Telekom Reveals Corporate Responsibility Report 2022

Green network through renewable energies, sustainably packaged own branded products, and no more combustion engines in the future business vehicle fleet in Germany - Deutsche Telekom presents these measures and many other commitments to greater sustainability in its current Sustainability Report 2022.

"Act responsibly" for Deutsche Telekom also includes the prompt and extensive emergency aid following Russia's attack on Ukraine: from free connections and SIM cards to job offers for refugees and support for aid organizations.

The detailed sustainability report shows the progress made in the past year across the ESG pillars of environment (energy efficiency, climate neutrality, full circular economy), social (diversity and digital participation) and good corporate governance. Beyond the facts, the report offers exciting insights in the special section "Experience Sustainability." In a new interactive special, Telekom takes up the topic of the circular economy and supplements this with a useful special with practical tips for resource-conserving everyday life.

"Deutsche Telekom is the leading European telecommunications company and also wants to be a leader when it comes to sustainability. We act holistically in this regard and set ourselves ambitious goals ranging from climate and environment to social issues and corporate governance. We want to further reduce our CO2 emissions and be completely climate-neutral by 2040 at the latest. In March 2023, we set ourselves a new interim target: By 2030, we already want to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent compared with 2020," says Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.

"Also by 2030, we want to achieve full circularity in Europe around network technology and devices. For a broad digital participation, we continue to build the best networks and are committed to responsible togetherness with initiatives such as "no hate speech”."

Progress in 2022: Green network and circular economy
Deutsche Telekom has already been using electricity from renewable sources for network operation since 2021. Data centers and networks are being further modernized to improve energy efficiency and offset the impact of increasing data traffic. Deutsche Telekom also wants to lead the way in the circular economy:

Telekom's goal is to fully recycle network technology in Europe by 2030, as well as the devices it sells to customers. At workplaces in office buildings, Telekom Shops and data centers, the company also pays attention to recyclability - for example, in office and marketing materials.

Less is more in packaging and switch to electric vehicles.

Since mid-2022, all new Telekom products throughout Europe have been packaged sustainably. By 2025, almost all smartphones from third-party suppliers are also to be sustainably packaged. Telekom is working closely with suppliers to achieve this goal. With regard to the vehicle fleet, the Board of Management announced the "phase-out" of combustion engines in new business vehicles in Germany from 2023. As soon as the charging infrastructure has been expanded nationwide and sufficient suitable electric vehicles are available, the conversion of service vehicles to e-mobility will also be made.

Digital participation: Record pace of network expansion and 5G, “Project 10Million” in the USA.

Everyone should be able to benefit from the opportunities offered by digitization. This requires fast, high-performance internet access. That is why Deutsche Telekom has invested around EUR 21 billion Group-wide in its green network in 2022 and is rolling out fiber and 5G at record speed.

Telekom is already offering the new 5G smartphones T Phone and T Phone Pro in ten European countries. These comparatively affordable smartphones are designed to give more people access to digital offerings. In addition, the T Phone is also packaged resource-efficiently. In the United States, 5.3 million students have already been given affordable internet access by the end of 2022 as part of T-Mobile US's "Project 10Million" initiative. The project will run until 2025.

Exemplary corporate governance: Focus on ESG, responsibility and inclusion

Environment, Social and Governance: Deutsche Telekom has set itself clear targets for all three areas. Since 2022, the compensation system has included a variable component that depends on the achievement of the E-targets for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions - this applies to Telekom's senior executives in Germany and Europe as well as to non-tariff employees in Germany.

Shared responsibility and being louder than hate: In 2022, the "no hate speech" campaign was successfully continued with a new campaign spot. With the messages "Let's be louder than hate!" and "When love is loud, hate doesn't stand a chance," Deutsche Telekom called on people to stand up together for a network in which everyone treats each other with respect. For the third year in a row, Telekom Deutschland and T-Mobile US launched the T-Challenge at the end of 2022 - a competition aimed at start-ups, researchers, creatives and developers, who are rewarded with prize money. The participants have the task of developing innovative ideas in the areas of sustainability, network and infrastructure, among others.

Award in sustainability rating and new format "Heute retten wir die Welt! Ein bisschen."

Deutsche Telekom's CR reporting received another award in 2022: It achieved first place in the independent cross-industry ranking of sustainability reports by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW).

In 2022, the T-Share was again listed in important sustainability indices, including the most renowned sustainability indices "Dow Jones Sustainability Index World" and "Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe" (DJSI). For the first time, Deutsche Telekom ranks first in the European and global indexes. Only the top ten percent of companies in each industry are included in the index based on their very good sustainability performance.

Deutsche Telekom is also breaking new, innovative ground in sustainability communications: with the new infotainment magazine "Heute retten wir die Welt! Ein bisschen." the Group presents current topics from environmental and climate protection as well as social participation as important elements of sustainability. In addition to providing information, the format is intended to inspire and activate, to show how everyone can individually contribute to greater sustainability. The magazine appears monthly on MagentaTV and is also available online on demand or on youtube.