The days of sustainability being nothing more than a buzzword, or merely a marketing ploy, are a thing of the past.
Today, it’s so much more. It’s the difference between having a habitable planet for future generations – or not. Thankfully, it’s something people and businesses around that planet are really beginning to take seriously.
This is certainly the case for Jérôme Goulard, who works as the chief sustainability officer for Orange Business, a global integrator of communications, products and services for multinational corporations.
The company, the enterprise division of the Orange Group, was created in 2006 following the merger of France Télécom’s enterprise division and the international operations of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems.
It now operates in 220 countries and territories, employing in excess of 21,000 workers in 166 countries. Over the past few years, it has invested €700 million in research and development with a dedicated 8,000 employees including scientists, engineers, developers, designers, sociologists and marketers.
So how can such a huge tech firm, with so many moving parts, ever hope to be sustainable? That’s the challenge Goulard is taking on headfirst.
“For a large company like Orange, we see very diverse landscapes. For example, the Africa and Middle East division is not in the same position as France. So we see some quite different models. We define global commitments, but then we have to adapt to our ecosystem, and also our business, because we link sustainability with our business models and with our strategic plans.”
Strategic plan
Orange Business is finalising its 2030 strategic plan, which is likely to be made public by the second half of 2025.
And the company is opting to group businesses and sustainability strategies and targets together.
“When I speak about Net Zero, about carbon footprint, I link with the business trajectories of services, the estimation of our carbon footprint, the levels that we have identified, and how we will manage the key levels with our suppliers and internally to achieve the goals,” Goulard explains.
“So that’s quite complex, because we have to change some operational models. We also have to change and add these topics into the relationship with our suppliers. We are formalising what we do with them.”
For example, a year ago Orange Business signed a worldwide MoU signed with Cisco to define the company’s decarbonation plan.
“An important issue with regards to carbon topics is that it’s really about the world value chain – about the whole ecosystem,” says Goulard.
“You can’t do something by yourself. And also the commitments that are required in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and all the directives, etc, is to manage the world value chain. You have to work with your customers because the carbon footprint of your customers is part of your own carbon footprint.
“You have to work with your suppliers, and you have to be consistent along the whole chain. There are huge challenges in terms of data, tools and models that you have to define so that you can identify the right topics, monitor the trajectories and share relevant information with all your stakeholders.”
Orange Business’ more recent efforts to boost sustainability includes its partnership with French postal service, La Poste. The project’s aim is to give a second life to the network equipment used during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The organisers of the games had committed to making it the first international sporting event to achieve carbon neutrality, and reduce its carbon footprint by 55% compared to the 2012 London Games, aligned with the principles of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The project began in two parts, according to Goulard. “First is our relationship with La Poste, which is one of our key, major strategic customers.”
It also shares a common vision with Orange Business and is actively committed to adopting more responsible and sustainable practices.
“As with our other customers, they interact with us and ask us about sustainability commitments, and want to know how we can best work together. What are the new models that we could put in place? And, in fact, we had a large project requiring some new equipment that was discussed with La Poste.
“And, in parallel, we also had a contract with the Olympic Games, because Orange was the only telco supplier of that event. As part of the contract with the Olympic Games, we had a commitment about the carbon footprint of what was proposed to the Olympic Games, and they had some very strict requirements on that.
“So combining these two interactions with two very strategic partners we decided to undertake this project. And, of course, for the implementation there are a lot of aspects that need to be managed, such as how do we manage warranty maintenance? How do we install all the equipment? It was in more than 120 different sites of the Olympics, and we had to collect, refurbish, check if equipment was okay, and then install it for La posts. It was a huge operational project.”
As of the start of 2025, approximately 90% of the Wi-Fi terminals and 78% of the switches from the Olympic sites are being installed at La Poste’s locations, dramatically reducing the electrical waste coming out of the games. Sharing the same 2040 net-zero goal, Orange and La Poste will repurpose the equipment to not only prevent unnecessary waste, but to also improve the network’s operational efficiency for La Poste employees, providing better connectivity and a high level of service.
“It will enhance La Poste’s performance as the equipment is not old equipment – it’s very recent and up-to-date,” notes Goulard.
Although this was the first project of its kind that Orange Business has worked on, Goulard says he hopes and expects there will be other such projects for them to work on in the future.
Circular economy
Elsewhere, the company has also been working on other sustainability and circular economy initiatives, and has lately been working with one of its customers, Leroy Merlin, for example.
“We proposed to implement a fleet of refurbished phones for all their needs,” explains Goulard. “And again, of course, we have to manage how this mobile fleet will be compliant with security topics, with the company policy about how you manage data and your fleet of mobiles etc. But we have implemented this global fleet of refurbished phones and the impact is very important, as we.
“When you give a refurbished phone, it’s about 10% of a the global carbon footprint when compared to a new device. So that’s a large impact.
“We are also currently working on some integration services that would also include also refurbished equipment. So that’s ongoing. It’s not an offer that we have released yet, but we would like to develop globally the circular economy principles in most equipment that we manage with our customers – so it’s LAN, WAN, mobile, servers, eco design in IT etc.
It’s all part of Orange Business’ journey to that 2040 Net Zero target. Along the way, there will be an intermediate step in 2030 with the company having committed to reduce its carbon footprint by 45% compared to 2020.
It won’t necessarily be an easy journey for Goulard and his team, or for any other companies or individuals for that matter.
But, as Goulard says, saving the planet is hard work. “And I often say it’s not only about saving the planet because the planet is okay. The planet has seen a lot of disasters and climate problems. It’s about saving the humans on the planet. If we have 40C everywhere, all year long, the planet will be okay. Humans? No.”
Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash
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