Case study

Helping GO plc Reduce Their Carbon Emissions Whilst Saving €5.3m

GO plc (GO), Malta’s leading telecommunications provider recognised the need for a differentiated strategy to grow the business. Nikhil Patil (CEO) and his team created a purpose-driven mission: to drive a digital Malta where no one is left behind. A key element of this strategy was addressing environmental impact.

GO teamed up with Green Element Group to create a comprehensive approach to measure, set reduction targets, and reduce their carbon emissions while aligning with the latest reporting requirements, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Key results include:

⭐ Became Malta’s First company to achieve validated Net-Zero Science-Based Targets.

⭐ Saved €5.3 Million and 1,015 Tonnes of CO2 through refurbishment initiatives over a 3-year period.

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Driving GO’s Carbon Reduction Journey with Our Comprehensive Platform and Expertise

Green Element began by calculating GO’s baseline carbon footprint in 2019 and transitioned them to Compare Your Footprint’s carbon accounting software for ongoing monitoring. This approach gave GO more control over their data while ensuring the accuracy needed to track their progress in real time.

Using our software, GO measured:

Scope 1: Fuel use (Diesel and Petrol) and Refrigerants.

Scope 2: Electricity

Scope 3: Purchased Goods and Services, Capital Goods, Upstream emissions from purchased fuel and energy, Upstream transportation and distribution, Waste generated in operations, Business Travel, Employee Commuting, Use of sold products, End-of-life treatment of sold products, and Downstream leased assets

Image Source: GO Green, Our Environmental Sustainability Strategy

READ GO'S SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

Without Green Element, navigating the world of sustainability would have been much more challenging, and we would have struggled to get the same result. If you want to future proof your business, you need a sustainable one.

Ingrid Azzopardi Former GO Green Lead

Our team supported GO with detailed analyses of complex data, including:

Materiality Assessment

Evaluating GO’s entire purchase ledger to capture all emissions-generating spend.

Upstream Supply Chain

Estimating emissions from equipment production and transport.

Digital Footprint

Quantifying the environmental impact of GO’s digital services, including their website, apps, and social media.

Supplier Data

Collecting specific emissions data from suppliers.

Downstream Impact

Assessing the emissions of sold or leased electrical appliances throughout their lifecycle.

Employee Commuting and Remote Work

Estimating the impact of commuting and remote work.

Malta’s First Company to achieve validated Net-Zero Science-Based Targets

GO became Malta’s first company to have both near-term and net-zero science-based targets validated. With Green Element’s support, GO set ambitious reduction goals, in line with climate science, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

As part of GO Group, this required a group-wide emissions inventory, covering all five subsidiaries, which Green Element helped measure before submitting the targets for validation.

Their validated science-based targets include:

🎯 Net-Zero by 2050: Achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2050.

🎯 Near-Term Targets: Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030 from a 2021 base year and reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions (from purchased goods, capital goods, and downstream leased assets) by 42% in the same timeframe.

🎯 Long-Term Targets: Achieve a 90% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2050 from a 2021 base year, and a 90% reduction in Scope 3 emissions within the same period.

Pictured: Ingrid Azzopardi, Former GO Green Lead, with GO’s science-based target certificate from Green Element Group.

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Saving money while reducing emissions

GO’s operations generate significant electronic waste. As the GO team became engaged by GO’s sustainability journey, one of the warehouse team identified an opportunity to reduce waste and emissions. To support this, Green Element developed a Refurbishment Calculator, helping GO measure emissions savings from reducing raw material use and transportation.

GO’s refurbishment efforts have really paid off, saving the company €5.3 million and cutting 1,015 tonnes of CO2 in a 3-year timeframe—that is like avoiding 619 flights from London to New York!

On top of that, they have cut the number of WEEE disposal bags used, going from 37 in 2021 to 24 in 2023, reducing waste by 3 tonnes.

Ensuring GO stays compliant with environmental regulations and avoids fines

GO, with over 500 employees, is required to comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Green Element helped GO measure their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, ensuring their data met all regulatory standards, which has allowed GO to stay compliant and avoid potential fines.

Our team worked closely with auditors at PwC to provide the information for GO’s compliance with CSRD, providing a clear and detailed methodology report which shows exactly how we calculate emissions per Scope 3 category.

Sustainability is an ever-evolving field, and having Green Element Group by our side to keep us updated and on track has been invaluable. Their expertise gave us the confidence to get started, guided us on what actions to take, and showed us how those actions align with our long-term goals.

Ingrid Azzopardi Former GO Green Lead

The Challenges

Complex Data Management: GO operates 50 sites, which made data collection for carbon footprint analysis challenging.

Measuring Digital Emissions: With no established standards for quantifying digital emissions, GO and Green Element had to innovate, developing new models to assess the impact of their digital services—ranging from website use to social media advertising.

Subsidiary Coordination: As part of the GO Group, GO plc needed to align emissions measurements and targets across all subsidiaries to achieve validated science-based targets. This required considerable effort to integrate and standardise data from the group’s six organisations.

Energy Grid: Malta’s electricity is supplied by a single provider, limiting GO’s ability to switch to renewable energy. With electricity being a significant part of their carbon footprint (Scope 2), this posed a challenge for their reduction targets.