Employee Spotlight: How These Magenta Rock Stars Go Green
We all saw the headline earlier this year: T-Mobile now sources 100% of its electricity from clean, renewable energy. But you may be wondering what that achievement means exactly, and just what kind of behind-the-scenes work goes into such an accomplishment. The truth is, multiple teams work cross-functionally year after year to bring about these kinds of ambitious sustainability goals.
“My role is to is to calculate T-Mobile’s enterprise-wide electricity consumption, which dictates how much renewable electricity we need to procure to be 100% renewable,” explains Conrad Farner, a technology sourcing manager with T-Mobile’s Procurement Organization that focuses on energy and sustainability projects.
"From ‘smart’ buildings to financial investments in wind and solar farm installations, it’s exciting to stay on the cutting edge of solutions that truly improve our environment."
Amy Bond, Technology Sourcing Manager on T-mobile’s Procurement Team Focused on Energy and Sustainability
The story of T-Mobile’s sustainability success is a story of dedicated employees like Conrad. In 2019, T-Mobile was the first in the U.S. wireless industry to set science-based targets (SBTs) to significantly cut its carbon emissions by 2025 and help the company mitigate the risks of climate change. When the Un-carrier made headlines to earn that industry-first RE100 commitment earlier this year, it also achieved those carbon targets four years ahead of schedule.
“I’ve worked on numerous initiatives that helped drive us to this incredible milestone,” says Amy Bond, a fellow technology sourcing manager on the Procurement Team. “From ‘smart’ buildings to financial investments in wind and solar farm installations, it’s exciting to stay on the cutting edge of solutions that truly improve our environment.”
"Defining sustainability can be difficult. I have been in the field since 2009, with two sustainability-specific academic degrees and thousands of hours of training, and I still struggle to explain it. For me ultimately it means to preserve a healthy environment so everyone can thrive now and in the future."
Andrea Nemer Soto, Technology Sourcing Manager
And, what’s truly exciting is that even with these huge accomplishments so far, there is still so much more impact we can have on the planet. To celebrate Earth Day, T-Mobile has announced it will offset the carbon emissions of all wireless device use for our customers for one day. The company is also helping family and small landowners across the U.S. improve the health of their forests and fight climate change with The Nature Conservancy’s Family Forest Carbon Program . T-Mobile’s $300,000 contribution will support the expansion of the program to the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, aiding thousands of family landowners and helping improve the carbon storage potential of their land.
“This program is really innovative because it helps remove barriers smaller landowners face when it comes to accessing resources needed to invest back into their land, and that’s a win for them and the planet,” says Angela Null, an ESG strategy and sustainability manager on the Corporate Social Responsibility team. “I love that T-Mobile is partnering with others to have an even greater impact.”
We spoke to various T-Mobile employees focused on energy and sustainability projects to get a sense of how they work to reduce the company’s overall environmental footprint and greenhouse gas emissions all while aligning with the company’s larger strategic initiatives to mobilize business operations, employees, customers and even the broader community around making the world a greener, more sustainable place.
Whether it’s working to identify and evaluate energy efficiency upgrades across the company, investing in renewables like wind and solar installations, or working on personal sustainability projects, these employees have an undeniable passion for the planet all year round.
T-Mobile matches its own annual electrical usage with renewable energy from a portfolio of sources including: virtual power purchase agreements, a green direct tariff, renewable retail agreements, and unbundled REC purchases. For more information visit t-mobile.com. Carbon offset calculated based on approximate daily electricity consumption for total prepaid and postpaid customer phones, tablets, laptops, wearables, portable hotspots, IoT devices, and IHBB gateways assuming year-end FY2021 subscriber figures, an eGRID 2020 U.S. average emission factor and AR5 GWP values.
