Through its world-first circular approach to device ownership, Kingfisher brings unparalleled freedom and flexibility to the way people buy, own, and trade-in mobile devices. With the support of its strategic partner Intwo, Kingfisher became an early adopter of Microsoft Sustainability Manager, gaining better visibility over its internal systems. The partnership facilitated the measurement, optimization, and reallocation of resources to streamline operations and further reduce Kingfisher’s digital carbon footprint.
In 2023, over five billion mobile devices are likely to end up in drawers and landfills. That’s according to the GSMA, the leading industry body dedicated to unifying the global mobile ecosystem. About 83 percent of a mobile device’s carbon impact comes from its manufacture and first year of use. The quickest way to minimize this impact is to get the full life of each device by giving phones a second, third, or even fourth life. For the past seven years, Kingfisher has been developing end-to-end solutions that prolong the life of mobile devices. Kingfisher believes that people deserve a better mobile experience, based on freedom and flexibility rather than limitations and restrictions.
Alongside embedding sustainable device ownership solutions within the telco industry, Kingfisher has also been working to minimize its own digital carbon footprint. It’s collaborating with partners who share a commitment to prioritizing environmental and social impact within their operations.
The first step was to simplify Kingfisher’s operational footprint. In 2018, the company migrated to Microsoft’s Azure cloud across multiple locations with the help of strategic partner Intwo. Today, most Kingfisher’s data and services are consolidated into Azure facilities and an Azure Data Warehouse. In 2019, the partnership expanded with Intwo providing Kingfisher end-to-end IT services ranging from infrastructure to cloud services to business application support and security. This included integrating with partner solutions, customizations, and developments into Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Intwo also worked with Kingfisher in hosting and managing a range of internally developed platforms and services. This approach allows Kingfisher to maintain its constantly evolving industry and business solutions. “We worked with Kingfisher to consolidate vendors and create a single point of contact for all things IT. The result is less IT overhead and an IT strategy that’s easy to scale up or down depending on what the company needs,” says Lionel Oh, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Cloud Services at Intwo.
We worked with Kingfisher to consolidate vendors and create a single point of contact for all things IT. The result is less IT overhead and an IT strategy that’s easy to scale up or down depending on what the company needs.
With Intwo handling most of its IT infrastructure and set-up, the team at Kingfisher can focus on doing what they do best—optimizing the lifecycle of connected devices and developing end-to-end experience solutions designed to transform the mobile experience economy.
In 2022, Intwo joined the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) journey. “We’ve had a firm partnership with Intwo for the last five years. That relationship has evolved from a service provider to a technology partner for operations, solutions, and services, and most recently a strategic partner,” says Bryan Evans, Chief Information Officer at Kingfisher.
Kingfisher worked to get a better view of its digital environmental impact. This required a tool that would help Kingfisher understand its technology stack, effectively monitor its environmental footprint, and find ways to reduce it. “We wanted a trusted solution that would offer us a single, comprehensive view where we wouldn’t have to pull data from five different places to come up with a single number. It was clear there weren’t many options like this at an enterprise level,” explains Evans.
In early 2023, the company deployed Microsoft Sustainability Manager (MSM)—paving the way as one of the first in the region to road test and develop the solution. MSM collects, records, and calculates data from multiple sources to create a comprehensive overview of Kingfisher’s environmental impact. With the help of Intwo, Evans and his team tweaked the dashboard so they could easily analyze and understand the company’s data. Monthly emissions, emission per unit of revenue, usage of renewable energy sources, and information on indirect emissions such as those from the supply chain are all visible through the dashboard. Users can easily compare the data by category, by month, or by region. This gives Kingfisher accurate visibility and granular-level reporting around its digital carbon footprint.
Since implementation, the company has been making steady progress in reducing its digital carbon footprint. The initial step was ensuring its global IT resources were used most effectively with the least impact. “With MSM, we monitor resource allocations to ensure our digital carbon footprint is as small as possible and our resources are being used efficiently and effectively—not simply sitting there consuming unnecessary power and cooling,” explains Evans.
With MSM, we monitor resource allocations to ensure our digital carbon footprint is as small as possible and our resources are being used efficiently and effectively—not simply sitting there consuming unnecessary power and cooling.
Putting these actionable insights into practice helps Kingfisher further demonstrate its commitment to sustainability. It also enables the company to further its ESG journey. “It is important for us to demonstrate that our commitment to building a more sustainable mobile industry extends beyond the services we provide, to the services we consume internally,” says Leanne Henderson, Brand Director at Kingfisher.
Kingfisher is committed to proactively advancing its ESG journey by working with Intwo and Microsoft to set new sustainability standards. Evans and his team are working with Intwo to further fine-tune and customize the dashboards. This ensures that the platform records the right details and collates more targeted information. The goal is to understand operational and employee footprint at a more granular level. By doing so, Kingfisher hopes to turn data into tangible outcomes that can further inspire employees on an individual level.
“Showing how the data is connected to individuals is what we’re interested in. We want to be able to tell someone ‘Here is your impact, and here are some ways in which you can reduce that.’ That’s ultimately where we want to get to,” explains Evans. “Imagine the collective impact if everyone introduced small changes to reduce their personal footprint.”
It is important for us to demonstrate that our commitment to building a more sustainable mobile industry extends beyond the services we provide, to the services we consume internally.
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