ADVA Optical Networking Joins Science-Based Targets Initiative to Tackle Climate Change

ADVA Optical Networking announced today that it has joined the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). As part of the SBTi, the telecommunications technology supplier has committed to set goals for reducing its carbon emissions based on climate science. These science-based targets will align with internationally agreed efforts to keep global warming below the dangerous 2°C threshold. ADVA Optical Networking has two years to set its targets, which will be closely reviewed and validated by SBTi experts. Meeting the targets will officially demonstrate its continuing commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The company is one of the first 200 organizations worldwide to join the global initiative.

“We build technology that does more than equip our customers for success. Our innovation also benefits our communities and our planet. It’s this culture of continuous improvement that recently helped us win the inaugural QuEST Forum award for sustainability,” commented Klaus Grobe, director, global sustainability, ADVA Optical Networking. “To significantly impact greenhouse emissions, it’s not enough to focus just on our operations; we also need to make an impact downstream in our value chain. Creating a sustainable future means enabling our customers to be more efficient – reducing their emissions, even as demand for broadband capacity continues to grow. We’re now setting ambitious intensity-based targets so that our data center interconnect (DCI) solutions can deliver massively higher throughput while consuming proportionally less energy.”

The SBTi helps businesses set transformative science-based targets in a timescale that delivers on the goals of the Paris Agreement. ADVA Optical Networking’s SBTI commitment will involve tackling the most significant area of its value chain with regard to carbon footprint: indirect consumer emissions. The company will set ambitious intensity-based targets to reduce these ‘scope 3’ emissions, as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. These targets will be achieved over the next five years, largely through radical improvements to the energy efficiency of ADVA Optical Networking’s optical transport products. The ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect™ already consumes less rack space and energy than competing DCI technology. The new targets will underline the company’s long-term mission to further reduce the power consumption and form factor of its connectivity solutions.

“It’s encouraging to see companies like ADVA Optical Networking proving how seriously they take climate change and leading the way with sustainable innovation. More than 200 major organizations have committed to our initiative. These companies are demonstrating how protecting the planet can be synonymous with good business,” said Cynthia Cummis, director, private sector climate mitigation, WRI and steering committee member, SBTi. “By committing to set science-based targets, ADVA Optical Networking is highlighting best practice to the rest of its industry. For many companies, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is about tackling their own direct emissions. For others, like ADVA Optical Networking, it’s about assessing the entire value chain and reducing emissions across the complete lifecycle of its products.”