China Mobile

Name: China Mobile
No. of employees: 146,000 (2010)
Revenue: ¥470 billion (2010)
Country: China

Overview

China Mobile is owned and controlled by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and is also a public company listed on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges. With operations across mainland China, Hong Kong and Pakistan, China Mobile is the largest and most valuable mobile telecommunications network operator in the world.

Since the acquisition of China Tietong in 2008, the company has included internet and landline telecommunications service offerings in its portfolio.

Its mobile network coverage, the most extensive in the world, reaches 99.8% of the Chinese population including people in rural areas; mobile services have even been provided on Mount Everest! In March 2011, China Mobile had over 600 million subscribers.

China Mobile recognizes that it has an integral role to play in the social impact of mobile technology. This does not just mean allowing people to communicate to one another, but also putting in place the infrastructure for the ‘Internet of Things’ – adapting mobile technology for applications including traffic control, food management, supply chains and production processes.

The company’s climate change mitigation strategy means that it continues to reduce its energy intensity despite growing rapidly (the last three years have seen revenue increase by 7% to 15%). China Mobile believes that “only when [its] business strategy aligns with [its] social responsibility efforts can [the company] as a whole be sustainable”. Since 2006 it has rapidly developed and implemented a fully-integrated corporate and social responsibility (CSR) strategy.

After it set up its Employee Volunteers Association in 2008, volunteering increased significantly; between January and September 2009, China Mobile employees volunteered over 130,000 times. In 2009 the company also set up the China Mobile Charity Foundation to increase its beneficial impact among disadvantaged groups, support education and promote environmental protection.

Last year China Mobile was still the only company in mainland China listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Current Activities

China Mobile has a comprehensive strategy for minimizing its impact on the climate. According to the Chinese Government, the annual energy consumption of the telecommunications industry is over 20 billion kilowatts per hour, over a third of which is from air conditioning of base units. China Mobile’s Green Action Plan promotes energy conservation and reduces carbon emissions within the company, the industry and society in general.

In 2007 the company created an index to assess its sustainability credentials across its 31 provincial subsidiaries. Having committed itself in that year to reducing energy use per unit of telecommunications traffic by 40% by 2010, it exceeded that goal by nine percentage points.

The company has also worked closely with its suppliers to reduce the carbon emissions of its supply chain. As of 2010, over 53 of its key suppliers had become partners in the Green Action Plan.

Building an energy efficient network

Since a large part of the energy consumption is in the base stations, steps have been taken to improve the energy efficiency of these electronic devices.

The use of intelligent ventilation, heat exchange systems and innovative cooling systems for data centers and base stations across the network have led to savings in the millions of dollars already. The use of battery incubators allows base stations to operate above 30C, further reducing the costs of cooling. By using IP technology and intelligent systems which switch off unused carrier frequencies, efficiency can be improved by 50-80%. Additionally, over 6000 base stations now run on renewable energy (as of 2010).

In 2009 China Mobile fitted 70% of its facilities with 1.4 million energy-saving lights, and enforced energy-efficient standards for its buildings. It standardized its towers into four specific designs, thereby drastically reducing construction time and steel usage.

Sustainable packaging

China Mobile developed and implemented a standard format for lightweight reusable and recyclable packaging. As a result, transport carbon emissions and timber consumption are much reduced.