Together for a greener future – Virgin Mobile achieves carbon neutrality across the UAE

• Through investing in multiple projects, including the UAE’s first landfill gas-to-energy project, VMUAE achieves net zero carbon emissions in 2021
• The first fully digital mobile brand aims to become single-use, plastic-free and carbon-negative through the development of a bio-degradable SIM card and innovative offsetting customer app feature launch

4 October 2021, United Arab Emirates – Virgin Mobile UAE, part of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), the leading first fully digital customer focused mobile brand, achieves net zero carbon emissions this year through investments in multiple business and community projects, including a United Nations certified offsetting initiative in Dubai and an initiative to plant trees in the UK. As a community collaborator and innovation pioneer, the approach taken has been driven from a partnership with Dubai Carbon that sees Virgin Mobile UAE continuing to deliver game-changing initiatives for its customers, not only to make mobile better, but also greener.

Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence provided critical insight into Virgin Mobile UAE’s total emissions across all elements of its business.  The emissions calculations were then used to create and implement wide-ranging sustainable processes for the reduction of Virgin Mobile UAE’s overall emissions including news ways of working related to business travel, reduction and reuse of materials, energy efficiency, and sustainability awareness and education initiatives.

In addition to business processes, Virgin Mobile UAE has put into action a range of community partnerships and investments.  This includes a contribution towards the first landfill gas (LFG)-to-energy project in the Middle East, located in Al Qusais, Dubai. This project, led by Green Energy Solutions & Sustainability LLC (GESS), is certified by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Charge (UNFCCC) and matches Virgin Mobile UAE’s passion for innovation.  

GESS focuses on waste management in the MENA region, specifically landfill gas project development which sees it convert waste gas into renewable energy.

Virgin Mobile UAE is also in the final stages of testing bio-degradable SIM Cards to replace the current PVC plastic cards, enabling the business to become 100% single-use and plastic-free.

Rob Beswick, Managing Director for Virgin Mobile UAE commented, “We believe it’s our responsibility to achieve carbon neutrality, and we are all extremely proud at Virgin Mobile of this first step, especially as we are actively supporting local UAE projects that directly impact our community and our customers. We believe our customers want the brands that they use to drive a sustainable future.  

Now that we have achieved neutrality, the next step is to continue to innovate and push the boundaries, bringing new solutions that can take us into carbon negative territory. We want to enable our team and our customers to join us on this journey, which is why we are investing in the research and development of a bio-degradable sim card and will launch an innovative digital app feature that allows our customers to easily offset their mobile carbon footprint soon.

As an innovative and customer-first brand, this is exactly the type of pioneering action we want to take – to not only make mobile better, but to contribute to a sustainable future for all.”