Why does corporate social responsibility [CSR] matter to Orange Wholesale?
First, because we’re part of Orange Group, which has made clear and ambitious commitments to reduce its carbon emissions. The Group has a 2040 target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, 10 years earlier than the GSMA’s target.
As a global provider of infrastructure and connectivity, we have a role in developing eco-efficient infrastructure and networks, promoting network sharing and ensuring long-term resilience. We also have other commitments, including a responsibility to promote workplace diversity in all our geographies.
What’s the company’s approach to network sharing and how can this promote sustainability?
TOTEM, Orange Wholesale’s tower company in France and Spain, enables sharing by opening towers to all telecom players. If we succeed in our goal of having an average of 1.5 tenants per tower by 2026, up from 1.3 in 2020, we'll be able to avoid more than 20,000 tons of carbon emissions through the towers we don’t need to build.
If we look at all the rest of our infrastructure, the movement is the same. In-house at Orange, for example, we have been merging B2B and B2C networks, which significantly reduces our energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Sharing therefore comprises a major improvement we can make for the planet in terms of cutting emissions.
What are Orange Wholesale’s main principles behind sustainability?
There are four main things we have to do: stop, share, optimise and reuse.
The first duty we have is to stop using older technologies and network generations by, for instance, speeding up the removal of ageing power-hungry 2G antennas.
The second one is to develop sharing, as I’ve already mentioned, by merging networks and opening up our towers.
The third pillar is to optimise as far as we can by using green energy. In Spain, for example, TOTEM has a long-term deal known as a power purchase agreement, enabling it to buy 100% green energy. We also have solarisation projects for data centres and satellite teleports, among others.
Under this pillar, we’re improving our energy monitoring too. One thing we’re doing is working with Ethernetics, a start-up based in Belgium that focuses on decarbonising data centres. Its AI-driven tool, which we have installed in some data centres and are extending to others, manages power supply and use at rack level.
The tool allows us to detect and shut down equipment that isn’t functioning properly or is idle, as well as find cases of excessive consumption and optimise equipment use. In tests, the tool has helped us to save up to 15% on energy use and carbon emissions. We’ve also been developing a carbon-footprint calculator that will allow our clients to monitor annual carbon output for each of our offers.
The fourth pillar of our sustainability strategy is reuse. Here, we have a strong commitment that 15% of our network investment at Orange Wholesale will be allocated to refurbished equipment by the end of 2024.
With more than 99% of intercontinental internet traffic routed via the oceans, what is Orange Wholesale doing in the subsea market in the area of sustainability?
One thing is that we’re working with a new generation of mega-submarine cables, such as Dunant and Amitié, that are carrying up to 40 times more capacity than earlier ones with a significantly lower net cost per megabyte. This makes them more efficient in terms of carbon emissions.
Secondly, when we install these cables, we work with a lot of precaution and use environmentally responsible techniques to ensure that we respect biodiversity. We try to extend the lifespan of cables if it’s compatible with client needs, as well as recycling them when they are old. All that helps save a lot on emissions.
In addition, last year, Orange Marine launched cable ship the Sophie Germain, a new generation of carbon-efficient boat. When docked, it gets powered up with green energy using a network of solar panels. So far, it has saved 21% in carbon emissions compared with traditional boats, while improving propulsion by 38% – so it’s more efficient in terms of carbon emissions, but also performance.
What are the company’s other priorities when it comes to CSR?
Another priority is workplace diversity. One of our objectives, for example, is to recruit 27% women in technical professions in 2024. Meanwhile, 40% of Orange Wholesale’s executive committee members are women.
A further priority is maintaining resilient infrastructure. As an obligation under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive [CSRD], we’re mapping locations where our towers, cable landing stations, data centres and other physical property might be at risk because of future climate change.
If we’re at risk in a certain place, we need to anticipate and build property to be more resistant if appropriate, or eventually construct it in another place. We also need to be sure that when we have physical assets, they’re built to resist big winds, fires, water flows and other climate-change-related catastrophes as they happen.
We also have governance evaluations to check if everything we declared in our statements of commitment to the various different CSR measures is followed through.
As part of Orange, which has reporting obligations as a listed company, we provide all that audited and certified data for publication. We therefore have to make sure that we are exemplary in terms of ethics and compliance.
What are you doing to try to increase the representation of women at the company?
As we are involved in a technical industry, we’re facing the same problem as our competitors, which is the lack of female candidates for such careers. We’re therefore working intensively to try to change that.
We do this by working with schools and universities to promote technical careers, and holding open days at which we invite girls to visit us and find out more about what we offer.
In addition, we promote a lot of role models within the company, and hold communications and internal meetings on diversity. We have to start very early in the process of girls’ education to get them involved, but there’s still a lot to do even though we’re carrying out many measures here.
How do you assess the current position of both Orange Wholesale and the overall industry in terms of addressing sustainability and CSR?
At present, it’s quite difficult to assess carriers against each other because there are lots of different norms and ways to measure CSR. There’s a lot of work to do today to be compliant with the CSRD – but in the coming years, common norms will be developed.
What I can say is that at Orange Wholesale, we have very big ambitions in CSR that require lots of ways to think about our business differently. When I started in that area of the business three years ago, the subject wasn't very mature, but now we have people really engaged in CSR across the company and it’s completely integrated into the business.
When we present an initiative to our project committee, we’re committed to presenting a carbon business plan within it. So we have a lot of drive when it comes to this matter, and I believe we will succeed in complying with the targets we have announced to the market.
What are the biggest challenges faced by the wholesale industry in achieving CSR targets?
I think this industry is not yet in a phase of big dilemmas that involve having to cut some type of business or say no to opportunities because of carbon-related issues.
However, that day will come and it will mean a major cultural change. Reconciling economic growth with reducing our carbon footprint is the biggest challenge we have to confront.
Taking a long-term view, I would say putting a focus on infrastructure sharing and resilience is where we can save and protect our assets for a green future.
