As part of Deutsche Telekom, T-Systems has also committed itself to the Group’s Group-wide climate targets and integrated sustainability into its strategy. T-Systems set up its own program to these ends in 2020. The program spans all functions and areas at T-Systems. The fundamental internal measures and areas are:
Reducing our own ecological footprint With a view to reducing its carbon emissions in an effective way, T-Systems has determined a baseline figure for its company-wide carbon footprint for the base year 2019 and identified its largest emissions sources. In addition, it has initiated a range of further analyses, including assessments of product-related emissions during products’ service lives, and including emissions generated on the customer side. These will identify areas that present particular potential for reducing the ecological footprint. To this end, T-Systems maintains close contact with suppliers and is working on zero-emission products. It has signed memoranda of understanding with key suppliers Lenovo and Cisco, facilitating joint work to address the topics of energy efficiency and climate neutrality. In this way, T-Systems is also contributing to the achievement of Deutsche Telekom’s Group-wide climate goals.
Carbon-emissions reductions in operations The Group-wide conversion of all of the Group’s own buildings to renewable energy by the end of 2021 also extended to T-Systems’ data centers. The centers use electricity from renewable energies, and one data center in Spain is fitted with its own photovoltaic system. We are also gradually making the data centers more energy-efficient, with the aid of innovative technologies and artificial intelligence. For example, the well-water cooling system at the data center in Munich has been optimized with the help of an AI system. T-Systems joined the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact back in 2021. With this move, it has committed to making all of its own data centers, and the externally operated data centers within its sphere, climate neutral by 2030. Additionally, in the year under review, it launched a research initiative in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, with the aim of developing measures to make its data-center operations more sustainable. This effort also extends to the overall aim of enabling data centers to become energy self-sufficient, via intelligent interaction between renewable energy generation, power storage and flexible management of current loads.
Data center energy efficiency As an operator, T-Systems is careful to use energy-efficient server and storage hardware. It is also considering options for saving energy by raising the cooling temperature at its data centers. Software features which allow unused hardware to be switched off entirely without affecting currently running applications will be used for further optimizations. To this end, work will be carried out all the way down to the level of individual computer components and processors. The medium- to long-term goal is to refine the applications used in the cloud to meet energy efficiency requirements (green coding). We are working with suppliers to determine emissions-reduction targets and develop zero-emission products. Our partner Shell, for instance, installed new immersion cooling technology for boosting processing power and energy efficiency at a T-Systems data center in Amsterdam in 2022.
Raising employee awareness Employees also play an important role in reducing our carbon footprint at T-Systems. For example, T-Systems is reducing business travel and relying on videoconferencing for meetings. In addition, the company’s employees, at all of its production sites and in all countries in which it is located, are being made more aware of the need to think and act with sustainability in mind (the company is doing this, for instance, by promoting alternative mobility solutions, participating in “campaign days” focused on sustainability, participating in sustainability-oriented workshops, and providing information about ways to reduce power and resource consumption). These efforts are being supported by employee initiatives focused on sustainability, such as the T-Green Team in Brazil and a sustainability program in Hungary that has over 80 green volunteers. An employee training course was developed in 2022 to train up staff members as sustainability ambassadors. Over 300 employees have already completed the course, which has also now been rolled out throughout the Group. Additionally, the practice of mobile working in Germany has allowed us to reduce our building capacity in the country by 70 000 square meters, which has also cut heating and district-heating emissions.
Green fleet T-Systems is aiming to make its fleet of vehicles more sustainable – by relying to a greater extent on e-mobility in particular. In February 2022, it published a revised “e-car-only car policy” that defines additional steps toward greener mobility. After switching to an electric vehicle fleet in May 2022, there has been an increase in orders for electric vehicles, which now account for 90 percent of all company car orders, up on the figure of approximately 33 percent prior to May 2022.T-Systems International had a total of 1 216 company cars in its fleet at the end of 2022, 164 of which were electric vehicles. At this same time, almost all of our Meet & Connect Hubs had been fitted with charging stations, with installation work at the remaining hubs set to be completed in early 2023. Meet & Connect Hubs are the central locations of T-Systems and are designed to offer the ideal environment for working in teams. They provide collaboration rooms and innovative spaces that cover a whole range of requirements and uses.
