Telstra recognised by DPP’s Committed to Sustainability programme

Telstra has been recognised by the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) Committed to Sustainability programme, a scheme celebrating and promoting good practice in environmental sustainability across the media industry.

The recognition comes after Telstra set a new sustainability strategy, which comprises several targets:

• Responsible business – to be a sustainable, globally trusted company that people want to work for and with
• Digital futures – to foster strong, inclusive communities that are empowered to thrive in a digital world
• Environmental solutions – to use technology to address environmental challenges and help our suppliers, customers and communities do the same

“We’re delighted that Telstra has joined an increasing number of companies that are demonstrating their fantastic commitment to building an environmentally sustainable media industry,” commented DPP chief executive officer Mark Harrison. “And by scoring the maximum five out of five they’re leading the way, driving our industry towards continuous improvement and good practice.”

Already, Telstra is Australia’s largest corporate purchaser of electricity from renewable projects connected to the grid under project-specific agreements. While the output from these projects goes into the total grid pool, rather than directly into its facilities, these agreements play a role in providing the investment certainty to enable these projects to proceed. As the grid itself increases its proportion of renewable energy due to agreements with Telstra and others, the power that flows into its facilities from the grid also becomes greener.

Effective waste management is also an important component of Telstra’s overall sustainability strategy. Of 9,906 tonnes of total commercial waste last year, only 3,715 tonnes ended up in landfill, 37.5% of the commercial waste total, down 15% on the year before.

In December 2019, Telstra announced its commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement.

Telstra’s Sustainability, External Affairs and Legal (SEAL) team works across the business to drive progress against the strategy and manage sustainability-related risks and opportunities. As well as that, the company’s climate executives group oversees the climate change work programme, and a Telstra audit and risk committee oversees climate risk management and makes recommendations to the Telstra Board on targets.

Carlos Farias, head of market development at Telstra Broadcast Services, said: “We’re looking to improve even more by continuing to reduce waste from our operations and increasing the reuse and recycling of materials. Resource efficiency creates an opportunity for us to innovate, and this year we have focused on redesigning our customer packaging to incorporate sustainable design principles. Noting that e-waste is one of the fastest-growing types of waste in the world, we have also explored ways to increase e-waste recycling of both our customer devices and our network equipment.”

As well as the DPP Committed to Sustainability mark, Telstra is listed on CDP’s Global Climate Change Index A-List, demonstrating its commitment to environmental transparency and performance.