Version 4 (July 2022)

Carbon Offset Reporting Principles and Working Methodology Statement

Introduction

As part of the service provided by Telefónica Tech, we collaborate with selected partners to support and develop sustainable solutions. The methodology described below pertains specifically to one of our partners, recognising that methodologies may differ among partners.

Emissions from the ICT sector projected for 2030 – calculated based on the assumption that ICT emissions are predicted to be approximately 2% of total emissions by that point. This is equivalent to 1.25 Gt CO₂e in 2030 or 1,250,000,000 tons of CO₂. So, whilst ICT may only represent 2% of overall emissions, there is still a significant amount of CO₂ associated with it.

Carbon offsetting is an internationally recognized way to take responsibility for unavoidable carbon emissions generated in the normal course of business activities. For example, by selling legacy IT assets destined for re-use, this in turn means that somewhere someone will use a refurbished unit.

As part of the IT Asset Disposition solution and service, we work to support and create sustainable solutions with and for our partners. Our Lifecycle management approach enables our customers to manage their end-of-life assets in a secure and environmentally responsible manner.

As part of the IT Asset Disposition solution and service we are able to offer enhanced value recovery rates to ensure client assets are reused wherever possible returning enhanced values but also minimizing recycling rates and as such maximizing carbon offset values.

Carbon offset is subjective. Through our partnership, Telefónica Tech has provided research references and taken assumptions to provide best estimates of carbon offset values. These references and assumptions are contained in this report. Data is subject to change without prior notice based on updated research findings, government legislation, and market data becoming available.

Calculating carbon footprint is complex due to the evolving dynamics of products and supply chains.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in conjunction with HPE, HP Inc, Lenovo, Dell, AMD, and Cisco has created a ‘Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm’ (PAIA) in an attempt to assist with the calculation of carbon footprint.

See http://msl.mit.edu/projects/paia/main.html

Assumptions and Where Data Comes From

Complete Unit Working Methodology

Data surrounding laptop manufacture is more readily available with different manufacturers collating and reporting on the carbon footprint of their laptops. Numbers range from 250 – 400 Kg CO₂ in the production of a laptop. Data is based on –

Examples are

Lenovo T440s @ 394Kg CO₂
Dell Latitude E7440 @ 276 Kg CO₂

If we standardize on these values, we can assume:

A 1.5Kg laptop has a carbon footprint of 300Kg CO₂
A laptop requires 1,200Kgs of the earth to be excavated to uncover minerals required to produce it

In the production of a laptop 190,000 liters of water are consumed.

Based on IT hardware being assembled of similar constituent parts we will apply the above three metrics on weight (per kg) basis when looking at CO₂ and carbon offset values for other IT hardware that is sold for re-use. Current reporting lines are:

Reporting Line	Kg per device	Manufacturing CO₂ emissions per device
Notebooks	1.5	300 Kg
System Units (PC’s)	3	600 Kg
All in One devices	3	600 Kg
TFT and screens	5	1000 Kg
Enterprise & Comms	15	3000 Kg
Networking Device	1.5	300 Kg
Miscellaneous	3	600 Kg

Component part working methodology

When reviewing component parts we need a smaller start point than a laptop as our base start point. For individual component parts, we will use benchmark manufacturing CO₂ levels provided by cell phone providers. The manufacture of an average cell phone produces 55Kg of CO₂ (ref: Mobiles: the global carbon footprint – The Restart Project). The constituent parts of a cell phone are far more akin to those of the component parts found within memory, CPUs, SSD disks, etc. We will as with complete units base the CO₂ against weight. The average weight of a cell phone is deemed to be 175 grams, thus per 100 grams of weight represents a manufacturing CO₂ overhead of 31.42 Kg.

Reporting Line	grams per device	Manufacturing CO₂ emissions per device
Cell Phone	175	55 Kg
NIC Cards	75	23.56 Kg
3.5″ HDD	625	196.38 Kg
2.5″ HDD	275	86.40 Kg
SSD	100	31.42 Kg
Memory Dim	40	12.57 Kg
Motherboard	600	188.52 Kg

Steel Frames, Racks, Enclosures, and Chassis Working Methodology

All of the above primary components are steel. Steel is reported as a manufacturing CO₂ overhead of between 1.4 tons to 1.85 tons of CO₂ per ton of steel. (ref: What is the carbon footprint of steel? — Sustainable Ships – Beta (sustainable-ships.org) . We shall use 1.6 tons of CO₂ per ton of steel in reporting metrics.

