MTN has been rated among the top 500 global companies on corporate sustainability and environmental impact in the 2014 Newsweek Green Rankings. The rankings are one of the world’s most recognised assessments of corporate environmental performance.

The 2014 Newsweek Green rankings measured the environmental performance of large public companies using eight performance indicators, including combined energy and waste productivity, according to said Paul Norman, the MTN Group chief human resources and corporate affairs officer.

He said MTN was ranked in position 276, with a Green Score of 35.4 per cent.

Newsweek partnered with Corporate Knights Capital and leading sustainability minds from non-governmental organisations and the academic and accounting communities to complete the rankings, he added.

"The ranking is particularly significant for MTN because we are in ‘a small select group of global companies’ whose revenue is generated off a relatively low environmental impact basis,” said Norman.

He said the firm operates in some of the most environmentally-vulnerable parts of the world, where their customers often have the fewest economic resources to cope with the effects of climate change. "As a result, we are conscious of the positive role they can play.”

In a similar development, MTN South Africa has partnered with the National Business Institute’s Private Sector Energy Efficiency in an initiative that complements MTN’s UN Carbon Emission Reduction tri-generation programme and other energy conservation activities. These initiatives will help MTN to further improve on efforts to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Norman said the telecom’s efforts to reduce energy use and switch to alternative energy in Africa and the Middle East has seen customers in Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria embrace affordable solar-powered charging solutions, while climate-friendly technologies have been implemented in Cyprus and Swaziland.

"MTN also offers cloud-computing and machine-to-machine products to address water leakage, air quality requirements, grid power and much more,” he added.