You might say T-Mobile‘s head-to-toe magenta brand is going green.
On Monday, the Bellevue, Wash., mobile network announced a pledge to use 100 percent renewable energy in just three years, by 2021. T-Mobile contracted a new wind farm in Kansas and the carrier is joining RE100, a group of more than 100 global companies committed to increasing renewable energy use as part of the pledge.
“It’s the Un-carrier way to do the right thing by our customers, and moving to renewable energy is just a natural part of that,” CEO John Legere said in a press release. Legere also emphasized the business advantage that renewable energy offers.
“We expect to cut T-Mobile’s energy costs by around $100 million in the next 15 years thanks to this move.”
The company’s path to 100 percent renewable energy relies heavily on two contracts with new U.S. wind farms. The first went online in December — the second, announced Monday, is a 160-megawatt contract with Infinity Renewables’ Solomon Forks Wind Project, which is slated to get up and running in 2019.
Those two contracts will account for 60 percent of T-Mobile’s national electricity needs, about 320 megawatts. The company said it plans to buy the rest of its power from early-stage wind projects, helping support them as they get off the ground.
T-Mobile has also taken the formal step of joining RE100, a group that helps businesses transfer to renewable energy sources. Tech companies including Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google are already part of the group.
