In a bold move to mark World Environment Day, Virgin Mobile brand customers across the region can look forward to enjoying a more environmentally friendly mobile carrier service as Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa group announce hard-hitting sustainability targets.
As part of its ongoing commitment to deliver products and services that make a positive impact on society and the environment, Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has pledged to eliminate its own operational carbon footprint and remove single use plastic from SIM and recharge cards by the end of 2021.
Announcing the initiative, Erik Dudman Nielsen, Founder & Group Chief Executive Officer at Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa, said: "As a digital trail blazer, our focus has always been to make mobile better, not just through our services but to drive positive social and environmental impact through everything we do. We believe in providing more choice for customers in the region and are looking forward to achieving the goals we have set for ourselves to provide a more sustainable choice for consumers in the Middle East."
Putting its (carbon) foot down
Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has committed to become fully carbon neutral across its own operations through a series of initiatives designed to eliminate and balance carbon emissions across its corporate and customer footprint.
To achieve this goal, Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has partnered with Dubai Carbon Center of Excellence and reviewed its carbon usage practices across the business. The primary focus will be on implementing organizational processes to directly reduce the carbon footprint. Any remaining footprint that cannot be directly reduced will then be offset via GCC green investment projects specific to each market, and through internationally recognised reforestation projects. The company is also auditing vendors and supply chain for compliance with fair trade manufacturing and ethical practices. To ensure that this initiative can remain more inclusive, Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa is working on enabling its customers to participate in sustainability efforts to offset carbon.
"Reducing the negative impacts of our operations on society and the environment and providing the foundation to embed sustainable habits in everything we do is at the heart of the Virgin brand, and we look forward to more exciting announcements in this space to come throughout 2021", concluded Dudman Nielsen.
Elimination of over 50 tonnes of single-use plastic
Since 2017, Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has already successfully eliminated over 50 tonnes of single use plastic across its operations in the Middle East.
Under this initiative, Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa engaged with its SIM provider Workz Group and investigated options to reduce single-use plastic, particularly in SIM packs and recharge cards in line with the Virgin Group’s global commitment to improving sustainable practices across all their businesses. Following the success of this initiative, operations in Oman and Saudi Arabia have already achieved one hundred percent single-use plastic free status, with an aim to achieve the same goal in the UAE by the end of 2021. Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa was awarded with the Virgin Group’s global annual Sustainability Award in 2019 for their efforts to eliminate single-use plastic following the initial pilot project.