Environment

We work to reduce our impact on the environment by conserving energy, recycling and developing greener products. And we’re showing measurable results.

We’re incorporating clean energy in our network, as with this solar panel that charges back-up batteries for a remote cell tower site in the California desert.

Overview

Verizon continues delivering on our principal environmental objectives. Notably, we now require that new telecommunications network equipment be at least 20 percent more energy efficient than equipment already in place. We have established a series of energy efficiency tests and ratings to guide our suppliers in this effort and invited other telecommunications companies to adopt these standards so the cumulative effect can be increased.

Energy Conservation & Energy Saving Technology

• Our total energy reduction measures in 2008 reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 83,900 metric tons.
• Technology upgrades being deployed by Verizon Business will eliminate the need for one-third of the signal regeneration equipment in its network, saving an estimated 116 million kilowatts per year.
• Verizon’s Data Center Operations team is working with Intel and HP on new energy-saving data center designs. Verizon’s Tampa and Sacramento site are serving as test centers for various “smart cooling” installations.
• An ongoing program by Verizon’s IT group to install energy-efficient “thin-client” computers in company call centers is reducing the associated energy usage by 30 percent.
• Verizon Wireless currently uses solar panels at eight remote cell sites in the western United States. Similar systems are being tested for deployment at other cell sites. Another solar energy trial is in the planning stages.
• Verizon Business is running trials at three sites that use hydrogen fuel cells for backup power. Verizon already operates the largest fuel cell project in the country at its Garden City, New York, switching center.
• Working with the Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Verizon has launched a 10-year effort at Verizon’s operations center in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, to protect the area’s water, plants and wildlife.

Waste Reduction & Recycling

• Our HopeLine program collected more than 1 million cell phones for the second consecutive year, up 6 percent from 2007 (see chart and accompanying story at right).
• Verizon is a founding sponsor of Global Releaf, a group that encourages shareowners to sign-up for electronic communications and for customers to sign-up for paperless billing.

Climate Change

• Verizon joined the California Climate Action Registry in 2006.
• Verizon has participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s registry of corporate greenhouse-gas emissions (cdproject.net) since 2004. In 2008, Verizon participated in the CDP’s supply chain initiative.
• Verizon is a member of the Global eSustainability Initiative’s (GeSI) Climate Change Working Group.

HopeLine

Verizon collected 1.13 million no-longer-used wireless phones in 2008 through its long-running HopeLine program and donated $1.5 million to nearly 350 domestic violence agencies and organizations.

Verizon also gave 21,000 refurbished wireless phones — along with 63 million minutes of service — to domestic violence agencies for use by victims to help them rebuild their lives.

Since 2001, Verizon has collected more than 5.6 million phones, awarded more than $6.3 million to domestic violence agencies, and donated more than 86,000 phones with more than 228 million minutes of free wireless service.

Recycling Helps Fund HopeLine