T-Mobile Takes a Portfolio Approach to Renewables: Q&A with Chad Wilkerson
By Alyssa Danigelis
Originally published by Environment+Energy Leader
T-Mobile moved early on renewable energy. The company became the only major telecom to receive high marks on Green America’s scorecard last April for committing to 100% renewable energy by 2021, signing agreements for wind power, and joining the RE100.
Since then, the company’s CEO John Legere announced he’d be stepping down at the end of this April, and the telecom picked up a record 1.9 million new customers in Q4 2019 during discussions about a possible merger with Sprint.
Despite these changes, Chad Wilkerson, the telecom’s director of sustainability and infrastructure sourcing says that T-Mobile remains focused on its 2021 commitment. “We’re already right at the finish line,” he said.
What prompted T-Mobile to move toward 100% renewable electricity by 2021?
The wireless industry has a huge carbon footprint. We quickly realized that we had the opportunity to be an industry leader. In 2018, we announced that we were going to go 100% renewable. From 2018 to 2021 was pretty aggressive, but we went all in and joined the RE100 to solidify that commitment. We also set science-based targets, which were approved, to make sure that the commitments aligned to the science.
