Green Operations

CTIA and our members are going “green” in our operations to reduce our environmental impact. This includes everything from improving our offices’ sustainability practices to using eco-friendly transportation.

Many of our members have committed to reducing their operations’ greenhouse gas emissions. To accomplish this goal, they have developed successful internal campaigns to enlist their employees’ assistance.  Some of the initiatives include:

• Waste  reduction and recycling programs that encourage less trash and more reusable or recycled items;
  • Paperwork reduction programs by using tablets, laptops and other wireless devices to print less;
  • Composting program that takes food and other compostable waste (e.g. cardboard) to turn it into useful by-products.
• Commuter/telework programs encouraging employees to carpool or work from home;
• Virtual meetings which require less travel for employees through using video and telepresence meeting services.

By deploying these kinds of eco-friendly programs, our members’ environmental impact has been reduced, and other businesses can likely benefit from adopting such practices.  

According to earth911.com, recycling one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space and recycling one ton of paper saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

In February 2010, the Telework Research Network said that if 40 percent of employees telecommuted half the time, they’d save more than 280 million barrel of oil; reduce greenhouse gases by 53 million tons (similar to taking almost 10 million cars off the road for a year); and increase national productivity by 5.5 million man-years, or $235 billion worth of work.

Cisco looked at its employees and their use of telepresence in mid-2008. With more than 100,000 virtual meetings that had taken place, Cisco estimated it saved more than $90 million in travel cost; increased employee productivity by $40 million; and removed 20 million cubic meters of emissions, or roughly 8,700 cars, off the road.

In addition, some of our members have hired "green" experts to help reduce their environmental impact by suggesting and developing new programs and initiatives to be implemented throughout their companies.  

One of these suggestions that several members have deployed is through their transportation operations. By increasing the number of service and passenger alternative-fuel vehicles, our members have saved tons of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.

Another measure that numerous members have implemented is having their offices certified as sustainable ecological buildings as part of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Other “green” office building initiatives include converting their current facilities to using renewable energy and reusing materials from “old” buildings to create more efficient ones.

Whether it’s a carrier, manufacturer, network provider or an app/content creator, the U.S. wireless industry is implementing a number of steps in its own operations to be environmentally responsible.  

To learn more about a CTIA member’s specific “go green” initiatives, please click here.