Safaricom: A strategic approach to Net Zero ambitions

Safaricom Kenya

Safaricom has partnered with the Carbon Trust to take a strategic approach to achieving its commitments to becoming a Net Zero company by 2050.

The ambition

Safaricom is the largest communications provider in Kenya, contributing 6.5% of the country’s GDP in 2018. The business has integrated United Nations’ Sustainable Developments Goals into its wider strategy, and sees environmental considerations as core to achieving commercial sustainability and success. This has led to Safaricom making an ambitious commitment to becoming a Net Zero company by 2050.

How we helped

To help deliver this commitment, Safaricom chose to partner with the Carbon Trust to take a strategic approach to managing its environmental impacts. This portfolio of work encompassed multiple projects to address sustainability at different levels in the company, including:

  • using internationally recognised best practise methods to map reduction pathways to ensure the company’s emission reduction targets reflect climate science
  • establishing a Scope 3 footprint of Safaricom’s purchased goods and services and sold products
  • providing contextually relevant options for best practise carbon offsetting 
  • engaging employees to reduce their environmental impact through the creation of, and training with, a bespoke tool which measures their personal carbon footprints and highlights areas for reduction

Planning ahead

The company has since committed to a series of reduction targets including a 43% reduction by 2030 and a 74% by 2050 from a 2017 base year, which has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. It intends to reach Net Zero by addressing remaining emissions through certified carbon offsets. Measures to ensure that Safaricom can meet these targets include reducing its reliance on high carbon diesel generation sources and increasing use of renewable energy. 

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Our target is to be a net zero organisation by year 2050. To achieve our ambitions, we looked for the right partners to work with and support us in the journey. We chose to work with the Carbon Trust team because of their experience and technical expertise in the carbon and climate change arena.

A stand out example of our work together is the bespoke personal footprinting tool that the team at the Carbon Trust developed for us. It is not only agile, but really easy to use and helps our employees to understand and engage with their individual footprint, as well as work-related carbon emissions. This is a great place from which we can begin to embed the right changes in our organisational culture to facilitate our net zero ambitions.

Michael Koech
Manager, Environment and Climate Change, Safaricom