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MTN Group integrates environmental matters into core business operations

The MTN Group, Africa’s leading telecoms operator, will commemorate World Environmental Day on June 5 by sharing with its stakeholders concerted efforts the company has made in fostering more responsible environmental practices across its footprint in Africa and the Middle East.

MTN’s environmental efforts will be detailed in the carbon footprint report that will be available on the JSE Securities Exchange Socially Responsible Index (JSE SRI Index) and in a detailed sustainability report which will be incorporated in the annual report and will also be available on www.mtn.com/sustainability

As a medium impact company, MTN believes that it can contribute positively to efforts to preserve the environment and help mitigate the negative impact of climate change that has been brought about by industrialization since the turn of the last century.

Says Ms Nozipho January-Bardill, MTN Group Executive: Corporate Affairs: “MTN acknowledges that there is significant evidence that climate change is responsible for biodiversity concerns and extreme weather changes including floods, hurricanes and cyclones. For MTN, environmental concerns are also socio-economic issues. This becomes more pronounced in the markets that MTN operates in as they are some of the most indigent and vulnerable to extreme weather conditions,” says January-Bardill.

She points out that MTN’s sustainability approach is three-fold. “Having to operate in countries that have few resources to cope with the adverse impact of climate change, MTN is continuously exploring ways of doing business in a way that avoids harmful impact on the environment. Secondly, MTN works in tandem with communities affected by its operations to jointly undertake and see through programmes that help to preserve the environment. Thirdly, the company has started to investigate solutions that can help other industry sectors reduce their environmental impact,” says January-Bardill.

Conscious of the calamitous impact of environmental change, January-Bardill says MTN has embarked on a process of investigating low carbon and renewable sources of energy to power the company’s base transceiver sites (BTS) in a number of its operations.

In South Africa, MTN has completed the implementation of an off-grid wind and solar powered base station in Kleinaarpen in the Karoo. The facility is also powered by hydrogen fuel cell as a secondary power source.

In Upington in the Northern Cape, a project is currently underway that will power base stations with solar and wind power. A feasibility study is currently underway to ascertain the use of bio-gas and fuel cell technology in a number of MTN sites.

In addition, MTN has also identified two sites in Delmas in the province of Mpumalanga that have a potential of being powered by natural gas. An agreement has already been secured to that effect.

MTN operations in Guinea Conakry, Rwanda, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda are also piloting alternative solutions to power the company’s base stations in these operations using less fossil fuel. These include the use of solar, wind and hydrogen fuel cell solutions.

In addition to exploring alternative sources of energy, MTN continuously assesses how the company can more efficiently and responsibly power its base stations using engineered solutions such as free cooling and deep cycle battery solutions.

MTN has continuously worked with communities affected by its operations to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the environment. MTN Cameroon partnered with the environmental advocacy group, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), to combat desertification by planting over 60 000 trees in the West African country. This exercise also included a training programme that upskilled women with stove manufacturing skills to reduce the harvesting of firewood.

Quoting the Gartner Group, January-Bardill says while the ICT sector is putting in place programmes aimed at stepping up the industry’s own energy efficiencies, the sector’s biggest influence will be through playing an enabling role to foster energy efficiency in other sectors.