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.

So we're here today because we're really, really proud to celebrate our 5,000th EV.

Reaching 5,000 is a major milestone forcus as a business and we're very, very proud in what we're doing in order to underpin the sustainability targets and our ambition to achieve net zero.

As the operator of one of the biggest commercial fleets in the UK, it's really important that we transition our fleet both for carbon emissions but also for respiratory health and pollution.

So this is a huge milestone for us.

By the end of this year we'll have more than a third of the van fleet will be converted to zero emissions.

The 5,000th EV in our fleet looks a bit different to Openreach vans you'll have seen before.

This is our sustainability identity.

It's called 'Let's Reach Zero' and features a load of artwork around sustainability.

We've loved being part of the process and bringing this wrap to life.

We've been part of the design, production and installation and we've enjoyed being a part of every step.

Let's Reach Zero is the Openreach sustainability strategy and it covers three key themes.

They are lowering our emissions, using less and wasting less and becoming nature positive.

And the EV is a key part of what we're trying to do.

We are a huge part of the problem in the nation.

We drive one of the biggest van fleets.

This transition is us being part of the solution as well.

What's really important for EVs, especially from a fleet perspective, is they're more reliable, they're more cost efficient and effective and actually for the engineer again, from a safety perspective, they're less likely to breakdowns, be stranded on the side of the road.

Once engineers are in the EVs they love them.

Where I live there's quite a lot of charging points.

So it's so easy. When I stay on patch the charge lasts for a couple of days at least.

I'd probably never go back to a diesel now for my works vehicle. They're just so much more comfortable to drive.

At the end of the year we're on a mission to be at 7,000 EVs.

And the good thing about it is that it's a mixture of large, medium and small.

And we want to make sure that our engineers are in the right EV for their role, so these are data-led decisions.

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.