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JT cans collection supports Durrell rainforest scheme

Despite fewer team members being in the office brought about by COVID-19 restrictions and JT’s flexible working policy, JT people have continued to support Durrell’s Cans for Corridors project that ensures pockets of Brazilian rainforest are linked to help black lion tamarins.

Durrell uses money raised from recycling cans to create tree corridors, and for every fifty drinks cans collected and recycled, Durrell plants a tree. The Cans for Corridors project supports a nursery where local people, who lost their livelihoods when the rainforest they depended on was cleared, grow the saplings which are then planted. In the last decade, more than 80,000 trees have been planted and JT has been playing its part.

Martin de la Haye, Procurement Officer, leads the can collection at JT: “I’ve been working and volunteering at Durrell for many years and it was through another volunteer who works directly with the tamarins at Jersey Zoo that I found out about the Cans for Corridors recycling project. I thought that with such a large number of people working for JT, this was something that we could very easily get involved in, recycling every can, from every JT building and  delivering them to Durrell every month.

In 2019 we collected 131 bags which was the equivalent of 85 trees, but as you can imagine, the number fell quite significantly last year. I’m pleased to say that it’s increasing again and so far this year we’ve collected enough cans to plant a further 20 trees.’’

This project is  part of Durrell’s reforestation efforts which are all about restoring, expanding, and linking previously destroyed habitats as well empowering locals with the tools and knowledge to build better and brighter futures for themselves and their envronment. Last month, JT became one of the first large sized companies in Jersey to support Durrell’s Rewild Carbon project which aims to create tree corridors in the Atlantic

Forest linking isolated forest fragments, and thereby creating lifelines for the wildlife including highly threatened populations of black lion tamarins, jaguars, tapirs and giant anteaters.

Tom Noel, Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, said: “At JT we encourage our people to suggest ideas where we can make a difference and we are 100% behind Martin’s efforts to support Durrell by recycling what we used to throw away. Planet and People make up two of the pillars supporting our company-wide Sustainability Strategy, and this project squarely fits into our ambitions to have a circular business model where we encourage our teams and our customers to recycle and reuse as much as possible. I hope that more people will consider taking their cans to Durrell to support this project which is providing a vital lifeline to many species in the Brazilian rainforest.”



Connected Britain shortlists JT for two major awards

JT has joined the likes of Vodafone,  BT and O2 on the shortlist of the Connected Britain Awards, in recognition of the work it has done on sustainability, and supporting the community.

The 2021 Awards shortlist includes JT in both the Sustainibility Award, and the Community Improvement Award.

The final winners will be announced at Connected Britain’s ‘The Future of UK Connectivity” conference on 21st September in London, at which the Managing Director of JT, Daragh McDermott will also be giving a presentation on “The role of digital infrastructure in the delivery of critical public services.”

You can watch more about this major telecoms sector conference here.

#ConnectedBritain is one of the top UK events covering the technology, regulation and investment environment for the rollout of next generation broadband. It says that 2021 will explore in more depth how next generation broadband technologies, especially fibre and 5G, are enabling an economic revolution in the UK.

JT’s MD, Daragh McDermott added: “I’ll be speaking at the conference about how companies like JT can use their digital infrastructure – such as a full-fibre broadband network – to support their communities, particularly in challenging times such as the recent pandemic. I’m really proud of the way the team at JT has pulled together to keep islanders connected throughout everything we have all had to cope with.”

JT’s Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Tom Noel commented: “JT intends to do all it can to help the island meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, and we have recently published our sustainability strategy to do just that. To see our efforts marked with this shortlisting suggests we have started in the right way, and can now really ‘kick on’ to support this exceptionally important goal in the years to come.”



JT Engineers take home Gold at International awards

JT has won Gold and Silver awards at the International Digital Experience Awards, facing tough competition from global business giants.

The telecoms company was shortlisted for three customer experience (CX) initiatives and won Gold in the Best Use of a Digital Platform for JT’s Field Engineering Worx App which was developed in-house during the COVID-19 pandemic.   Linking the Operations Team at base to JT Engineers out working with customers, the App allowed the teams to work more efficiently and resolve issues quickly when JT’s services were in high demand.  Competition in this category came from global businesses including the Indian telecoms company Tata Communications.

JT also had two CX entries shortlisted in the Best Use of Customer Feedback category, winning Silver after coming second to international energy giants, Shell.

Sara McCarthy, Head of Channel Islands Customer Operations, presented the Worx App to the panel of judges: “I am really thrilled that the many talented people who make up our Operations Team have been recognised with a gold award for all their hard work. We started developing the App before the COVID-19 pandemic because we needed to improve the way we managed the engineering services we provide our customers. JT played a critical role in supporting the community during the pandemic and based on the real experiences of the Ops Team and our Engineers, the team were quick to adapt the App and turn it into a reliable tool so that those out in the field could concentrate on providing a great service to customers. It also reduced the amount of face-to-face contact, helping to keep JT’s people and customers safe.”

Winning silver for the ‘JT Voice’ insight panel in the Best Use of Customer Feedback category, the judges recognised the extensive work done by JT to give people the opportunity to digitally share their views and experiences, and how JT then used those learnings to improve their offerings.

Tamara O Brien, Group Head of Corporate Communications, Brand & CX, added: “Everyone has had to work together in trying circumstances over the last year and that spirit of togetherness is what shines through in the way JT’s people approach their jobs. Our people worked extremely hard to improve the technology that helps us to deliver a better customer experience. We are always learning as a business, and we really appreciate customers who take the time to give us feedback via our JT Voice customer panel, giving us vital and welcome insight into how they feel about our products and services which then helps us to continuously improve.  We now have thousands of customers on our panel and their invaluable feedback helps drive us forward.”