As part of Deutsche Telekom, T-Systems has also committed itself to the Group’s Group-wide climate targets and integrated sustainability into its strategy. T-Systems set up its own program to these ends in 2020. The program spans all functions and areas at T-Systems. The fundamental internal measures and areas are:
Reducing our own ecological footprint
With a view to reducing its carbon emissions in an effective way, T-Systems has determined a baseline figure for its company-wide carbon footprint for the base year 2019 and identified its largest emissions sources. In addition, it has initiated a range of further analyses, including assessments of product-related emissions during products’ service lives, and including emissions generated on the customer side. These will identify areas that present particular potential for reducing the ecological footprint. To this end, T-Systems maintains close contact with suppliers and is working on zero-emission products. It has signed memoranda of understanding with key suppliers Lenovo and Cisco, facilitating joint work to address the topics of energy efficiency and climate neutrality. In this way, T-Systems is also contributing to the achievement of Deutsche Telekom’s Group-wide climate goals.
Carbon-emissions reductions in operations
The Group-wide conversion of all of the Group’s own buildings to renewable energy by the end of 2021 also extended to T-Systems’ data centers. The centers use electricity from renewable energies, and one data center in Spain is fitted with its own photovoltaic system. We are also gradually making the data centers more energy-efficient, with the aid of innovative technologies and artificial intelligence. For example, the well-water cooling system at the data center in Munich has been optimized with the help of an AI system. T-Systems joined the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact back in 2021. With this move, it has committed to making all of its own data centers, and the externally operated data centers within its sphere, climate neutral by 2030. Additionally, in the year under review, it launched a research initiative in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, with the aim of developing measures to make its data-center operations more sustainable. This effort also extends to the overall aim of enabling data centers to become energy self-sufficient, via intelligent interaction between renewable energy generation, power storage and flexible management of current loads.
Data center energy efficiency
As an operator, T-Systems is careful to use energy-efficient server and storage hardware. It is also considering options for saving energy by raising the cooling temperature at its data centers. Software features which allow unused hardware to be switched off entirely without affecting currently running applications will be used for further optimizations. To this end, work will be carried out all the way down to the level of individual computer components and processors. The medium- to long-term goal is to refine the applications used in the cloud to meet energy efficiency requirements (green coding). We are working with suppliers to determine emissions-reduction targets and develop zero-emission products. Our partner Shell, for instance, installed new immersion cooling technology for boosting processing power and energy efficiency at a T-Systems data center in Amsterdam in 2022.
Raising employee awareness
Employees also play an important role in reducing our carbon footprint at T-Systems. For example, T-Systems is reducing business travel and relying on videoconferencing for meetings. In addition, the company’s employees, at all of its production sites and in all countries in which it is located, are being made more aware of the need to think and act with sustainability in mind (the company is doing this, for instance, by promoting alternative mobility solutions, participating in “campaign days” focused on sustainability, participating in sustainability-oriented workshops, and providing information about ways to reduce power and resource consumption). These efforts are being supported by employee initiatives focused on sustainability, such as the T-Green Team in Brazil and a sustainability program in Hungary that has over 80 green volunteers. An employee training course was developed in 2022 to train up staff members as sustainability ambassadors. Over 300 employees have already completed the course, which has also now been rolled out throughout the Group. Additionally, the practice of mobile working in Germany has allowed us to reduce our building capacity in the country by 70 000 square meters, which has also cut heating and district-heating emissions.
Green fleet
T-Systems is aiming to make its fleet of vehicles more sustainable – by relying to a greater extent on e-mobility in particular. In February 2022, it published a revised “e-car-only car policy” that defines additional steps toward greener mobility. After switching to an electric vehicle fleet in May 2022, there has been an increase in orders for electric vehicles, which now account for 90 percent of all company car orders, up on the figure of approximately 33 percent prior to May 2022. T-Systems International had a total of 1 216 company cars in its fleet at the end of 2022, 164 of which were electric vehicles. At this same time, almost all of our Meet & Connect Hubs had been fitted with charging stations, with installation work at the remaining hubs set to be completed in early 2023. Meet & Connect Hubs are the central locations of T-Systems and are designed to offer the ideal environment for working in teams. They provide collaboration rooms and innovative spaces that cover a whole range of requirements and uses.