In a world increasingly embracing AI and the digital transformation, the telecoms industry is at an important crossroads. Globally, players have the chance to seize the technological advances taking place to help improve sustainable economic, green and inclusive development, at the same time as improving their own position in the intelligent future.
It is now incumbent on telecoms vendors and operators around the world to maximise the potential of those technologies for truly positive social impact, integrating the principles into their everyday operations.
This ethos is highlighted by ZTE in its recently released Sustainability Report 2025, which underscores how the company has been seeking to harness AI for the enhancement of its social, environmental and governance goals, while making significant strides in carbon reduction.
Indeed, the report outlines how the company exceeded its carbon emissions targets last year, aided by dynamic and remote-controlled AI-based technologies, as well as other measures for energy saving. ZTE has so far achieved a 46% cut in Scope 1 and 2 emissions compared with 2021, having targeted a 52% reduction by 2030.
Full disclosure
In publishing its latest annual update, the vendor is approaching two decades of releasing sustainability reports, having reached its 18th consecutive year of disclosing its performance to the public in its now four decades of existence. In doing this, it is embracing its modern vision ‘to lead in connectivity and intelligent computing’ and commitment to ‘All in AI, AI for All’.
In the report, Xu Ziyang, CEO of ZTE, highlights how the company has evolved from a philosophy of ‘Internet of Everything’ to one of ‘Intelligent Internet of Tasks’, as it seeks to boost its social impact now and into the future aided by innovative and upcoming technologies such as 5G-Advanced, 6G and 50G PON.
Using advanced technologies, ZTE has already established more than 10 drone routes for low-altitude blood delivery with China Unicom and YunHuan Technology in the Chinese city of Anyang. It has also helped manufacturer Yunnan Sunho Aluminum increase production efficiency by over 10% and reduce on-site safety incident rates by more than 15%.
Other examples of its work include support for remote diagnosis and personalised learning. “These practices fully embody the company’s commitment to ‘All in AI’,” said Xu. “More importantly, they demonstrate how technology can be utilised to tackle sustainability challenges – uneven resource allocation, bottlenecks in production efficiency, and unbalanced development – and truly drive social progress.”
The extent to which ZTE is seeking to drive R&D is reflected in the company having filed around 95,000 patents by the end of last year and seen 50,000 granted, while securing more than 100 technology projects in the course of 2025. The amount it spent on R&D last year also equated to a significant 17% of its total revenue.
Green path
In pursuing its ‘digital green path’, meanwhile, ZTE is focusing on four main areas in line with its pursuit of science-based targets – green operations, green supply chain, green digital infrastructure and green industry empowerment.
As part of its green operations, the company completed photovoltaic (PV) projects in Xi’an and Changsha in 2025, increasing the company’s PV power generation – which currently measures 39.22 million kWh annually. It is also saving tens of billions of kilowatt-hours of energy use yearly in its global operations through green ICT solutions, while collaborating with partners to build an eco-friendly, lower-carbon supply chain.
In terms of green digital infrastructure, ZTE is making strides in one of the key current areas of concern, the rapid rise of AI data centres, by focusing on carbon reduction through intelligent computing products and green manufacturing, as well as developing immersion liquid-cooling technology. In a project with China Telecom, the power-usage effectiveness of one data centre is expected to drop below 1.15, significantly outperforming air-cooled facilities.
For green industry empowerment, ZTE is leveraging the latest technologies, such as AI, 5G and its cloud-based Digital Nebula platform that provides tools to aid the digital transformation of enterprises, to help partners achieve energy savings, carbon reductions, and quality and efficiency enhancements.
Human-centric
At the same time, the company is pursuing a people-centric philosophy to ensure inclusivity and equal access. Examples include building a fibre-to-the-room-for-business network to bridge the telemedicine divide in Baqen County and the rolling out of more than 150 rural network sites in Ethiopia to bring reliable connectivity to over 1 million people.
In doing all this, ZTE emphasises the importance of working with partners to build a more efficient, green and inclusive future across the whole telecoms ecosystem. That is coupled with continuing to foster an employee empowerment ecosystem and training within its own organisation, in a bid to keep sustainability at its heart.
“Sustainable development is a long-term goal that the company has always stuck to,” says the report. “It is also an important cornerstone driving our continuous innovation and creation of exceptional value.”
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