodology for our Scope 3 calculations. Where the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (‘BEIS’) emission factors are referenced, these refer to the conversion factors for company reporting of greenhouse gas emissions (published by BEIS in June 2023).
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