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COP27 and Colt’s progress towards its science-based targets

Between the 6th and 18th of November, world leaders, climate activists and enterprise CEOs come together at COP27, the world’s largest annual gathering on climate action, to tackle the effects of global warming and set targets that reduce carbon consumption. Technology and the IT industry play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions and helping others become more sustainable, so while the world focuses on COP27, this is what Colt is doing to preserve the planet’s future.

Colt has set near-term science-based targets in accordance with the SBTi Net Zero Standard and will publish its long-term goals in the near future. You can read more about our science-based targets in our blog post published on Net Zero Action Day.

In response to the critical work taking place at the climate summit, here is a list of our progress towards our goals so far.

We are currently working with our suppliers to reduce our carbon footprint. We will address 93% of our supply chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ensuring our top suppliers align to a 1.5°c science-based target by 2025. We are undertaking a complete evaluation of our supply chain. We have allied with EcoVadis to use their scoring system and science-based targets to assess and onboard new suppliers.

Colt’s long-term strategy is to build network optimisation into the very ways it operates. In 2021 multiple initiatives were prioritised, including reducing legacy networks to make them leaner; upgrading software and hardware to make them simpler; designing networks with customers to make them more relevant, and ‘greening’ repurposed equipment by recovering and reusing it.

Our renewable and energy efficiency initiatives aim to substantially increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Between 2020 and 2021, we reduced our total Scope 2 electricity consumption by 12% and increased our renewable energy consumption by 22%. In 2021 we achieved 84% Scope 2 renewable electricity across all global Colt Group sites.

Our circular economy and waste reduction initiatives aim to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. At Colt, we have zero waste-to-landfill initiatives, with three Colt offices and three data centre sites currently on the road to zero-waste-to-landfill certification.

We are committed to greening our vehicles and see this as a key driver to reducing our carbon footprint. We are decarbonising our in-house fleet through electrification, and we have committed to a 75% pure electric fleet by 2030. As of November 2022, we have delivered 50 fully electric and 56 plug-in hybrid vehicles across ten countries.

2021 marked the first year of Colt Group’s environmental change network. The Green Teams were created to give passionate employees a local forum to make environmentally impactful changes on-site and in communities, alongside addressing environmental issues through events and volunteering.

You can read more about what we’re doing to deliver our promises in our 2021 Sustainability Report.

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