Greater efficiency through innovative systems technology.

Improving the energy efficiency of our network infrastructure is an important principle in climate protection. This responsibility continues to gain significance, especially against the backdrop of the ever-increasing use of modern ICT. Ever-rising data transmission rates and ever higher quality of services such as voice and image transmission or connection data management consumes ever greater amounts of energy. According to a study published in October 2008 by the Borderstep Institute on behalf of the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, BITKOM e.V., the power consumption of servers and data centers in Germany alone totaled 10.1 terawatt hours in 2008, corresponding to 1.8 percent of Germany’s total power consumption.

Fundamental steps in reducing energy consumption.
Mindful of our responsibility for climate protection, therefore, we have taken fundamental steps to limit the energy consumption of our network infrastructure using modern technology.

• When planning and optimizing the network infrastructure, we are conscious of potential energy savings from a very early stage.
• Old systems technology is phased out and replaced with more energy-efficient units.
• We offer our customers efficiency-optimized system solutions.
• Our power supply is from renewable energy sources. Since the beginning of 2008, the power needed for network operation in Germany has been covered entirely by renewable resources.

Green ICT saves energy and CO₂.
Green ICT helps to significantly raise the energy efficiency of our network operations. Green ICT is a collective term referring to all ICT solutions that lead to energy savings in the company. Alongside our efforts to make our own network infrastructure more climate-friendly, this also includes improving energy efficiency at office workplaces - those of our customers and within the Group. In this regard, the purchase and usage of energy-efficient end devices has a positive impact on the environment. Making communication processes and collaboration of employees more energy-efficient also holds a tremendous potential. Green ICT can also optimize workflows in a company's core processes which were originally non-ICT related and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions throughout the entire process chain.