Introductions
As part of W.Media’s Interconnect World in Melbourne, leading telcos Optus and One New Zealand discussed how they are embedding sustainability into core business functions, and what this means for investing, infrastructure, company purpose, and culture. Both operators have moved beyond simply measuring emissions and are striving to align their commercial and social purposes, because it makes good business sense to do so.
“When it comes to the company, vision and purpose and sustainability, they need to be aligned in order for them to survive,” said Optus Senior Director – Sustainability, Helen Maisano. She said Optus recently changed its company purpose, which is to deliver real choice by championing the customer. This also means championing sustainability. She used the examples of keeping people connected through disasters and the work Optus does for vulnerable customers.
On the enterprise side, customers also have sustainability goals and their own targets they want to achieve.
“By us working across our customers, our enterprise customers, broader society – that is how, as a company, we’re achieving our purpose, because you don’t live in a vacuum. A company’s success is based on how you’re integrated into society and meeting society’s needs as well,” she said.
One New Zealand is now owned by trans-Tasman infrastructure investor Infratil, having rebranded from Vodafone New Zealand about two years ago. Head of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs, Nicky Preston, said the telco ensured purpose was an integral part of the rebranding exercise.
“Our purpose is to create a better connected Aotearoa New Zealand, which is sustainability is inherent in that,” she said, adding that this meant being more sustainable and enduring – and not just in the commercial sense of being connected. Eighteen months ago, the telco completed McKinsey’s Organisational Health Index survey, which confirmed the staff believed it was a “purpose-driven organisation.” Preston cited an example where 95% of staff said they valued Māori Taonga when asked about their connection to Te Ao Māori.
She noted that while 16% of New Zealand’s population is Māori, only 4% of One New Zealand’s workforce identifies as Māori. This has now become integral to the telco’s sustainability kaupapa – it has appointed a full-time person to manage Māori engagement.
Environmental sustainability
Optus delivers around 11 million services every day across Australia and relies on a range of natural resources to do so, including being a large consumer of electricity.
“We have over 4,200 5G sites across Australia. So it’s a big country, big network. We don’t have the data centres that we do in Singapore…we are a big consumer of energy, and so energy efficiency is important to us,” said Maisano.
“So how do we become more efficient in our energy use? We deployed software across our 5G mobile network, which just switched off broadcast elements when there was no traffic. That helps with energy saving, but also with the emission reduction targets we have – we signed up to the science-based targets. We’ve got a target to reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 55% by 2030 and scope 3 emissions by 40% by the same date.”
She added that while this was a Singtel group-wide target, Optus’s contribution is proportionally higher because of its larger energy footprint. Preston said One New Zealand recently conducted a supply chain emissions mapping exercise, which revealed that when the whole supply chain is considered, the emissions footprint can be “massive.”
“For us, scope three is the most material category. It’s 90% of our overall emissions, which is kind of standard across a lot of (telecoms) businesses.”
Maisano confirmed Optus’s scope 3 figure was around 70%. She said that while Optus has been tackling emissions through initiatives like renewable energy – including rolling out solar to around 21 sites – and dealing with e-waste, it must also work closely with its supply chain. She pointed out that while major suppliers like Apple and Samsung have dedicated emissions teams, many of Optus’s suppliers are smaller, and the company needs to actively help them understand their carbon footprint.
Resilience and emergency response
The last time One NZ conducted a materiality assessment, natural disasters and emergency response were top issues. “If you think about what we do as a business, back to the connectivity piece – if you can’t offer basic services like being able to call your family and friends or the police in an emergency, what is it that we offer from a social responsibility perspective?” said Preston “We’re having more and more natural disasters; we are having to think about resiliency in a slightly different way and building that integrally into what we do from an environmental and social perspective.”
For example, One NZ is currently in discussions with the NZ government about deploying larger battery banks at cell sites. Preston said Cyclone Gabrielle showed that it was power line failures, not tower damage, that caused most outages. The telco is also exploring alternative technologies such as its tie-up with Starlink to provide direct-to-device messaging, and continues work with the industry body New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF).
Mapping network risk with Jupiter
One NZ has engaged engineering firm Tonkin + Taylor to assess long-term risks and opportunities for its networks using a tool called Jupiter Intelligence. The telco selected 18 core infrastructure sites – such as data centres and large exchanges – and input their coordinates.
“Based on the profile, Jupiter looks at a climate peril,” Preston said. “So it tells you the risks of that location based on wind, precipitation – the climate risk. It gives you a really good footprint that goes, ‘this specific site is probably more at risk or less at risk from these eight different things.’”
High winds emerged as a surprising risk.
Maisano said Optus undertook similar physical and transitional risk modelling in 2022, covering both its Singapore and Australian operations. She said several site-level recommendations were implemented, particularly for bushfire resilience, and the company is preparing to repeat the modelling to meet upcoming mandatory climate reporting obligations. She also mentioned Optus’s participation in CSIRO’s Telecommunications Resilience Investment Pilot (TRIP), which will include funding recommendations when complete.
Broader ESG issues
Both operators see ESG as extending beyond environmental sustainability. Preston said cybersecurity, data protection and data privacy were top concerns identified in One NZ’s materiality assessment. She likened it to a game of “whack-a-mole” as new threat vectors emerge. “We definitely do see a social responsibility to our customers and the public more broadly around how do we help reduce some of those things,” she said, citing new work using AI to detect fraud and scams in advance.
Maisano said Optus is focusing on education in this area. “We believe we can play a role in educating young people,” she said, referring to workshops in schools and resources for parents about AI and online safety.
She also noted the need for good governance as ESG-related legislation increases. “Within each company, how ESG is governed may vary, but we’re finding that with more legislation coming in, we need to have good governance around these issues – how we keep our board across emerging risks, how we address and mitigate them, and what we need to be able to do,” she said. “I feel like from a legislative requirement, the list is getting longer.”
Preston warned against short-term thinking. “Political cycles are short-term. So we should be thinking about [ESG] for the next 10, 20, 50 years – just as we build our infrastructure to last 10, 20, 50 years.”
Doing good is good business
Preston said she recently presented to One NZ’s audit committee on science based targets and emissions goals. “I very much see this as doing good business,” she said. “Doing the right thing. Renewable energy is good for us and will hopefully reduce costs. Thinking of the longer term –social is good for us. If our employees are happy and treated well, they will hopefully deliver good outcomes.”
She added that the telco has intentionally not set Net Zero targets but is focusing on long-term sustainability by reducing emissions and using renewables.
Maisano said commercial value is often considered when evaluating environmental and social programs. She gave the example of reducing packaging on Optus-branded products, which saved thousands of dollars in freight and logistics. Other initiatives like ‘Donate Your Data’ and ‘Digital Thumbprint’ are not commercially driven but help foster stronger community connections.
She said: “People have asked me, ‘Is Optus pulling back on any of its commitments?’ And I would say no, and that’s because if you do the materiality, you understand what’s important to your business, your market, your customers, and your stakeholders. Then your strategy aligns with business needs and those of society.”
[Interviews conducted and article written by Simon Dux]