Bharti Airtel reduces carbon emissions by 11 per cent

Bharti Airtel has reduced its green house gas (GHG) emissions by 11 per cent per terabyte on its network infrastructure in 2011-12. The company has also been able to save around 20 million KWh of energy through its facilities consolidation and data centre energy efficiency initiatives undertaken so far.

The company, which released its first Sustainability Report for India operations, has been constantly working along with its partners to reduce GHG emission in its operations.

The report also touches upon the company's sustainability initiatives in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Africa.

Airtel's 'Sustainability Report 2011-2012' also introduces the company's blueprint on 'Social Inclusion' - a cornerstone of its sustainability programme. Through this blueprint, Airtel aims to leverage its network and distribution, accessibility, affordable services and ability to manage scale to digitally enable financial, education, health and other services for the masses.

''India, the world's second largest telecom market, provides a remarkable growth opportunity for 1.2 billion people, out of which, 900 million people are connected through mobile. Hence, telcos have a huge role to play in bringing a paradigm shift in the lives of million,'' said Bharti Airtel Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive officer (India & South Asia).

At present, India has a low patient to doctor ratio of 1:10,000; there are one lakh schools with only one teacher and 50 per cent of the population does not have a bank account while 30,000 bank branches can never service 6 lakh villages.

These critical social gaps can be bridged by telecommunication which can bring wide reaching and affordable healthcare, education and financial services, thereby leading to a remarkable social transformation through social inclusion.