Sprint Receives Prestigious Climate Leadership Awards from EPA

Wireless carrier’s supply chain efforts and focus on environmental impacts hailed as exemplary

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), February 25, 2014 – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO), the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), and The Climate Registry (TCR), today gave Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) two climate leadership awards at the national Climate Leadership Conference in San Diego. Sprint received the Supply Chain Leadership and Organizational Leadership awards for its supply chain engagement practices and the company’s continued focus to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Awardees were honored for exemplary corporate, organizational and individual leadership in reducing carbon pollution and addressing climate change. Award recipients represented a wide array of industries, including finance, manufacturing, retail, technology, higher education and local government.

Sprint’s ability to engage its suppliers on environmental practices drove the Supply Chain Leadership award honors. Sprint’s supply chain engagement practices are best illustrated by its long-term goal to have 90 percent of its suppliers meet certain environmental and social criteria by 2017, and the specific tactics Sprint has taken to help its suppliers build on their sustainability efforts. With a $13 billion dollar annual supply chain spend, Sprint has determined that just 190 suppliers account for as much as 54 percent of Sprint’s measured carbon footprint (scopes 1, 2 and 3 combined). To the extent that Sprint can influence its suppliers to more fully engage on sustainability and reduce their carbon footprints, Sprint believes it will have a stronger and more resilient supply chain, and increased opportunities for partnership.

“With more than 38,000 suppliers, we’re pleased we’ve been able to work across our supply chain to build our mutual commitment to sustainability and to expand our relationship in a new area,” said Gene Agee, Sprint vice president of procurement and real estate. “To be honored by the EPA for our efforts is a wonderful testament to the relationships we have with our outstanding suppliers and the progress we’ve made while keeping the environment top of mind.”

Sprint completed its initial supplier assessment in 2011 and through discussions with suppliers, realized that there was a lack of resources available to small to medium sized businesses on how to address a basic materiality assessment or measure and report GHG. Sprint also discovered that many suppliers did not believe they had the resources to “take on” sustainability. In response, Sprint created several unique tools to help their suppliers address their environmental impacts.

One of these tools is a new supplier guide which provides information to suppliers on how to meet Sprint’s materiality assessment and greenhouse gas measurement and reporting criteria. The new Sprint Supplier Guide is free and accessible to the public and is accompanied by a greenhouse gas emissions worksheet. Sprint has also held education and collaboration summits for specific categories of suppliers, like those in the print and paper industry.

This approach is bringing Sprint closer to its goal to have 90 percent of its supply chain (based on sourceable spend) meet environmental and social criteria. As of January 2014, Sprint had already achieved 79 percent.

Sprint’s comprehensive GHG strategies and aggressive emissions reduction goals led to the Organizational award honor. Sprint has already achieved 94 percent of its industry-leading goal to absolutely reduce emissions by 20 percent by 2017 and remains the only U.S. carrier to have an absolute reduction goal that includes both Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. In 2012, Sprint reduced its overall emissions by 10.05 percent over the previous year and decreased carbon intensity by 37.3 percent – putting the carrier well ahead of schedule to reach its 2017 emission-reduction goals.

Sprint’s success in this area is largely the result of Network Vision, an ongoing consolidation and re-engineering of the company’s network technologies with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing coverage, call quality and data speeds. Other factors included an increase in the sourcing of renewable energy and the implementation of an automated Retail Energy Management (REM) system at 1,000 Sprint stores – which is expected to save $15 million in energy costs during the next 10 years.

“Sprint has made great strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “Their innovative approaches and commitment to reducing carbon pollution demonstrates that efforts to address climate change are repaid by saving money and energy, while supporting more livable and resilient communities, and a healthier, better protected environment.”

Sprint was recently honored as the most “eco focused” wireless carrier by Compass Intelligence and has been widely recognized for its environmental commitments to decrease energy use, enable more eco-friendly mobile solutions, and offer industry-leading wireless recycling programs.

Last year, Sprint was the only telecommunications company named to CDP’s S&P 500 Climate Performance Leadership Index (CPLI), which highlights companies that demonstrate strategies committed to improving their impact on the environment. Sprint was also named for the third consecutive year to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America, which tracks the corporate sustainability performance of the top 20 percent of the 600 largest companies by industry in the United States and Canada.

About Sprint:

Sprint (NYSE: S) offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint served more than 55 million customers at the end of 2013 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint as the most improved company in customer satisfaction, across all 47 industries, during the last five years. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DSJI) North America in 2011, 2012 and 2013. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

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