We’ve partnered with Carbon Neutral Britain to take another step in addressing our environmental impact.
In September 2026, we retired carbon credits equivalent to 25 tonnes of CO₂e through its Woodland Fund™ portfolio. This covers the emissions we have calculated for Meaningful Planet’s own activities and those associated with our customers’ use of our services, including mobile network usage and SIMs, over the past year.
While we believe that offsetting can support worthwhile climate projects, we’re also conscious it does not make the original emissions disappear. We see it as a practical step to address the challenge of climate change – alongside the longer-term work of reducing the footprint of the connectivity we provide.
Accounting for more than our own operations
Our responsibility does not end with the emissions generated within our business. Mobile connectivity relies on networks, equipment and other infrastructure that we do not operate ourselves, but which form part of the services our customers use.
We calculate our operational footprint using a method developed with sustainability consultant James Beiny, covering our business activities. For customer and network usage, we use individual SIM records, including actual data consumption and call and messaging activity, alongside relevant benchmark emissions factors for network use and SIM types. This gives us a usage-based estimate of the emissions associated with our customers’ mobile services, rather than applying a single average to every fleet.
Those estimates, together with our own operational calculations, inform the emissions we offset. They also help us understand the impact associated with our services and where better supplier information and improvements in network efficiency could make a difference. As with any carbon calculation, the result depends on the quality of the underlying data and the emissions factors used – it is an estimate, not a direct measurement of every emission.
What the Woodland Fund supports
The Woodland Fund combines verified international offset projects with support for UK woodland creation. Those international projects include mangrove restoration in Pakistan, wind power in Maharashtra, conservation and reforestation in Colombia’s Orinoco River Basin, and community forestry in Tanzania. These projects approach climate action in different ways, from supporting renewable power to protecting and restoring ecosystems.
The credits we’ve retired are all approved under one or more international offsetting standards, including the Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard and the UN Clean Development Mechanism.
Why we’re taking this approach
Much of the environmental impact of telecoms sits in the infrastructure and supply chains behind the service. Reducing it involves decisions about equipment, energy, network efficiency and procurement – often in collaboration with partners. Technical innovation and a longer-term view of infrastructure can help make those decisions better for our customers, businesses and the environment.
We also believe that taking action now is worthwhile as that work continues. Retiring carbon credits is a way to support emissions reductions or removals beyond our own operations, without treating those credits as a substitute for reducing emissions at source. It’s incredibly important to us that we ensure we make that distinction clearly, as required by the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code.
For Meaningful Planet, this partnership is one part of a wider and ongoing approach:
- Account for the impact of the services we provide, including customer use.
- Keep improving the information and decision making that sits behind those services.
- Support measurable climate action where emissions remain.
To understand more about our environmental approach and the projects we support, please visit our Sustainability and Impact page.
