NGMN Identifies Best Practices for Telco Supply Chain Sustainability

Frankfurt, Germany, January 17, 2023. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) today published ‘Green Future Networks: Telco Supply Chain Sustainability’ addressing the key issue of how operators can work with their supply chains to reduce carbon emissions. Reducing carbon emissions from the supply chain is of critical importance to operators’ roadmaps to net zero carbon.

“Cutting carbon emissions to tackle climate change is an issue that challenges all industries. The mobile industry is meeting this challenge head-on”, said Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology, Deutsche Telekom and NGMN Board Chairman. “Our work at NGMN is an important step in enabling operators and their suppliers to identify practical ways in which they can work together to reduce carbon emissions. Deutsche Telekom targets net-zero emissions at the latest by 2040. With more than 95%  emissions generated from our value chain, partnering with our suppliers is critical to meeting our net zero goals. To support the industry, we shared our best practice examples in this publication”, he added.

Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO and SVP Orange Innovation Networks, Orange and NGMN Board Member, added: “Climate change is the single biggest challenge facing global society today. At Orange, we are proud to have collaborated with the industry to create these impactful NGMN guidelines to help operators and their supply chain partners meet their sustainability objectives and reduce carbon emissions.”

“Green Future Networks is a core strategic priority of NGMN”, explained Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN. “Telco Supply Chain Sustainability is the first publication of several scheduled for 2023 and it is apt that it is covering the supply chain where collaboration between operators and their partners is so critical to both parties’ success in tackling climate change. NGMN provides the platform to enable the industry to work together on key topics such as sustainability, network disaggregation and 6G – all of which require extensive industry-wide collaboration to be truly successful.”

In this first publication of NGMN’s Green Future Networks Phase 2 in 2023, the key challenges mobile operators face in developing sustainable supply chains are outlined. A review of the emerging regulatory and standards environment is conducted. Approaches and best practices in developing sustainable supply chains are identified by relating the emerging business and regulatory environment to examples of the changes that operators and their supply chain partners may need to make, both at strategic and operational levels. Integrating sustainability goals into the operator’s core objectives is of key importance as well as selecting suppliers whose own sustainability strategies are aligned with these goals. Finally, a checklist based on the best practices in the industry is provided to support operators in developing a sustainable procurement strategy. Examples from across the industry are included that highlight that companies are already embracing many of the concepts identified in this publication.