Responsible Company
Telenor Group takes measures to reduce its impact and inspire employees to act responsibly.
Waste management
Telenor Group encourages all of our local companies to establish responsible waste management and recycling activities and ensure sufficient control over the disposal and recycling of all types of waste. When disposing of waste, Telenor ensures source-separation, proper waste treatment and environmentally-friendly disposal.
Telenor has also launched recycling and reuse programmes for its customers, helping them to safely recycle customer premises equipment, such as mobile phones. These programmes help to raise awareness about the importance of responsible e-waste handling. Recycling and reusing can represent significant risk if not conducted appropriately. That is why Telenor Group has set the highest requirements for the strategic recycling partners, monitoring their performance so that it is compliant with Telenor’s Supplier Conduct Principles (SCP).
Managing e-waste from our operations
Electronic waste (e-waste) is the most rapidly growing segment of the municipal waste stream. E-waste from electronic products such as broken or obsolete computer monitors, central processing units (CPUs) and cell phones contain toxic materials that present health hazards and environmental damage through land contamination and water and air pollution.
Many of our mobile companies have recently been upgrading their networks. With thousands of tonnes of waste generated from these operations, Telenor is determined on reusing or reselling the swapped equipment. The unsold or unused equipment is recycled and dismantled in accordance with Telenor’s ethical and environmental policy, and is in line with international environmental standards and procedures.
Mobile recycling
Telenor Group’s ambition for electronic waste is to fully implement complete recycling programmes for all our business units and annually collect customer mobile phones and batteries for reuse or recycling in appropriate markets. A global project for collection and recycling of mobile phones, called “Old Phone, New Life”, has been developed. This concept aims to encourage all of our local companies to either join the global recycling effort or establish their own recycling programmes locally. Mobile recycling initiatives are now running in eight of Telenor’s 11 mobile operations; Telenor Hungary, Telenor Serbia, Telenor Montenegro, DiGi in Malaysia, dtac in Thailand, Telenor Sweden, Telenor Denmark and Telenor Norway. During 2012, a total of 323,000 handsets and mobile batteries have been collected and recycled in Telenor Group. Telenor Group’s 2015 ambition is to collect one million mobile phones and mobile phone batteries for reuse or recycling, every year.
Initiatives:
- In Norway, as part of the mobile network swap, 1,250 tons of old telecoms equipment has been either reused or recycled.
- Mobile recycling programmes in Telenor Group
- Mobile recycling programme in Norway: During five months in 2012, 500 Norwegian sports clubs collected 171,904 used mobile phones. Never before have so many mobile phones been returned for recycling in Norway.
Employee engagement
Building employee awareness and knowledge related to climate change is prioritized in Telenor. Telenor Group has organised internal programmes that help employees understand how they can contribute when it comes to climate change. Telenor Group includes climate-positive actions in our business, both related to employee awareness and how we manage our operations. This can be seen in how we present ourselves, how our brand is developed and how we communicate to our customers and stakeholders. As an example, Telenor’s Thai telecom, dtac, is making the fight against climate change a priority. They are taking action through a number of programmes, designed to engage the entire company.