Reporting Line	Kg per device	Manufacturing CO₂ emissions per device
Steel	1	1.6 Kg

Refurbishing Overhead

Facility location	Country	Certified tCO₂e	Qty of parts processed	Processing CO₂ in Kg per part	%’age Weighting per facility	Weighted average CO₂ emissions globally
Baiersdorf	Germany	15.296	36000	0.425	3.14	0.0133
Boston	USA	240.351	216000	1.113	18.89	0.2100
Cirencester	UK	233.091	330000	0.706	28.86	0.2040
Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	56.319	3500	16.091	0.31	0.0050
Norcross Atlanta	USA	169.607	225000	0.754	19.68	0.1484
Singapore	Singapore	105.861	6000	17.644	0.53	0.0940
Toronto	Canada	14.207	107000	0.133	9.36	0.0124
Warrington	UK	180.890	220,000	0.822	19.24	0.1582
Totals		1,015.622	1143500
Global average CO₂ Processing overhead per part						0.8453

Average processing overhead based on a weighted average of global processing facilities, processing in excess of 1 Million parts per year equates to 0.8453 Kg CO₂ per part processing.

As part of Telefónica Tech’s service, we work to support and create sustainable solutions with selected partners. Telefónica Tech’s partner achieved Carbon Neutral status across their processing facilities in 2021, As such, the processing overhead can be regarded as net-zero, however, we have provided the above information as part of the working methodology.

Transport CO₂ Overhead

Transport CO₂ overhead varies wildly based on type of freight, air, sea, road, and the courier along with whether shipments are dedicated or group haulage. According to the green ration book (ref: Carbon Dioxide from Freight Transport | The Green Ration Book).

Carbon Dioxide from Freight Transport

Average Kg of CO₂ produced for every tonne carried one kilometer.

Air 0.903
Road 0.147
Sea 0.18

Recycling Overhead

Whilst recycling will not enable a direct carbon offset for re-use of the item, if the product is recycled, and thus kept from landfill, there is an inherent benefit based on not mining for the raw materials to generate minerals required. The report by Turner, Williams, and Kemp under ScienceDirect on ‘Greenhouse gas emission factors for recycling of source segregated waste materials’ suggests that aluminum has a -8143 Kg CO₂ per ton whereas generic scrap metal has -3577 Kg CO₂ per ton. Mixed Plastics offers -1084 Kg CO₂ per ton.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the recycling of metals in post-consumer waste are assessed from a waste management perspective; here the material recovery facility (MRF), for the sorting of the recovered metal. The GHG accounting includes indirect upstream emissions, direct activities at the MRF as well as indirect downstream activities in terms of reprocessing of the metal scrap and savings in terms of avoided production of virgin metal. The global warming factor (GWF) shows that upstream activities and the MRF cause negligible GHG emissions (12.8 to 52.6 kg CO(2)-equivalents tonne(-1) recovered metal) compared to the reprocessing of the metal itself (360-1260 kg CO(2)-equivalents tonne(-1) of recovered aluminum and 400- 1020 kg CO(2)-equivalents tonne(- 1) of recovered steel).

The reprocessing is, however, counterbalanced by large savings of avoided virgin production of steel and aluminium. The net downstream savings were found to be 5040-19 340 kg CO(2)-equivalents tonne(-1) of treated aluminum and 560-2360 kg CO(2)-equivalents tonne(-1) of treated steel. Due to the huge differences in reported data, it is hard to compare general data on the recovery of metal scrap as they are very dependent on the technology and data choices.

Furthermore, the energy used in both the recovery process as well as the avoided primary production is crucial. The range of avoided impacts shows that recovery of metals will always be beneficial over primary production, due to the high energy savings, and that the GHG emissions associated with the sorting of metals are negligible.

Given compute tends to be primarily manufactured from the above 3 core materials (steel, aluminum, and plastics) based on recycled weight we have a subjective call to make on what we should allocate per ton. We have taken an average of the Turner, Williams & Kemp study providing a recycled CO₂ saving of 4268 per ton in comparison to virgin mining for new minerals.

CO₂ overhead of physical recycling per ton we will take an average from the NHI report of 32.7Kg of CO₂ per ton.

Comparisons

Visualizing carbon offset is awkward. By way of comparison to visualize what a Kg of CO₂looks like, an average family car that travels 15,000 km a year produces 1830Kg CO₂ (https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/average-CO₂-emissions-from-new).

