Our brands:
Our brands:
DELTA Fiber has published its 2023 ESG report: Fiber First. Here we show how the three spearheads of our ESG strategy contribute to a more sustainable world: enabling a better digital life, being connected to society and doing business with respect for our planet. We show what steps we have taken in 2023 and the progress we have made in achieving our objectives and ambitions.
Based on our ambition to digitally connect the Netherlands in the most sustainable way possible, we are installing our fiber optic network throughout the Netherlands. Our network is built with the latest sustainable fiber optic technology, XGS-PON, and now reaches 1.6 million homes and businesses. Fiber optic is the most sustainable option of all network technologies. It is fast, reliable and uses many times less power than other networks. It also delivers the most stable data transfer and enables increasingly higher speeds with relatively low power consumption. In 2023, we introduced 8Gbps fiber optic internet.
We have now provided about 70% of rural areas in our country with a sustainable fiber optic connection. This not only makes us a frontrunner in these rural areas, but we also make a substantial contribution to digital inclusion in the Netherlands. We want everyone to be able to participate in digital developments. And thus can use all the new digital possibilities to do business, learn, work, study and socialize.
The well-being of our customers, employees and shareholders comes first. Thanks to a targeted quality improvement plan for network improvement, product innovation and customer experience, our NPS (Net Promoter Score) increased to +5. Our employee engagement increased to +32 and we ended up in the top 10 of 'Healthiest Professional Companies of 2023'.
Since January 2023, almost all our new lease contracts have been concluded for electric cars. This is an important step towards the complete electrification of our lease fleet by 2028. We have our Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) such as modems, set-top boxes and Wi-Fi extenders refurbished, which significantly extends the useful life of the products. Our percentage of refurbished CPEs increased from 68% in 2022 to 88% in 2023. In December 2023, the Science Based Trade initiative (SBTi) validated our emissions reduction targets for the near future. We aim to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2040.
Finally, we are and will remain advocates of a hybrid market model: a market in which parties open their networks to each other so that providers can provide their services via multiple networks, similarly to the energy market. Double fiber optic installation is therefore unnecessary and leads to unnecessary burden on the environment. In addition, if you only have one fiber optic network, the occupancy rate will be higher, resulting in lower costs per active connection.
At DELTA Fiber we want to provide the best and fastest internet services in a socially responsible manner: 'Fiber first'.