Deutsche Telekom (DT), Telefónica, and KPN lead the telecom industry in overall sustainability and implementation of climate-focused technologies, according to ABI Research.

The study compares ten telecom operators and ranks them based on their sustainability work in renewable energy, network upgrades, energy efficiency, waste disposal and circular economy, green buildings and vehicles, and reporting and governance.

Those categories represent 30 individual action items operators can take to increase their sustainability, and ABI weights each action based on its ability to create environmental impact via the telecom industry. The research firm then categorizes each operator as either a leader, mainstream, or a follower.

Sustainability leaders have prioritized climate-focused decisions in their overall business strategies, "and they have extensive, transparent reporting on sustainability metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)," the report reads. Those metrics and KPIs are important because they help leaders reduce carbon emissions and waste.

Environmental reporting is largely voluntary and unregulated for now, which means ABI saw "significant disparities in the tracking, reporting, and execution of the categories evaluated."

With that said, operators that provided "robust and transparent communications" about their sustainability initiatives scored higher than those that did not provide that information.

"When assessing the final rankings, it was also not surprising that two companies with the earliest targets for becoming net zero (by 2025), Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica (in the main markets), were ranked number one and number two in the index," the report explained.

Leading operators have also invested in renewable energy, network equipment, and technology upgrades that improve energy efficiency, according to the report.

DT earned ABI’s title of most sustainable telco based on its accelerated use of renewable energy. The German carrier claims it has been using 100% renewable energy since early 2022.

Fellow European operators Telefónica, Vodafone, and KPN join DT as sustainability market leaders and take a similarly comprehensive approach to clean energy. Their use of renewable energy has reduced the leaders’ total carbon emissions by 8.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is the same as eliminating the emissions of 1.8 million passenger vehicles for one year, ABI reported.

Mainstream operators, including AT&T, Verizon, and Orange, are "innovative companies" in terms of 5G deployment and network upgrades. However, they lag behind on renewable energy and "a comprehensive company-wide focus on sustainability," ABI concluded. Specifically, mainstream operators reported fewer scope 3, or supply chain, carbon emissions contributors than the market leaders.

On the flip side, ABI Research assessed SK Telecom, NTT DoCoMo, and Singtel as followers. These operators are in regions that have "difficult access" to renewable energy sources and have less robust sustainability tracking and reporting.

And although all of the followers have committed to switch to renewable energy, "impact cannot be achieved until those pledges are executed," ABI reported.