Telecoms companies now have their own supplement to the Global Reporting Initiative’s sustainability reporting guidelines.
The supplement, which companies are expected to use in conjunction with the main GRI guidelines, says telecoms companies should report on how they are:
helping to overcome the digital divide
introducing ‘take-back’ schemes for obsolete hardware
ensuring new products and services do not require customers to change existing equipment
monitoring the health effects of mobile phones and masts.
The firms have been invited to use the supplement, which was developed with European Commission money, and give feedback on its use to the GRI.
A recent analysis of 19 global telecoms firms found that they had improved their overall sustainability performance on issues such as mobile phone health risks and responsible use of the internet, and were reporting in more detail in these areas.
The Bank Sarasin study also found that the sector, which has recently laid off large numbers of workers, was taking a more responsible approach when downsizing. The Swiss bank judged that many companies now offer fair redundancy settlements and support measures such as staff recruitment pools. However, it said measures to preserve jobs, such as internal retraining or lower work hours, are less common.
The study named BT, Swisscom and Deutsche Telekom as leaders in the sector. Four others – NTT and NTT DoCoMo from Japan, Norway’s Telenor and Australia’s Telstra – had above-average performance on a range of sustainability ratings.
Five IT and telecoms companies and a weapons systems manufacturer have joined forces to help combat the digital divide. AOL, BAE Systems, BT, Cable & Wireless, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft will provide more than £560,000 ($930,000) plus software, hardware and staff support to the UK children’s charity NCH to improve access to information technology for young people.