Our Green Credentials

aql’s approach to our environmental footprint is very much embedded by our founders vision and mission.

Our Founder & Chairman, Professor Adam Beaumont is a passionate environmentalist. He’s a Trustee of the Eden Project and non-executive board director of Eden Project International Ltd (EPIL). Adam is also the Chair of the Eden North (Morecambe) Project and the founding Chair of UK 5G’s Climate and Environment working group, part of the government UK5G advisory board.

A keen sailor, Adam believes the sailing community are the guardians of the sea and has worked closely with many sailing charities to deliver a strong environmental message using, for example, aql’s Cowes Week partnership, as a platform to drive change within a like-minded community and to launch environmental initiatives.

Telecommunications as an industry is a significant consumer of power and resources. Much of the language within the industry is around offset rather than fundamental change.

At aql we adopt Cradle2Cradle philosophies* believing that not only should we strive to be “less bad” (i.e. reduction in impact), but we should seek to be “more good” (creating a positive impact).

aql is vertically integrated, our datacentres and network power our services, and so, the future of our impact is ours to make and entirely our responsibility to own. We have designed all of our datacentres to not only be highly efficient, but also to be capable of heat capture and offload to future smart city schemes, such as district heating.

We re-use existing buildings which would not find a secondary use, including schools, chapels and military sites. We build low impact mast sites and rewild and replant.
Whilst offset is not the answer, we also reinvest in the planet.

For every rack footprint utilised, aql purchases and protects an acre of ancient woodland. So far, hundreds of acres of unspoilt forest have been protected.

*McDonough et al

Protect woodland

For every rack footprint utilised, will purchase and protect an acre of ancient woodland. So far, hundreds of acres of unspoilt forest has been protected.

Reduce carbon footprint

Continue to measure and reduce our carbon footprint, seek alternative renewable energy solutions and improve efficiencies.

Reduce waste

Reduce our waste as a company, reuse and recycle where possible.

Develop green initiatives

Develop and deliver green initiatives to help educate staff and customers on environmental issues to help reduce personal carbon footprint.

Adopt reuse strategies

Adopt novel property reuse strategies, including building datacentres in listed structures or as part of mixed use schemes where energy by-products can be recycled.

Efficiency by design

Achieve efficiency by design. Ensure our network does not generate “hidden carbon”.

Launched in 2018, our Sensing Change project started life as an experiment to see if aql could drive down the use of disposable plastic bottles at the world’s largest sailing regatta, Cowes Week and worked closely with partners City to Sea’s Refill campaign. The project was a success with over 21,678 500ml plastic bottles saved, 864 bottles recycled and 10,839 litres of water dispensed during the event. What began as an experiment has become a real product with a demonstrable, positive impact on society and provided the data to allow the Refill campaign to quantify their campaign.

This pilot is now being scaled across the UK and Sensing Change is an initiative through low-impact “Internet of Things” (IoT) technology, providing the data to charities, action groups and education to help monitor our impact on the planet and provide an independent baseline of data to monitor our societal progress.

Project VITAL

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), aql, the Eden Project and RAF’s Astra programme are working together to explore the delivery of carbon neutrality (and beyond) by 2025 as an urgent intervention programme across military assets. aql’s sensor technology is being used to measure impact but also to increase efficiencies. Deep geothermal is being used as a stable base load to provide direct renewables. Where possible, aql will be sitting datacentres adjacent to these base load projects.