Vodafone

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

Since July 2021, Vodafone has purchased 100% of its European grid electricity from renewable sources, four years ahead of its original 2025 target. Globally, 81% of purchased electricity came from renewables in FY23 (vs 77% in FY22). The Group holds PPAs in six countries — Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK — signed in FY23, covering approximately 6% of global renewable grid electricity and expected to generate ~40% of European grid electricity demand by 2025 when fully operational. The remainder of consumption is matched with renewable energy certificates (RECs/EACs). On-site solar PV generation reached 14 GWh p.a. and Vodafone is also trialling 750 micro wind turbines in Germany, self-powered masts in the UK, and mini-grid solutions in Mozambique and DRC. Vodafone purchased electricity in accordance with RE100's Technical Criteria.

Vodafone's 2040 net zero target, submitted for SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard validation, defines net zero as reducing carbon emissions by 90-95% in absolute terms and neutralising any residual emissions through high-quality carbon offsetting. The Group has amended terminology from 'fully abate' to 'net zero' to align with SBTi definitions. No specific volume of carbon removal credits or DAC/BECCS projects is reported for FY23; the focus remains on absolute emission reductions first. Offsets/removals are positioned as neutralisation of residual emissions after deep decarbonisation.

• Network energy efficiency — rolling out new-generation technology and software optimisation

  Mobile and fixed access networks and technology centres account for 93% of Vodafone's total energy consumption. In FY23, Vodafone invested €57 million of capital expenditure in energy efficiency and on-site renewable projects, delivering annual savings of 50 GWh. The Group is rolling out new-generation network technology, software solutions to optimise energy use, and rationalising its property portfolio. The ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard has been implemented across 12 operating companies, supported by an energy data analytics system live across 12 European markets with smart meters at over 47,000 sites. Despite growing data traffic, total energy use increased only modestly from 6,125 to 6,274 GWh.

• Fleet electrification — transitioning company vehicles to EVs

  Vodafone progressed EV adoption in its company fleet, with EVs making up 49% of the fleet in FY23 compared to 39% in FY22. The Group launched a global fleet dashboard to monitor carbon emissions from company vehicles and is progressing plans to phase out purchasing of new vehicles with internal combustion engines across European operations. Transport accounts for approximately 3% of total Group energy consumption.

• Reducing diesel use at off-grid and unreliable grid sites

  Vodafone used 72.5 million litres of diesel in FY23 (3% increase from 70.3 million litres in FY22) to fuel generators at off-grid or unreliable grid electricity sites. The Group is seeking alternatives including connecting off-grid sites to the grid, fuel cell technology trials (including a successful ammonia fuel cell trial in Romania), and small-scale on-site renewables. These actions are part of the pathway to eliminate fossil fuel use from stationary generators to achieve Scope 1 and 2 net zero by 2030.

• Supply chain decarbonisation — engaging top network equipment suppliers on Scope 3

  Vodafone completed a project in FY23 to engage its top four network equipment suppliers (representing 38% of total network category spend) to improve sharing of product carbon footprint data and identify opportunities to reduce embedded carbon, moving away from a spend-based methodology. In March 2023, Vodafone launched an environmentally-linked supply chain finance programme with CDP, providing preferential financing rates to suppliers that disclose carbon data and improve their CDP score over time. The programme was initially launched with Citibank's scheme. Purchased goods and services and capital goods represented 2.73 Mt CO2e in FY23 (down from 3.90 Mt CO2e in FY22).

• Carbon enablement — helping customers reduce emissions through green digital solutions

  Vodafone estimates it enabled avoidance of 24.9 million tonnes CO2e in FY23 through its IoT services, fleet management, smart metering, EV charging, healthcare and remote working solutions — nearly 26 times the emissions from its own operations. Since setting the carbon enablement target in 2020, cumulative customer emission savings reached 47.6 Mt CO2e (target: 350 Mt by 2030). Approximately 52% of 162.3 million IoT connections directly enabled customers to reduce their emissions. The Group rolled out a carbon enablement toolkit in FY23 to help product teams quantify climate benefits of their solutions.

• Circular economy for devices and network waste — reducing e-waste

  Vodafone reused, resold or recycled 96% of network waste in FY23 (target: 100% by 2025). The Group launched a '1 million phones for the planet' campaign with WWF to increase device collection rates. In Germany, the 'One for One' campaign with Closing the Loop collects one scrap device in Africa for every phone purchased. A digital trade-in platform is live in four European markets. The Group also continued to collect and refurbish broadband routers for reuse, and introduced the Ultrahub router with 95% recycled plastic. Eco Rating was expanded to 35 countries covering over 200 handsets to raise consumer awareness.