Celebrating 10 years of Verizon's sustainability program

At the heart of Verizon's credo, we aim to make the world in which we work better than it was yesterday — and we’ve been doing just that through our continued sustainability efforts. This month, Verizon celebrated the 10-year anniversary of our sustainability program, which focuses on our contributions to protect the environment. 

How are V Teamers celebrating the 10th anniversary of our sustainability program?  V Teamers are marking this milestone by participating in Verizon’s first-ever Global Go Green challenge. As part of the challenge, participants are instructed to stick to one environmental commitment throughout the month. They must then challenge a colleague to commit to a challenge as well. In exchange, Verizon will plant one tree for every challenge accepted, up to 100,000 trees. It only takes one person to make a difference.

Working in tandem with 30,000 V Teamers across the country who have joined our Green Team, here are just a few of our steps we’ve taken  to help protect the environment in the past 10 years.  

• Annually, 4.3 million pieces of single-use plastics have been eliminated from our cafeterias, markets, pantries and packaging.  

• From 2016-2018, we’ve reduced carbon intensity (CI) by 46%.

• Since 2009, we’ve collected 3.9 million pounds of e-waste for recycling.

• We’ve planted 1.1 million trees from 2009 to September 2019. 

• We’ve reduced electricity usage by over 209 million kilowatt hours annually — enough to power nearly 206,000 households for one year. 

• Since 2014, we’ve reduced our water usage by 456 million gallons — enough to fill nearly 700 Olympic-sized swimming pools. 

In addition, Verizon's sustainability program has also launched the first telecom green bond in the U.S. The green bond, which was launched in February, will be used solely to forward Verizon’s mission to minimize its environmental impact while benefiting the communities it serves. Eligible categories where the proceeds can be used include renewable energy, energy efficiency, green buildings, sustainable water management and biodiversity and conservation.

Throughout the years, we’ve been conscious of the world around us and focused on our corporate responsibility efforts. Here are some goals we are currently working toward as we build a more sustainable planet. 

• By 2022, we aim to save more than double the amount of global emissions that our operations create in an effort to help customers reduce carbon emissions.

• We aim to cut our carbon intensity (CI) in half by 2025.  

• By 2025, our goal is to reduce our water consumption by 15%. (We’re on track, reaching an 11% reduction by the end of 2018.)

• We have committed to going carbon neutral by 2035, planning to achieve this by reducing emissions, using more renewable and clean energy, and through the purchase of carbon offsets. 

Learn more about Verizon’s commitment to sustainability and how we will keep going green for the future.