Verizon Wireless and Green Ideas

Here is some rambling I did after reviewing Verizon's site:

According to Verizon Wireless' website, they have plans to reduce carbon intensity 50% by 2020, as well as plans in work to switch to having 15% of their fleet vehicles moved over to alternative fuel vehicles by 2015. So far they are on track - having reduced carbon intensity by 30% since 2009, and have over 2,500 alternative fuel vehicles, which account for 7% of their fleet. Verizon is currently leading change in the telecom industry in their rules for energy efficiency for their network equipment which were written by Todd Talbot. http://responsibility.verizon.com/sustainability/

Verizon measures their energy efficiency by taking the total Terabyte throughput their network handled and then also reviewing the amount of electricity it took to generate that throughput. This gives them a Kilowatt hour per Terabyte metric as well as a CO2 generated per Terabyte metric. As an industry leader there is a lot of opportunity Verizon has to take the reins and work towards the ultimate goal of a completely sustainable corporate model and in turn generate interest in making homes sustainable through use of green technologies. One initiative could be solar powered cell phones that will run off of solar energy when it is available, extending battery life for example. These cell phones can also be used to manage smart home systems that are integrated to reduce individual homeowner’s carbon footprint.

If Verizon offered its customers the opportunity to get a credit on their bill, or even full reimbursement in some cases in exchange for the excess electricity generated by that homeowners' own green initiative, it would create a virtual consumer to business trade model as well as a model for increasing corporate sustainability. Give and take, supply and demand. Customers who use Verizon services want their services and Verizon could definitely use their cheap or free electricity. A match made on God’s green earth.