Here at Rely Telecom Ltd we are extremely aware of our business’s impact on the environment and have worked tirelessly to improve our ‘Green Credentials’ over the past 12 months. One example of the internal changes we have made is that we now only send the front page of invoices via post which has reduced our paper usage by 95%.

The management team at Rely understood that as a business there is only so much impact we can have on our own therefore started looking at the network operators Green Credentials, at which point we discovered Gamma Telecom’s commitment to making Voice Minutes ‘Green’.

A first in the UK telecoms market, as from 1st January 2009 all minutes carried across the Gamma Telecom network are Carbon Neutral, helping businesses, residential customers and public and voluntary sectors reduce their carbon footprint.

Each year, Gamma’s carbon footprint is independently assessed by a company called Greenstone Carbon Management who look at electricity bills and volumes for the amount of energy used in transporting minutes across the Gamma network. Working with The Carbon Neutral Company to offset this carbon footprint, Gamma purchase carbon credits - every 1 tonne of CO2 is ‘neutralised’ by 1 tonne which is saved somewhere else in the world by a climate friendly project that would not have happened without carbon credit investment.

Projects that Gamma’s carbon credits are being used on include the Sichuan Province Hydro Power Project in China and a Wind Power Project in India, similar to the Jamnagar Project (starts late 2009).

Gamma's commitment to reducing carbon emissions began in 2006 with the early adoption of IP based soft-switching in their core network, marking the first major initiative of its kind in the UK and reducing energy consumption per minute by 30% within the first year. Soft-switching has allowed Gamma to move from a power-hungry hardware infrastructure to a more software driven environment which uses far less power. Continued investment in this technology has enabled Gamma to reduce the mean power consumption per minute carried each year, even as call traffic has increased over the same time.

Annual power consumption against call minutes per month across Gamma’s network

Why are Gamma doing this?
A combination of factors. As a company Gamma have a genuine desire to reduce their power consumption and carbon footprint for both commercial and ethical reasons.

What exactly do you mean by “GreenMinutes”?
We mean that all the power consumed in transporting traffic (i.e. minutes worth of telephone calls) across the Gamma network which creates a carbon footprint is now “offset” by investing the same sum of money in projects, which would not other wise have happened, to counteract emissions.

How does “GreenMinutes” actually work?
Each year, an independent company called Greenstone Carbon Management measures the carbon footprint Gamma has for its network minutes. They look at electricity bills, volumes on the network and for the first year have measured Gamma’s footprint at 2.7 million kGCO2. Gamma then looked at who it would use to offset this carbon footprint.

Gamma chose The CarbonNeutral Company because it was well established (in 1994) and an innovator. It was the first company to package carbon offsets for business and consumer audiences, the first to create on-line carbon calculators, the first to create a public standard and quality assurance programme, and the first to sell travel offset packages to international governments and NGOs at the 2002 World Summit in Johannesburg.

How do you know your investment in carbon offsetting is credible?
Gamma ensure it’s partners are independent and credible.
For example, CarbonNeutral are one of eight of the world’s leading carbon offset providers who announced the formation of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA). The organisation has been created to build support for voluntary market standards and promote credible carbon management strategies which use a ‘reduce-and-offset’ approach.

So what exactly is Gamma investing in?
Renewable energy projects that Gamma’s carbon credits are being used on include the Sichuan Province Hydro Power Project in China and a Wind Power Project in India, similar to the Jamnagar Project (starts late 2009).

Sichuan Province Hydro Power Project – China

This project bundles four small run-of-river hydro power stations in Sichuan Province, western China. The project displaces electricity generated by fossil-fuel power plants and will generate emission reductions of an estimated 360,000 tCO2 equivalent between 2006 and 2012, verified and certified to the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

The project is located in southern Sichuan Province, a remote and mountainous region of China with much untapped potential for hydro power projects. The four run-of-river power plants have a total capacity of 17.15 MW. The clean electricity delivered to the local grid displaces electricity that would otherwise have been generated by fossil-fuel power stations.

A Wind Power Project – India (starts late 2009, similar to the Jamnagar Wind Power Project)

This project sees the construction of a number of new wind turbines in India. By providing renewable energy, the project helps to reduce India’s reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation. The project is expected to generate emission reductions of more than 200,000 tCO2 equivalent between 2006 and 2008, verified to the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

This project supports the construction and operation of new wind turbines at various sites in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka. The wind turbines have a combined capacity of 147MW.

Why isn’t Gamma investing in renewable energy sources in the UK?
The reason Gamma is not investing our carbon credits in renewable energy projects in the UK is because the UK is signed up to the Kyoto Protocol, which means that any investment in a renewable energy project such as wind, hydro or solar power would go straight into our electricity grid and the Government would then count that as part of the country’s reduction under the UK’s Kyoto Protocol Target. If Gamma then sold its credits to the same projects that the Government is using as a reduction, it then would mean that it was being counted twice and so would not constitute a genuine emissions reduction. Instead Gamma have decided to invest its credits in the Voluntary Market, which tend to be developing countries outside Europe.

In Summary:
Price has always been the most significant ‘decision maker’ on which Telecoms company any given customer may use for their services. Times have not really changed as businesses are more aware of cost than ever before however why not have the best of both worlds?

In working with Rely Telecom and its network partner Gamma Telecom you can. We will be able to reduce your monthly costs but at the same time give you the piece of mind that every time you pick up the phone there is no impact on our precious environment.

China – Guizhou Hydro Power Project - click here to view
India – Jamnagar Wind Power Project – click here to view