Chorus fibre now supercharged by Toitu Certified carbonzero electricity!

Over the last eighteen months, Chorus has been on a journey in terms of its sustainability focus. We sat down with Hannah Taylor, Head of Sustainability at Chorus, to ask about their sustainability journey, goals and why they chose Ecotricity to power with with net carbonzero Certified electricity.

"I think it’s safe to say we’ve held a mirror up recently and really challenged our commitment and action on climate mitigation and adaptation to make sure we are doing all we can to reduce harm. We’ve also stayed focused on helping to close the digital divide for Aotearoa.

Last year we launched our sustainability strategy, which has three key pillars; Thriving environment, thriving people and sustainable digital futures.

In terms of what we’re doing to support a thriving environment, we’ve just made a commitment to the science based target initiative, and have reset our emissions reduction target to reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions 62% by FY30, from a FY20 base year, in line with the ICT sector guidelines. Electricity is our biggest source of emissions (92% of our scope 1 & 2) so we knew that was the best place for us to start. What does that mean in numbers, we’re aiming to get our scope 1 & 2 emissions down to under 4,000 tonnes CO2e a year (FY22 reported figure was 13,889). We know we have a way to go, but we have a plan to support the reductions we want to achieve!

Of course we are super proud to now be with Ecotricity, and know that our network is powered with 100% carbon zero certified electricity. It gives us some room to breathe, while we focus on reducing our electricity consumption and making our business as energy efficient as it can be. At the moment we are focused on our copper withdrawal programme, consolidating electronic kit where we can, and understanding where self generation of renewables could make sense for our business. The aim is to reduce our electricity consumption by 15% in the next three years.

In terms of the role we play in narrowing the digital divide, it’s clear in our company purpose; Connecting Aotearoa so that we can ALL live, learn, work and play. We continue to partner with government agencies, charities and not for profits who have similar digital inclusion goals. For example we’ve been part of the Ministry of Education student connection support during the COVID pandemic, and support the likes of The Funding Network, Digital Seniors and Senior Net, to make sure people have the skills they need to get the best of the digital world."

Stay tuned for more in this space!

If you want to supercharge your home or business with Toitu Certified carbonzero electricity, get in touch with our amazing Customer Service team or follow the onboarding process here.