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Q & A – David Metcalfe of Verdantix Ltd.
David Metcalfe is a director at industry analyst firm Verdantix Ltd and has written a number of reports examining sustainability across the telecommunications industry. In May 2009 he published the Verdantix Green Quadrant report which identified some potential sustainability leaders in the telecommunications industry – one of which was BT.
David, do you think telecoms operators are pretty much aware of their roles, responsibilities and influence when it comes to sustainability?
Yes. The two main things we’ve observed are that - and this is for the bigger European telcos especially - they have a long-standing commitment to corporate and social responsibility issues in general. Over the last three or four years there’s been a greater focus on climate change as well as the issue of sustainability.
The other main trend we’ve seen much more recently is that many of them are beginning to undertake a new role. This is all around the question of how do these telecoms firms help their customers to implement sustainability strategies. I’d say this is where the investment is starting to be made by many of the key telco players.
Do you agree that some telcos are more advanced along the sustainability life-cycle than others?
This is definitely the case – operators are at different stages. There are a number of firms which have become quite good at marketing the benefits of sustainability. However, we need more operators to become more innovative and to develop different service areas. Some companies are getting it right. An example would be BT’s Sustainability Consulting Group which is doing innovative things around Scope 3 emissions. Other telcos are doing some interesting things around sustainable data centres.
What do you think a sustainability leader in the telco sector will look like in ten years time?
I think a telco wanting to be a sustainability leader in 2020 (which is the date for many emissions-related targets) will have to have a firm strategy in place by 2012. That’s because bigger energy-consuming assets like data centres have a long lifespan. To have a sustainable data centre in operation by 2020 means the planning needs to start now.
My view is that a leader in sustainability will have a number of features. For example, they will have an incredibly strong focus on energy efficiency for all their key energy-consuming assets. They will need to be aware that the price of oil will go up by 2020, and they will need to be using energy efficiency management tools like digital smart metres and private smart grids. I suspect they will have a fleet of vehicles that is no longer petrol-powered in the main.
Moving to electrical or hydrogen-powered vehicles would require infrastructure planning – for example – accessing a network of charging stations will become a necessity. I also see the leading telcos doing a lot of work associated with intelligent building solutions too – all helping to manage energy efficiency.
How important is brand? Does a telco need to be seen to be green?
There has been a lot of successful corporate communications around CSR in the past and that will continue. But what will be much more important is going to be the capabilities that telcos develop to help their customers develop sustainability programmes.
What does BT need to do to achieve leadership status in your opinion?
BT is on the cusp of the Verdantix Leaders Quadrant in terms of its sustainability capabilities.
What it should be thinking about though is investing in more value propositions for customers. That is to say products and services that plug into the sustainability strategies of those customers. That’s why BT should ask itself how it can become market leader in video collaboration services, how it can partner successfully to develop propositions that customers are looking for; and how BT can exploit solutions such as route optimisation.
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