Our 2018 sustainability performance

At the heart of Virgin Media are our customers and our people. We want our customers to love what we do and our people to be proud of how we do it.

Technology has a big impact on the way we all live and at Virgin Media we want to help make sure this is a force for good for our customers, our people and the communities we serve. Our approach goes beyond compliance and meeting the basic expectations of our customers. Our purpose – building connections that really matter – demands we actively use our business, brand and people to create a positive impact.

That’s why, in 2015, we set five big sustainability goals and gave ourselves five years to achieve them, our ‘5 in 5’ plan. We focussed on where we can and should have the most impact. Our goals were ambitious, but here at Virgin Media we love a challenge.

With just one year left to reach our ‘5 in 5’ goals, our 2018 Sustainability Report takes a look at our progress so far. In short, the good news is that we’ve achieved a lot, but we also know there’s still a lot more to do and we’re already looking forward to setting our new strategy and ambitions.


A few highlights from 2018 include:

• Launching an innovative digital employment service for disabled people – Support to Work – as part of our commitment to support one million disabled people with the skills and confidence to get into and stay in work by the end of 2020
• Launching the #WorkWithMe pledge, outlining five practical steps businesses can take to become a more inclusive employer for disabled people
• Creating opportunities for 112,947 small businesses to grow through digital since 2015
• Releasing the product scorecard results for the Virgin TV V6 box – now used by 60% of TV subscribers - which reveals it uses less than half the power of the previous TiVo box and uses 21% fewer materials by weight, like plastics, metals and electronics
• Training more than 8,000 employees in disability and vulnerability awareness
• Achieving a 22% reduction in our carbon footprint since 2014
• Purchasing 100% renewables for our contracted electricity across our entire estate
• Reducing paper from direct marketing by 70% since 2014
• Saving over 60 tonnes of single-use plastic through removing plastic packaging from our uniform supply chain, Quick-start boxes and logistics operation at our Big Red Shed

Please do have a read of our 2018 Sustainability Report to find out more. We’d love to hear what you think – tips, feedback, honest critiques – we’re all ears at sustainability@virginmedia.co.uk