iPrimus plants Australia’s first Green Broadband program

For 95c a month, iPrimus customers can sign up to its Green Broadband program which will plant five trees per year on their behalf.

“We have certain obligations as a corporation to society and the environment and this is just one way that are trying to do our part,” said iPrimus CEO Ravi Bhatia. “It’s a problem we need to address and as a consequence more people are wanting to do something positive for the environment.”

Bhatia said iPrimus and Landcare worked together to develop a conservative mathematical model to determine that five trees per household would neutralise the environmental impact of a typical family’s broadband usage.

The model was based on the assumption that each customer’s household would have one PC and two laptops at its disposal. From there they figured out the amount of electricity these devices and the network itself would consume and then doubled it for good measure.

Ravi said iPrimus has invested several hundred thousand dollars to develop the program and partnership with Landcare.

“We haven’t set a solid target for how many of our customers we want to sign up but we expect it will be a large proportion of them,” he said.

Brian Scarsbrick, a spokesperson for Landcare said: “In addition to reducing the carbon footprint of the customers, trees planted under the iPrimus/Landcare initiative will also help restore natural habitat for endangered species; improve water quality in catchment areas; reduce the effects of salinity and other environmental degradation. Green Broadband is a great opportunity for consumers to help our environment.”

iPrimus estimates the Green Broadband program could result in up to 1,000,000 trees being planted over the next four years.

Green Broadband customers will also receive a personalised e-certificate recognising their contribution to the environment and will have access to a dedicated website providing information and regular updates on the Landcare tree-planting projects.