Orange Polska climate officer Jacek Hutyra (pictured) hailed progress made by the operator towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, telling Mobile World Live (MWL) the unit is an important target for sustainability efforts because its footprint represents a third of the group global level.

Hutyra explained Orange Polska prioritised switching to renewable energy sources as 93 per cent of its emissions are currently generated from electricity consumption.

To bring down its footprint, Orange Polska in May signed long-term contracts to buy electricity from wind turbines which produce 9 per cent of its annual energy consumption. As a result, the unit is expected to eliminate more than 30,000 tonnes of emissions per year.

Hutyra explained Orange Polska aims to cut the emissions it produces by 65 per cent in 2025 compared with the level in 2015, mainly through sourcing at least 60 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy.

He said Poland was a challenging market as energy imports were “very highly carbonised”, with more than 70 per cent still coming from coal while renewable sources account for less than 20 per cent. The mix also includes energy sourced from gas and oil suppliers.

Between 2015 and 2020 Orange Polska completed more than 200 initiatives which have allowed it to save more than 700 Gigawatt hours of energy, reducing carbon emissions of 530,000 tonnes.

Future steps
Long-term goals until 2040 include efforts around cutting all of the emissions produced within its supply chain.

Hutyra also highlighted efforts in providing services for efficient use of resources in the smart city era, offering solar power installations for B2B and B2C customers, and providing what he claimed was a climate neutral app-based service, Orange Flex, which has reduced its emissions by 95 per cent by switching to renewable energy, can operate through an eSIM and encourages customers to plant forests thanks to unused data.

The value of 5G was also in the spotlight, as the next-generation technology is tipped to deliver “all sorts of solutions that can help your business to reduce emissions because it’s more efficient, better organised, we have a better understanding of it and you can control it better in real time”, Hutyra argued.