Sustainability Magazine June 2022 | Page 53

T-MOBILE

“ At this point , the department for sustainability and infrastructure sourcing covers a variety of items , with energy as one area of focus , for example ,” says Wilkerson . “ Part of the strategy is that it is within procurement , which actually offers us a seat at the table to influence everything going on across company operations . It also allows us to work directly with our own category managers who are able to offer expert insights and work alongside procurement tenants ,” says Wilkerson .

“ We can share guidelines or frameworks we ' re going to operate in with our suppliers . Doing so really allows us to extend beyond just what our company is doing , instead actually having an influence on what other companies operating in the wireless industry are doing and the impact throughout the value chain .”

CHAD WILKERSON DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SOURCING , T-MOBILE

The company also tracks its facility ’ s life cycle carefully , identifying solutions when something needs to be decommissioned .

“ We actually have several partners that help us decommission those sites . The materials are recycled or reused , or in some cases , we just ensure that we don ' t have a bunch of it going to municipal waste . We ' re reclaiming and utilising as much of that as possible ,” Wilkerson says . “ We actually are part of a working group with GSMA so we can take a more circular approach .”

T-Mobile and its energy efficiency efforts As a tech company , energy usage has always been a top concern for T-Mobile when it comes to its overall sustainability efforts . “ T-Mobile uses a lot of energy ,” says Wilkerson . “ Even though we ' re going to be talking about renewable energy , energy efficiency is also part of that programme ."

Wilkerson here refers to a classic saying : “ The greenest energy is the energy you don ' t use ” – words that the company most

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