DiGi addresses climate change through CR programme, Deep Green

Ambition to reduce CO2 emissions towards 50% within 3-4 years

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 August 2008 – DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (“DiGi”) today announced Deep Green, its latest Corporate Responsibility (CR) programme that aims to reduce the company’s carbon footprint towards 50% of our 2011 projected baseline of 130,000 tonnes of CO2 within 3-4 years – an aggressive ambition by any company in the ICT industry.

Johan Dennelind, DiGi’s Chief Executive Officer revealed that the ICT industry is set to surpass the aviation industry as a major contributor of CO2 emissions by 2012, according to a McKinsey report on the environmental impact of industries released earlier this year. This eye-opening report, amongst other things, has galvanised DiGi to take action.
“We’re fully aware that we don’t have all the answers or are experts on climate change, but we believe we can make a difference within our sphere of influence through the Deep Green programme,” he shared.

Deep Green described
Deep Green is a corporate programme that extends beyond community relations, but designed to create better awareness about climate change to various stakeholders of DiGi, namely its employees, suppliers, customers, business partners and local communities. Through a two-pronged approach, DiGi aims to achieve its ambitious goal by:
· Addressing its internal CO2 emissions in the areas of its
o Mobile & IT networks
o Building & transport management
o Employees’ mindset
· Activating innovative solutions to reduce our shared climate impact with our external stakeholders through its:
o Marketing
o Products
o Community programmes

“We know we are setting ourselves a great challenge with an ambition of 50% reduction but we want to make a real difference in this critical issue. It starts with getting our stakeholders across our value chain by gradually changing their mindsets about climate change – that going ‘green’ can be mutually beneficial for everyone, and not just another business expense,” he added, outlining Deep Green’s thrust and objectives.

Small steps
DiGi has started going ‘Deep Green’ on a gradual basis. It has introduced a carpooling programme for its employees and better energy management of its buildings; provided default e-Billing to its postpaid customers and online delivery of services via its branded prepaid service, Happy such as online reloads. It is in the process of integrating its suppliers into the Deep Green value chain by incorporating specific environmental requirements into its Procurement policies and procedures. Even the 3G tenders’ assessment was based on environmental factors that optimise energy consumption with minimal ecological impact without affecting network performance.

Based on unaudited internal estimates, most of these ‘green’ factors do provide a positive business case as they contribute towards better management of operational costs, making mobile communications even more affordable for everyone over time.

“Changing mindsets is the biggest hurdle for any initiative to be successful. Getting people to change their lifestyle choices is tough but not impossible. That’s why DiGi believes in starting from within – with our employees who can help to sustain our Deep Green programme in the long run,” explained Dennelind.

To create a higher awareness about DiGi’s plans to go Deep Green and about Climate Change, an internal campaign was launched on 30 June 2008. Themed “Feel the Heat, Time to Change”, the three-week campaign saw an intensive awareness campaign to stress that every individual’s action does count in the global challenge of climate change. Employee engagement will still be continuous to keep them aware and educated about climate change and how their contributions will make a positive difference personally and professionally.

Reaching out to communities
DiGi’s community engagement programme called Deep Green NOW (Nurturing Our World) has a mission to bring awareness and understanding of climate change and the local environmental issues to communities across Malaysia. Through a mutual learning process with the local communities and neighbouring schoolchildren, we aim to address the many real risks our environment faces from climate change, and how we can develop innovative solutions and sustainable lifestyle options to minimise our shared climate impact.

Dennelind said, “One of the ways is to take the community programme to schools and giving young Malaysians the opportunity to champion these climate change issues with their peers, families and the communities they live in. Over time, I’m sure that these young and enthusiastic youths will become agents of change for a better tomorrow.”

There will be several different projects running at any one time during a 12-month period over two to three years. The first project will be addressing the depleting Mangrove Forests of Kuala Selangor with the help of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS). Other projects will be announced over the next few months.