“LCL's ESG efforts are a must for Lumen”
LCL’s first-ever sustainability report also has undeniable value for loyal customer Lumen Technologies. Tom Moran, Lead Technology Strategist EMEA: “It helps us engage in dialogue with our clients who are placing increasing importance on ESG. And they are far from doing that from a public relations perspective.”
LCL builds long-term relationships with its customers. That pays off for both parties: It helps us to acquire deeper knowledge about (the sector of) our client and that in turn helps our client because the cooperation both gains expertise and becomes more efficient. It is also what attracts Lumen Technologies to LCL: “Lumen’s decision to partner with LCL was driven by a combination of LCL’s reputation (read: achieve consistent results) and the requirements of our customers. Besides, it is our customers (from governments to industrial fabricators to IT companies) who decide which data center company they ultimately want to end up with, but it is our job to lead them to the best possible parties. Our shared history has only strengthened mutual trust, which is why we are happy to introduce LCL to our customers.”
More than a ‘nice to have’
That LCL is making strategic efforts on sustainability is to be applauded. “Especially since we are convinced that ESG is becoming a conditio sine qua non in any professional relationship. So, it’s more than good applause, we demand it. ESG is no longer nice to have. The questions and expectations of our clients were quite general once, but now they come up with very specific conditions. We are increasingly being asked to rethink and redesign a business, coming up with solutions in which sustainability is structurally embedded. If we want to prove in great detail how Lumen offers maximum sustainability, by definition we are obliged to knock on LCL’s door as well, because the data center company is part of our logistics chain.”
“LCL’s sustainability report helps us in the dialogue we have with our customers. As the questions we get at Lumen become more sophisticated and require more detail, we may have to evolve from a pure exchange of information to more collaboration.”
“If there is one sector that deserves a 'license to grow,' it is ours. We can reduce our customers' carbon footprint more than it costs us extra energy”
Tom Moran — Senior Lead Technology Strategist and Sustainability Strategy Lead EMEA at Lumen Technologies
Sustainability pays off
That sustainability costs money is a misconception, according to Tom Moran. In practice, more often than not, you’re lowering costs. “Yes indeed, sustainability also requires investment. The only relevant question is: within what time frame do you count on a return? Whether it’s reducing energy costs or structural modifications to the data center: it sometimes involves large investments that pay for themselves only in the medium term. But you can rest assured: pay off they will.” Thom Moran does make one small reservation: “It’s important to make long-term strategic choices, not quick investments aimed at polishing your public relations. Wrong short-term decisions have already put a lot of companies in tight spots. Especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, companies are being held accountable for greenwashing and forced to either change their practice or the way they communicate about it.”
ESG offers opportunities
Lumen has published an annual sustainability report for more than a decade. “We were one of the first companies to commit to science-based targets to reduce our carbon emissions. We have been reporting for many years to the CDP (a global non-for-profit organization with the most comprehensive dataset of sustainable efforts that companies, cities, countries… are taking as a function of the environment) and we do a lot of efforts that we list in our ESG report.”
Recognition for this does not end there: Lumen, by the way, is piling on the awards when it comes to sustainability, diversity in the workplace, flexible working, gender equality… “We really do take our social role – the S of ESG – seriously. And we also score strongly in terms of governance – the G: sustainability is intrinsically part of our strategy and strictly monitored by the Board of Directors. For us, ESG is much more than a list of commitments. We are looking through a broader lens to see how ESG can provide us with opportunities to run our business even better.”
The right to grow
Tom Moran looks at the energy intensity of the digital sector from a very different perspective: “, The ICT sector has the levers to work more sustainably, much more than compared to other parties that companies work with in the logistics chain . After all, sustainability is fundamentally a data problem. To make a business more sustainable you have to start with systems thinking (a scientific method that tries to maintain an overview of the whole rather than focusing on the individual parts), which is the same approach you use to approach an IT infrastructure. That’s why IT players like Lumen are perfectly positioned to guide enterprises. Yes, like data centers, we consume energy, but we can reduce our customers’ carbon footprint to a greater extent than it increases ours. The net result is a positive impact. This is the reason why I feel that if there is one industry that deserves a license to grow it is ours. As long as that growth is responsible, our impact is for the better.”
Lumen shows enterprises the light
Lumen enables large and mid-sized companies worldwide to leverage data to transform their own business. The multinational does so in four areas:
Lumen has one of the largest networks in the world and puts it at the service of customers
- Edge and cloud computing
- Security
- Universal communications (Unified Communications & Collaboration, UC&C)
