Vodafone staff told to cut flights

Mobile phone giant Vodafone has reduced business travel at its UK operation by more than a quarter. As a founding member of WWF’s One in Five Challenge, the firm made a promise to cut the business flights its staff made by 20% over five years. But in just over a year, Vodafone has slashed its flights by 26% by encouraging mobile working.

The lack of flights has made a positive dent in the company’s carbon footprint, saving around 617 tonnes of carbon dioxide. “It’s great for the environment, but with 3,500 fewer flights we’ve also achieved significant cost reductions,” says enterprise director, Peter Kelly. “We’re passionate about the potential of our unified communications solutions, to enable our customers to make similar CO2 and cost reductions.”

To build on its achievements, the business recently published a report on the benefits of flexible working. The research says that around 39% of chief information officers believe that enabling flexible working is a priority in order to improve customer service, efficiency and staff retention. Reducing environmental impact was also one of the key benefits identified by CIOs in the research.

Despite this, the research showed that nearly half (47%) of corporate and public sector workers say they are not provided with any mobile working tools, such as a smartphone, laptop or secure remote access.

vodafone.co.uk