Katie Milligan, Chief Commercial Officer: 

Our mission is to build Full Fibre. From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Llandudno to Limehouse, our engineers are building a network that’s faster and more reliable. That network uses 80% less energy than the old copper-based one – and it’s five times more resilient. Fewer faults mean fewer engineer callouts, fewer miles travelled, and less energy consumed.

A faster, more reliable network also means that people can work more flexibly, can travel only when they choose to, and can plug in smart technologies to manage and reduce their energy usage.

The Full Fibre network we’re building doesn’t just mean faster and more reliable communications; it means more sustainable communications as well.

Abby Chicken, Head of Sustainability: 

We also know that the work of transforming our network will have an impact on the environment. It’s a big job, requiring lots of energy and lots of materials. So, we’re determined to build sustainably.  It’s one of our driving principles, it’s written into our values and it shapes how we work. 

As we build, we’re constantly challenging ourselves and others to develop new and better ways of working so that we look after the environment. This plan – Reach Zero – is focused on three specific objectives: First, lowering our emissions; second, using fewer materials and reducing our waste; and third, minimising our impact on the natural environments in which we work.

Mark Fry, Advanced Engineer:

Our ambition is to be a Net Zero business by 2031. We’re reducing the emissions across our entire network, including how we get to every corner of the country. We already have over 4,000 electric vehicles and our entire fleet will be fully converted by 2031.

Samantha Phillips, Advanced Engineer:

As we build, we’re using less, wasting less, and keeping tools in use for longer. We’re continually exploring new ways of recycling, re-using or re-purposing our materials. And we’re demanding change from our partners and suppliers too.

Andy Duncan, Clerk of Works:

Few businesses range as far and as wide as we do, and lots of things we do put us in direct contact with nature. From volunteering to clean up our local beaches or creating special build plans for National Parks, to checking sites for wildlife, we are doing everything we can to reduce the disruption our build has on the environment.

Abby Chicken, Head of Sustainability

This is our plan to Reach Zero. Building our network sustainably is the right thing to do for our business, the communities we serve, and the environment we all share.

You might not know our name but chances are you’ll recognise one of our iconic vans. With over 30,000 vehicles, our commercial fleet is the second largest in the country and we operate in all four nations of the UK.

Every year, our dedicated engineers cover an astonishing 280 million miles as we connect the nation and build our Full Fibre network. But here’s the exciting part – we’re not just driving, we’re also driving change.

At Openreach we’re committed to minimising our carbon footprint and building a greener future.

We are working to reduce the consumption of our diesel fleet, using AI to optimise routes, improving our customer service to avoid unnecessary journeys. We aim to get it right first time, so we don’t need to come back.

By 2031 we will have transitioned our fleet to zero emissions. To enable this change, we have partnered with Ground Control to install more than 8000 EV charging points at our engineers’ homes. We’re committed to reliability and sustainability and we won’t compromise on either.

By embracing electric vehicles, we are not just reducing emissions, we’re setting a standard for sustainable practices in the telecommunications industry, working with our partners and subcontractors to join us on this journey. We take our responsibilities seriously, both to the planet and to the communities we serve. At Openreach, we’re not just connecting people, we’re connecting the future.

Let’s Reach Zero, together.

At Openreach, we have an ambition to become a more circular business, extending the life of the materials we use and using less and wasting less wherever possible. One of our greatest opportunities is the recovery of copper from redundant and legacy networks.

As we build Full Fibre to the nation, we are beginning to extract unused copper for recycling, avoiding the need for mining and keeping this precious commodity in circulation.

Abby Chicken, Head of Sustainability:

Copper is one of the most important metals in the world, with really high demand, because it is used as a component part in loads of industry and manufacture. So from construction to your mobile phone and other devices. And global demand is going up. And with increasingly challenging supply chains, some analysts are predicting a shortage.

So the responsible thing for us, sitting on a network that is increasingly becoming redundant, it makes business sense for us to recycle it. Not least as well Full Fibre is the future for us, we are also dependent on copper in certain areas, some for repair of some of that old network.

But also, we are converting our fleet to electric vans. We are powered by renewables, so it helps us to meet our own ambitions, including in circular economy.

Jo Koroma, Director, National Infrastructure:

We are moving from our copper network through to building out a fantastic new fibre network, and we know that we're gradually moving customers from our copper network to our fibre network.

It's important that we we utilise some of that metal, you know, and some of those resources to both fund the work that we're doing for our fibre, but also to make sure that we're playing our part in kind of keeping that circular economy alive.

Over the coming years, as more and more people move to Full Fibre, we will ensure that even more copper is being recycled as part of our mission to build as sustainably as possible.