Sustainable Fibre

Accelerating the shift towards a more circular economy 5 KPN, Sustainability R&D paper, 2020 The role of fibre in improving circularity The fibre optic production industry is seeking to reduce environmental and ecological impact. One common solution being employed is the Plan-Do-Check-Act model. The PDCA model is an iterative process used by organisations to ensure continuous improvement. Fibre optic companies are applying this as an environmental management system in a step-by-step process: • Plan: establish the environmental objectives and the processes necessary to obtain results in accordance with the environmental policy of the organisation. • Carry out: implement the planned processes. • Check: monitor and measure processes against environmental policy, including commitments, environmental objectives and operational criteria, and report results. • Act: carry out actions for continuous improvement. Outcomes from the endeavours to make fibre production processes more sustainable include a number of design trends. One of these is the increased weight of the fibre preforms. This allows for a reduction in both the percentage of unusable glass and the percentage of set-up time in the process. The melting of glass at the beginning of the process (which consumes energy) is done less frequently with larger preforms, meaning an overall reduction in energy consumption. Another general trend is the use of recycledmaterials. Prysmian exemplifies these endeavours through its development of the first fibre-optic network using over 90% recycled polyethylene. This reduces the impact of rawmaterial production, which translates into a reduction of the CO 2 emissions during Phase 1 (production of rawmaterials). Prysmian re-used 54%of our drums in 2020 in order to lower our impact on product packaging. Besides using recycledmaterials, wemonitor the percentage of waste we recycle: the baseline in 2019 was 63%, and we set the goal of reaching 64-66%by 2022 – however in 2020 we already exceeded this target. We further support our circularity activities through an overarchingmonitoring systemwhich analyses the carbon footprint of our products. Until 2019, 70% of Prysmian product families were covered by carbon footprint measurement, with a target of reaching 85% in 2022. Furthermore, as well as being recycled, cables are becoming smaller. For example, Sirocco HD cables have been roughly halved in diameter, meaning there is a 50% reduction in the volume of plastic used. They also use smaller ducts (for example a 96 fibre Sirocco HD uses a 10mm duct instead of a 14mm duct). This leads to a direct reduction in CO 2 footprint in the design process. This also has a knock-on effect on the rest of the supply chain: it is possible to fit more cables per drum and fewer drums per shipment, significantly reducing carbon emissions in transport. In addition, more cable and tubes fit on a reel, which reduces the cutting losses and the number of wooden reels used by up to 70%. 5 In summary, these design features mean a reduced environmental footprint, as well as reduced costs for customers. Scaling solutions Prysmian is scaling solutions to increase reach and environmental impact by partnering with KPN to install connections using the new Prysmian cable for its customers across the EU. This enhances the uptake of circular and sustainable products and means our innovative use of materials contributes as much as possible to EU green targets. We hope to enhance this impact even further through working with other telecoms firms. 6