Vodafone uses green technology at 21 pc of towers it manages

Telecom operator Vodafone India uses renewable energy at 21 per cent of the mobile towers managed directly by the company, according to the third edition of its sustainability report.
The company manages 11 per cent of the 1,15,268 mobile network tower sites it uses while the remainder is managed by a third party, helping to reduce Vodafone's carbon footprint, the report for 2012-13 said.
"Where we have operational control, we continue to take definitive steps to reduce consumption of electricity and diesel," Vodafone said.
Calculations show the company reduced the number of directly managed mobile towers to about 12,680 in 2012-13 from about 14,300 in 2011-12.

According to recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which were accepted by the government, telecom companies need to use renewable energy at half of their mobile towers in rural areas and at a third of them in urban centres by 2015.
Mobile companies are also required to reduce their carbon footprint by 12 per cent in 2014-15 from 2011 levels.

As per the report, Vodafone India increased the number of sites using hybrid solutions to 2,700 in 2012-13, or 21 per cent of the total it manages, from 2,435 in 2011-12.
The impact of deploying green technology was visible with the company's diesel consumption falling to 44,372 kilolitres from 46,233 kilolitres in the previous fiscal, a reduction of 4 per cent.

While the number of mobile sites managed by Vodafone declined by about 11 per cent, carbon emissions from its network jumped 2 per cent to 4.5 lakh tonnes in 2012-13 from 4.4 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal, the company said in the report, without providing a reason.
Carbon emissions from third-party mobile towers increased 4.4 per cent to 19.55 lakh tonnes in 2012-13 from 18.71 lakh tonnes in 2011-12.
Total emissions from mobile towers managed by the company as well as third-party sites rose about 4 per cent to over 24 lakh tonnes in 2012-13 from about 23 lakh tonnes.

The report did not mention the break-up of base stations using renewable energy in rural and urban areas.