Our sustainability journey: Where we are and where we’re heading

We all know that the climate crisis is a big deal. It’s affecting our planet, our people, and our way of life in ways we never imagined. And it won’t get better unless we do something about it.

At Zen, we recognise our responsibility to make a positive impact for the environment. We’ve been on a journey of reducing our environmental impact for around 15 years now, and we’re not stopping anytime soon. We’re always looking for new ways to improve and innovate, and we want to share our story with you.

In this post we’ll tell you about some of the things we’ve been up to in the past year, and some of the exciting things we have planned for the year ahead. But first of all, let's see the video. Zen's EXCO lead for our Environmental Steering Group, Steve Warburton, and Compliance and Sustainability Manager Paula Wilson talk us through our recent journey.

The last year

Over the last year, we’ve grouped our sustainability objectives into four main areas: Net Zero strategy, renewable energy, circular economy, and communications and engagement.

Net Zero strategy: We want to be part of the solution, not the problem. That’s why we’ve set ourselves some ambitious targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) standard. This means we’re aligning our actions with the goals of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

We’ve been working hard to figure out how we’re going to achieve these targets, and we’re happy to say that we have a draft plan ready.

Renewable energy: We already have a 100% renewable energy tariff at Sandbrook Park (Zen HQ), but we also wanted to generate our own renewable energy on site as well. That’s why we’ve installed 675 solar panels on our roof, which generate about 3% of our electricity. This not only reduces our carbon footprint, but also saves us money on our energy bills.

Circular economy: We’re committed to reducing waste and extending the life of our products. That’s why we’ve introduced a refurbishment scheme for the routers that we send to our customers. Instead of throwing away or leaving unused the routers that are returned to us, we’re now refurbishing them and sending them to new customers to use. This way, we can prevent them from going to landfill and reduce the demand for new materials.

We think this is a great way to extend the life of our products, and to give our customers a better service. And it also enables our customers to do their bit for the environment too, especially when the router they receive works just as well as a new one.

Communications and engagement: We believe that knowledge is power. The more we know about the environment, the more we can do to help it. That’s why we’ve been working with our staff to raise awareness and educate them about the environment. We’ve been sharing best practices, tips, and resources on what they can do in their everyday lives to make a difference. And we’ve also sponsored and participated in various environmental initiatives and events throughout the year.

Looking ahead to the next year

We’re not resting on our laurels. We have big plans for the next year, and we’re ready to take on new challenges and opportunities. Again, we’ve grouped our activities into four streams: Net Zero strategy, circular economy, communications and engagement, and supply chain.

Net Zero strategy: One of the key actions we’re looking at is to decrease our reliance on gas in our building. We’re investigating different ways we can do that at the moment, such as installing heat pumps or using biogas. This will be key to meeting our SBTi targets around Scope 1 emissions, which are the direct emissions from our own operations.

We’re also going to refine our Net Zero strategy and make sure it’s aligned with the SBTi standard. We’re going to review our progress, identify any gaps, and update our actions accordingly. We’re going to be transparent and accountable, and we’re going to keep you posted on our journey.

Circular economy: We’re going to continue our circular economy work to increase the amount of routers and other equipment going through our refurbishment scheme. We want to make sure that this year, these processes are working effectively and having the intended outcomes. We also want to start measuring the proportion of new services that are being fulfilled by refurbished kit – to see how we’re doing now and how we can improve going forward.

Communications and engagement: In the year ahead, we’re planning to sponsor a key initiative every quarter. For example, in Q1 we’re looking to plant the 2700 trees that we pledged as part of our partnership with Carma Earth, a social enterprise that helps businesses offset their carbon emissions by planting trees. We’ll be encouraging people around the business to use their volunteering days to help with this, creating an opportunity for us to come together as a community of like-minded individuals and make a positive impact on the environment.

Supply chain: We’re going to work more closely with our supply chain partners to help us understand and reduce the Scope 3 element of our carbon emissions, which are the indirect emissions from our value chain. We’re going to collaborate with other telcos, mobile operators, government, and representatives from the tech sector to find ways to better measure, report, and reduce our emissions from our activity.

We’re also going to engage with our suppliers on what they’re doing around the environment and how we can support each other on getting to net zero together – because one thing is certain, none of us can get there alone.

Join us on our journey

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, but we know there’s still a lot more to do. We’re determined to keep improving and innovating on our environmental and sustainability work, and we hope you’ll join us on our journey. If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. We’d love to hear from you.