50% off!

It sounds great when you’re standing online waiting to pay. It sounded good to us, too.

Earlier this week we announced our goal to cut in half our carbon intensity – the amount of energy needed to move data across Verizon’s networks -- by 2020. We’re using our 2009 carbon intensity level as the benchmark and the starting point for our goal.

This is important for our shareholders and the communities we serve but it has broader implications as well. According to a recent report by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, carbon emissions fell along with the recession and industrial output but that changed in 2010 carbon intensity across the globe climbed. (Get the full report online.)

Hybrids are hardly new, but plug-in electric vehicles, well… That’s a different story!

In this blog, we announce a new partnership to develop plug-in work vans and pickup trucks. This could be disruptive, definitely innovative, and potentially beneficial not just to Verizon but to hundreds of companies with large fleets.  The long-range, plug-in work van and pickup could be an incredibly valuable option.

If you’re still wondering what the big deal is?

• ·         The vehicle is charged overnight from an ordinary household 110V or 220V outlet or can be charged at any charging station when available for as little as $1 a day in some states. And...

Let’s take it a step further. You’ll be able to use a media server in one room to watch live, recorded or on-demand content in other rooms as long as you have an IP connected device like a game console or a blu ray player.

In our labs in Waltham, Mass., we’re busy working with partners to develop the future of TV.

They relied on a commitment to nature and Verizon Wireless devices and service, making history at the National Geographic BioBlitz 2011 held in Saguaro National Park, a 94,000-acre tract of wilderness flanking Tucson, Arizona last month.

It was massive effort. Some 150 scientists, 600 volunteers, and 2,000 students volunteered to identify and count all the organisms they could find in the Sonoran Desert preserve. It’s expected that the species tally will number many hundreds. From the tiniest bugs in the soil to the towers of cactus that give Saguaro National Park its name, the park is full of life.

We're partnering with American Forests to plant 5,000 trees.

Why are we doing this? 

As our chief sustainability officer reported in a recent blog, the Verizon green team -- a group of employees spread across 48 states in the U.S. and 20 countries -- hit a milestone of 5,000 members. We decided to celebrate by planting a tree in honor of every member.

So where are we planting all these trees?