Energy and environmental performance metrics, and the communication of efforts in these areas, will help major telecoms win contracts in the Europe in future, according to a report by independent analyst firm Verdantix.

It warned that those telecommunications providers that did not put an emphasis on green measures could find themselves at a disadvantage when delivering telepresence, cloud computing, smart metering and web hosting services.

Verdantix interviewed 15 telecom buyers in the Europe, representing multinational firms with average revenues of about £12bn for the study which compared 18 telecom operators on 50 criteria related to green and sustainable telecoms, including energy efficiency and carbon reduction strategies and sustainability reporting.

Verdantix director David Metcalfe the study shows that especially when dealing with the public sector, telecoms will meet an increasing need to be 'green', especially in the data center.

"Our study found that telecoms operators who can't communicate their own energy, environment and sustainability performance are now at a competitive disadvantage," Metcalfe said.

"Bid teams now need training on how to respond to customers' sustainability questions. An ability to communicate the PUE (Power Usage Effectivieness) of data centers or the potential for air travel cost savings from the deployment of telepresence suites differentiates core telecoms services."

The study found that of the telcoms it investigated, AT&T, Orange, Swisscom and Telefonica all had an advantage when it came to green reporting.

"Orange has invested ahead of the curve to create sustainability differentiators for its customers across a broad portfolio," Metcalfe said.

"BT stands out for its corporate sustainability performance."