Progress update against our targets in 2025/26

Eliminating hazardous waste

We continued to make progress this year in reducing and eliminating hazardous waste. The replacement of lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion batteries is ongoing, with 116 end-of-life batteries replaced during the year. All end-of-life equipment continues to be disposed of through licensed vendors in each market. Our key OEM partners – Nokia, Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson – have reaffirmed their commitment to our material take-back scheme, ensuring end-of-life network equipment is reused, repaired, recycled or responsibly disposed. In 2025/26, a total of 532 tonnes network waste was recovered, reused or recycled with no electronic waste sent to disposal. The approach we have built into our operations aligns with a tightening of regulations in Kenya and Nigeria on battery and e-waste management.

Reducing non-hazardous waste through responsible consumption

We’ve made meaningful progress this year in specific markets and waste categories, particularly around general office waste and paper usage and waste.

The elimination of single-use plastic cups from our offices and headquarters has been extended to 80% of retail shops across all OpCos. We’re actively monitoring the rollout to prevent regression. We’re on track to fully embed this initiative in all shops across our footprint in 2026/27.

In Kenya, through our partnership with Taka Taka Solutions, 86% of the waste generated at our Parkside headquarters in Nairobi is now collected and recycled. A total of 14,310kg of waste was recycled during 2025/26, saving 25,071 tonnes of CO₂.

As a business we use a significant amount of paper, so managing and reducing this remains a priority. Over the last 12 months, we’ve made significant progress in reducing printing across our operations through online document sign-off, contract management tools and digital workflow processes. These changes have reduced paper used for contract printing by 80%, a transformation that is now embedded into the way we work, rather than treated as a standalone initiative. And in Malawi, our collaboration with International Conservation and Cleanup Management achieved a recycling rate of over 80% of paper waste generated within our main office buildings. Rather than sending that waste to landfill, we’re repurposing it as raw material for manufacturing products including egg trays, organic manure and tissue paper – a strong example of circular economy principles in practice. In total, 30,931kg of paper was recycled in Malawi during 2025/26.

While we are making strong progress in key areas, we recognise the challenges that remain. Across some of our markets, technological limitations and the absence of strong regulatory enforcement make it difficult to manage certain waste categories consistently. As a result, our target to eliminate all non-hazardous waste by 31 March 2026 has not been fully achieved. We’re actively working to close this gap, exploring new recycling partnerships and aiming to expand our circular economy activities in the year ahead.

Water management

We do not consume or pollute significant amounts of water through our operations, but we take proactive management seriously. In 2025/26, we established conservation controls across offices and facilities. These include integrated water-saving systems – such as automatic flushing and push-on taps in all new and refurbished office buildings – and formalised a standardised measurement methodology across all 14 OpCos.

Our primary sources of water are municipal supplies and boreholes. Water consumption is measured using utility bills or meter readings where meters are installed. For water discharge, all cleaning water is channelled to municipal or local government wastewater sewer lines and classified as effluent discharge. In 2025/26, our total water discharged was 122.5 megalitres.

Chad, Kenya, Niger and the Seychelles are water-stressed zones within our operations, and we are strengthening our water management activities in these markets accordingly. We run awareness campaigns and display conservation signage in strategic locations across our offices to engage colleagues in responsible water use.

Looking ahead, we plan to introduce smart meters in our main facilities, starting with head offices and regional offices, to enable more accurate data collection. With reliable data in place, we aim to establish formal water consumption targets from 2026/27.

​Energy efficiency and renewable energy

Energy costs across sub-Saharan Africa have risen sharply, driven by global fuel volatility and reduced rainfall affecting hydropower generation. This increases reliance on diesel and pushes operating costs up. Managing these pressures effectively is central to our environmental strategy. 

Over the course of the reporting period, we’ve achieved a 95% lighting efficiency Group-wide and more than 50 new retail shops have been fitted with 100% LED lighting. Our facilities in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, the Seychelles, Uganda and Zambia now use only energy-saving bulbs, and motion sensors are being installed as standard in all new facilities. In Zambia, where reduced rainfall has affected hydropower availability and national grid instability remains a significant challenge, 33 retail stores have transitioned to hybrid renewable energy sources to maintain operations. This resulted in the stores using 21% less energy than the previous year. These are practical, market-level responses to a continent-wide challenge.

Building the capability to sustain this progress is equally important. In 2025/26, 46 facilities managers received specialist training in digital transformation for facility management, covering data-driven solutions for optimising energy operations and digital approaches to advancing net zero energy access across African cities and industries.

​Environmental and social management system

Our ESMS progressed significantly in 2025/26, with a focus on deepening implementation, strengthening contractor oversight and building internal capacity.

ESMS implementation reviews were carried out in Rwanda and the DRC in November 2025, with follow-up on identified gaps completed in January 2026. Contractor inspections – covering fibre installations and tower activities – were also conducted in Kenya and the DRC in June 2025. As part of the supplier onboarding process, new suppliers are now required to provide information on their environmental, health, safety and social policies, ensuring alignment with our sustainability and compliance objectives.

Biodiversity and responsible environmental management

We’re increasing our focus on biodiversity, ensuring our operations are aligned with responsible environmental management. In collaboration with GSMA and industry partners, we continue to engage with emerging research on the impact that the telecoms sector has on biodiversity, with findings expected to inform future sustainability initiatives.

The latest GSMA report stresses the urgent need for the mobile industry to address biodiversity loss, noting that the accelerating decline of ecosystems and species threatens global stability. While telecoms operations can negatively impact biodiversity through infrastructure expansion and development, energy consumption and resource extraction, the industry also has unique opportunities to contribute positively.

By leveraging digital innovation such as biodiversity monitoring tools, wildlife tracking and conservation apps, and by fostering partnerships with NGOs, governments and communities, telecoms operators can play a vital role in protecting nature. Integrating internet of things (IoT), AI and connectivity into climate tech solutions further aligns biodiversity protection with climate resilience, positioning the mobile industry as both a responsible actor and an enabler of global conservation efforts.

Looking ahead, we plan to leverage these findings to refine and strengthen its sustainability strategy, with a particular focus on advancing biodiversity conservation practices in 2026/27.

Eliminating open waste burning

Efforts to address open waste burning in Africa are advancing. In Kenya and Malawi, air quality monitoring projects and waste recycling programmes are contributing to improved environmental conditions. We continue to participate in the multi-stakeholder initiative to end open burning across the continent, working alongside the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), local governments and Engineering X, drawing on expertise and case studies from across the continent.

In November 2025, the initiative was registered under the UNFCCC Cooperative Climate Initiatives by non-state actors. This recognises that corporate climate action is integral to global progress beyond government commitments and is a clear example of how businesses can contribute to local climate solutions, particularly in reducing emissions and improving community health.