Climate Strategy and Transition Plan for Climate Change Mitigation

A Group-wide climate strategy and a climate transition plan are currently being prepared; the goal is to develop them in fiscal year   2025 and further expand them in the coming years. A sound data pool had to be created in preparation for implementing these strategic steps. To do this, United Internet has identified the CCFs for all segments and at a consolidated level for the Group as a whole.

To date, United   Internet has only had climate targets in some of its segments, and these are not aligned with the Paris Agreement. In fiscal year 2025, a Group-wide climate transition plan will be developed including climate targets that are oriented on the global 1.5°C goal and the recommendations for science-based targets. The CCF serves as the basis for the Group-wide climate transition plan, which will incorporate the segment-specific climate change mitigation actions. The goal is for the Group to provide a structured, coordinated framework for the climate change mitigation actions at segment level.

The most senior level in the organization that is accountable for all climate change mitigation strategies and actions is United   Internet’s CFO. The latter is informed by Corporate Sustainability of current developments in monthly meetings.

Decarbonization Levers

United   Internet is already working at segment level to reduce emissions as far as possible. Even though comprehensive, overarching decarbonization targets had not yet been defined in fiscal year 2024, work on individual measures was and is being continued successfully.

The CCFs for the segments and their consolidation in the Group carbon footprint clearly show where the greatest levers for reducing emissions in United   Internet’s own operations are to be found. With regard to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, they mainly relate to energy efficiency increases (especially in the Group’s own data centers and in the fiber-optic network). The segments are accelerating the use of electricity generated from renewable energy sources (“green electricity”) on the basis of Group-wide requirements and recommendations.

A Group-wide Company Cars Policy, which prescribes actions to reduce carbon emissions in the vehicle fleet, was developed in fiscal year 2024 and introduced throughout the Group on January   1, 2025. ¹

Climate Strategies and Climate Change Mitigation Actions in the Segments

The Business Applications Segment is pursuing its own climate strategy 2030. This focuses on steadily reducing carbon emissions by using 100   % renewable energy at all its own data centers and successively cutting the amount of electricity sourced from the national grid by installing additional photovoltaic systems. At present, photovoltaic systems have been installed on three data centers. In addition, the goal is to use 100   % renewable electricity in co-location data centers by 2030; the share already reached in fiscal year 2024 was 85.93%. In addition, the process of reducing carbon emissions will be driven forward wherever possible, e.g., by also using biofuels to run the emergency generator sets. One data center in the segment already only uses biofuels. The segment’s commitment to sustainability continues to focus on steadily increasing energy efficiency in its data center operations as part of its ISO 50001-certified energy management system and ISO 14001-certified environmental management system.

The Business Access Segment is cutting emissions in a number of ways: decisive decarbonization levers are efficiency increases, especially in the fiber-optic network, and reducing and ideally completely avoiding carbon emissions through the use of renewable energy. The Business Access Segment is currently introducing an ISO 50001-compliant energy management system and an ISO 14001-compliant environmental management system so as to continue minimizing its energy requirements and emissions from own operations, and to increase energy efficiency.

Since fiscal year 2022, the Consumer Applications Segment has performed a comprehensive annual CCF exercise (including capturing all scopes) so as to identify sources of emissions and potential for reductions. This analysis was used to define climate goals and reduction measures for fiscal year   2024. At present, a segment-specific climate strategy is under development and an ISO 50001-compliant energy management system is being established.

The Consumer Access Segment has set itself the goal of achieving climate neutrality in its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030. This is to be achieved by avoiding emissions and offsetting unavoidable emissions. In line with the Group-wide Company Cars Policy, the segment has set itself the goal of electrifying its vehicle fleet by 2030 so as to reduce emissions from the fuel consumed by company cars. Another goal that the segment has set itself is to implement a comprehensive climate strategy for Scope   3 emissions (including reduction targets); this is to be developed in fiscal year   2025 in line with the Group strategy.

Measures that have already been taken in the Consumer Access Segment relate to both mobile communications and shipping: 

• As regards mobile communications, the segment uses green electricity for 1&1 Open-RAN and 100% electricity from renewable energy at its own locations. In the case of locations for which Consumer Access cannot influence the electricity purchased, offsetting is performed using validated credits. In addition, there are plans to integrate energy-saving features for antenna location (RAN) and data center (core network) operations. The use of Open-RAN technology and a proprietary private cloud with COTS servers allows individual components to be swapped out, ensuring that the newest and most efficient generation of servers offering an optimum performance/energy consumption ratio can always be deployed.


• Since fiscal year 2023, the Consumer Access Segment’s products have been delivered in a carbon-neutral manner. The segment achieves this by working together with leading shipping companies in Germany, ensuring carbon-neutral delivery by avoiding and offsetting emissions via the shipping service providers. The company absorbs the extra costs to customers from this in full . In addition, packaging and printed materials are sourced from local suppliers, avoiding transporting them for long distances and cutting carbon emissions.

United   Internet has not been excluded from the Paris-aligned Benchmarks (PABs), since the Company does not generate significant income from fossil fuels and meets strict sustainability criteria. The PABs require strict alignment with the 1.5°C goal set out in the Paris Agreement and an annual reduction in carbon intensity of at least 7   %.

Outlook

United   Internet’s climate transition plan, which will be developed in fiscal year 2025, aims to bring together existing activities, define targets, and set the framework for future actions. It will also provide information on planned capital expenditures (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx) for climate change mitigation actions. In addition, the climate transition plan will contain actions that are based on the EU Taxonomy activities and criteria. For fiscal year   2024, United   Internet reported on the EU Taxonomy KPIs without placing these in a larger context. This will become possible once the climate transition plan has been developed, as will harmonization with the overarching Group strategy and financial planning.