If we work on the basis that producing a 1.5Kg IT asset consumes

CO₂ for new laptop = 300 Kg
190,000 liters of water
1,200 tons of earth excavated
Refurbishment CO₂ cost = (4) kg

On an estate of 1,000 units if refurbished and resold based on the assumption that they have displaced the need for a new unit would provide a CO₂ saving of 296,000 Kg (296 Tons ) of CO₂ – or the equivalent of:

162 cars’ emissions for a year
Saving 190 million liters of water and 1.2M tons of earth

Minerals Used in Manufacturing IT Hardware

Some or all of the below 66 minerals are consumed in the manufacturing of IT devices

Phosphorescent Coating – Transition Metals
ZnS – Zinc Sulfide	Zn, S	Sulfur, Hemmimorphite, Zincite, Smithsonite, Franklenite
Ag – Silver	Ag	Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite
Cl – Chlorine	Cl	Halite
Al – Aluminium	Al	Bauxite
Cu – Copper	Cu	Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, chrysocolla, chalcocite
Au – Gold	Au	Au
Y2O2S – Yittrium Sulfate	Y
Eu – Europium	Eu
KF,MgF2):Mn Potasium-Magnesium Fluorite: Manganese	K, F, Mg, Mn	Alunite, Orthoclase, Nephelite, Leucite, Apophullite; Fluorite, cryolite, vesuvianite, lepidolite: Dolomite, magnesite, espomite, spinel, olivine, pyrope, biotite, talc, pyroxenes
(Zn,Cd)S – Zinc Cadmium Sulfide	Cd
Zn2SiO4:Mn, As – ZincSilicate, Manganese, Arsenic	As	Realgar, Orpiment, Niccolite, Cobalite, Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite
Gd2O2S:Tb – Gadolinium Sulfate:Tebrium	Gd, Tb
Y2SiO12:Ce – Yitrium Silicate: Cerium	Ce	Monzanite, Orthite
CRT Glass
Pb – Lead	Pb	Galena, cerussite, anglesite, pyromorphite
SiO2	Si	Quartz

Plastic Case, Keyboard
Thermoplastic – Polypropylene, PVC
CaCO₂ _additive	Ca	Calcite, gypsum, apatite, aragonite
TiO2 – White Pigment	Ti	Rutile, Ilmenite, Titanite
Amonium Polyphosphate	P	Apetite, Pyromorphite, Wavellite

LCD, Liquid Crystal Display Monitors
Pb – Lead	Pb	Galena, cerussite, anglesite, pyromorphite
Thin Film Transistors	Si	Quartz
Ferro Electric Liquid Crystal	Fe	Hematite
Indium Tin Oxide	Sn	Cassiterite,
	In	Sphalerite (Commonly found with Zinc)

Metal Case
Iron	Fe	Magnetite, Limonite

Flat Screen Plasma Display Monitors
Glass	Si	Quartz
Pb – Lead	Pb	Galena, cerussite, anglesite, pyromorphite
ZnS – Zinc Sulfide	Zn, S	Sulfur, Hemmimorphite, Zincite, Smithsonite, Franklenite
Ag – Silver	Ag	Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite
Cl – Chlorine	Cl	Halite
Al – Aluminum	Al	Bauxite
Cu – Copper	Cu	Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, chrysocolla, chalcocite
Au – Gold	Au	Au
Y2O2S – Yittrium Sulfate	Y	Euxenite
Eu – Europium	Eu	Euxenite
KF,MgF2):Mn Potasium-Magnesium Fluorite: Manganese	K, F, Mg, Mn	Alunite, Orthoclase, Nephelite, Leucite, Apophullite; Fluorite, cryolite, vesuvianite, lepidolite: Dolomite, magnesite, espomite, spinel, olivine, pyrope, biotite, talc, pyroxenes
(Zn,Cd)S – Zinc Cadmium Sulfide	Cd
Zn2SiO4:Mn, As – ZincSilicate, Manganese, Arsenic	As	Realgar, Orpiment, Niccolite, Cobalite, Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite
Gd2O2S:Tb – Gadolinium Sulfate:Tebrium	Gd, Tb
Y2SiO12:Ce – Yitrium Silicate: Cerium	Ce	Monzanite, Orthite

Printed Circuit Boards, Computer Chips
Silicon	Si	Quartz
Cu – Copper	Cu	Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, chrysocolla, chalcocite
Au – Gold	Au	Au
Ag – Silver	Ag	Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite
Tin	Sn	Cassiterite,
Al – Aluminum	Al	Bauxite

Reporting On Your Assets

Telefónica Tech will provide a CO₂ report based on the above working methodology detailing each IT Asset we process for our customers.

Each report details the quantity and genre of assets, along with the carbon saving associated with Telefónica Tech processing the devices; preventing the need for new equivalents to be manufactured, in preference to the devices being scrapped to landfill. Similarly, we will also collate the tons redirected from landfill, the reduction in the excavation of virgin minerals to rebuild the asset, and associated water consumption. Finally. we will provide a comparison of the distance an average family car could travel for the same CO₂.

*This methodology applies to specific projects.