- Customers in Oman will be able to offset their carbon footprint with any purchases made through the FRiENDi mobile app.
- The MVNO will launch planet-friendly SIM cards in Virgin Mobile KSA and Kuwait, as part of the imminent launch in the market.
Dubai, UAE: Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA), the region’s leading mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), has made further strides towards building a carbon negative business (one that removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits each year) this Earth Day. In collaboration with the Environment Authority in Oman for the ‘10 million trees’ project, its FRiENDi Mobile customers in Oman will be able to offset their remaining mobile usage carbon footprint in the customer mobile app from Earth Day 2022. This initiative is a first for any telecom operator in the country.
VMMEA has also announced it is now taking its biodegradable SIMs into both its existing KSA operations and its new operations in Kuwait, due to launch imminently. Virgin Mobile UAE was the first to introduce these planet-friendly SIM cards to customers in February as one of a growing number of strides in sustainability.
“Sustainability is in our DNA, and we know that to become carbon negative, collective, impact-oriented action is the only way forward. From the roll out of biodegradeable SIM cards, through to our in-app offsetting feature in Oman, we aim not only to become carbon negative within the next five years, but to enable our growing customer base of 3.3 million across the region to make greener choices, everyday,” commented Erik Dudman Nielsen, Founder & Group Chief Executive Officer at Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa.
“We have always maintained that profitability should not come at the cost to the planet, and this is why we are continuously evaluating the actions that we take as a company. It is imperative that we invest in the planet that we can call home by creating sustainable business practices and preserving our natural resources. We hope to take our users along with us on our journey to doing better by the environment and achieving our goal of carbon negativity,” concluded Nielsen.
These initiatives come less than a year after VMMEA’s announcement that it had achieved net-zero carbon emissions in its operations in September 2021.
