Vodafone Group Plc ESG addendum
20
Protecting our Planet
Empowering People
Building Trust
Other information
Carbon abatement Carbon abatement, also known as ‘enablement’ or avoided emissions, is an estimated measurement of carbon savings resulting from the use of products and services. It is specifically the measurement of the avoidance or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise have occurred had these connections and services (use cases) not been in place. Vodafone estimates the potential global carbon abatement impact of their products and services with the support of The Carbon Trust, an external consultant and carbon-accounting specialist. An estimate of the carbon abatement impact for each use case is calculated by multiplying product volume (e.g., number of IoT connections) by a carbon abatement factor. A use case is a proposition within Vodafone’s business customer portfolio that has the potential to avoid or reduce carbon emissions (e.g., Smart Metering, Fleet Management, Health-care monitoring). Vodafone worked with The Carbon Trust to define and identify these use cases, develop methodologies and estimate the associated carbon abatement impact by applying a carbon abatement factor to each use case.
The carbon abatement factor for each use case is mainly informed by either an external study, an internal Vodafone study or documented expert assumptions. For use cases where the location of the connection is relevant to the carbon abatement factor, a country-specific input is included (e.g., for Fleet Management, the carbon abatement factor includes average annual emissions for a car in the country where the connection is located). For countries where insufficient data is available, proxies or other assumptions have been substituted. We strive to develop measures of carbon enablement through collaboration with carbon experts and technology sector industry peers. As the science of measuring carbon enablement develops, we recognise ongoing limitations with our current approach and will continue to evolve our methodology to address them in light of emerging industry standards. These limitations include: – We measure carbon abatement on a gross estimate basis. This means that the carbon emissions avoided relate to the use-phase of the product lifecycle and are not net of the embedded lifecycle carbon emissions of the product or service itself (for example, emissions generated during the product’s manufacture or end -of-life disposal). – We do not account for any potential rebound effects. This means we do not measure any possible emissions associated with unintended changes of behaviour that could result from the implementation of the products or services. As the methodology for measuring carbon enablement emissions is still developing and industry standards may change, we will continue to evolve our methodology. This may result in a need to amend or update our disclosures and/or our ESG
ambitions, goals, commitments and/or targets or our evaluation of progress against these. We do not claim to be solely attributable for the carbon emissions avoided by the products and services we sell. Rather, we calculate carbon abatement so that we can better understand the potential scale of the carbon emissions that could be avoided, as a measure of how Vodafone contributes to the decarbonisation of society. Our methodology for estimating and reporting carbon enablement (and associated quantitative targets) is currently under review in light of evolving methodologies for measuring the ‘net carbon impact’ of digital solutions , such as the European Green Digital Coalition’s (EGDC) Net Carbon Impact Assessment Methodology (April 2024). In line with EGDC’s guidance, as a business whose core business (connectivity) is not covered within the scope of the methodology, we have not applied the methodology to our reporting this year. Our goal continues to be to provide the technology and connectivity needed for society to transition to a more sustainable future. This year, we continue to disclose our estimated carbon enablement results, and the methodology applied to calculate them. However, in absence of published industry sector methodology guidance for connectivity providers, our quantitative carbon enablement target is currently under review pending clarification of revisions to our methodology.
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