Press Releases

Budapest, July 30, 2010 10:00

It is for the third time this year that Magyar Telekom's sustainability report has been awarded the highest (A+) rating according to HRI, which means full compliance with the third generation guidelines of Global Reporting Initiatives. Compliance with the guidelines ensures the transparency and comparability of company activities.

The report rated A+, in addition to introducing the company's profile, shows 49 obligatory, 23 telecommunications specific and 15 supplementary indicators looking back on historic data of 4 years. The GRI G3 compliance the company has been following since 2003 ensures the company's comparability not only along the classical financial indicators, but also along environmental and societal ones.

Magyar Telekom's sustainability report also mentions the major achievements of last year: namely, the majority of the company's employees are familiar with the concept of sustainable development, a ratio, which had improved to 90% compared to 2008. Moreover, paper consumption by the company's employees dropped to its half, which is an indication of the fact that employees are not only familiar with sustainable development, but they also try to take practical steps in this regard. They also prove it through plenty of volunteer work.

Besides, Magyar Telekom's aim is to draw the attention of not only the company's employees to the significance of sustainability. A highly successful initiative of the company, the Digital Bridge at Small Settlements has been expanded with a new element called Digital Bridge Fest, in the framework of which the company's volunteers visit small settlements at a disadvantage to introduce to their population the possibilities inherent in the internet. The company has been organising in search of talent programs, the host of which is the actor and performing artist Novák Péter.

Since as early as the 1990s Magyar Telekom Group has been paying key attention to the management of sustainability issues. Magyar Telekom has been coordinating its environmental protection activities since 2002 and it has had its sustainability strategy since 2005, the aim of which is to demonstrate its performance to its employees and customers while maintaining the company's leading role. A proof of this effort is that the company was the first ever to publish a sustainability report in Hungary and, since then, the company has tried to integrate the approach related to sustainability in its governance processes at all levels of the company's governance.

In addition to the above Magyar Telekom has entered into a long term contract of cooperation of three years with three NGOs, the Szívlapát, the Kékpont and the Kórházpedagógus Foundations. The company is engaged in an active cooperation with and supports the activities of these foundations in the framework of the contract.
Moreover, last year the number of young participants doubled in the so called Sustainability Day, which features innovative solutions and interactive lectures. Hopefully this year's event to be held on September 25 will attract even more of them to become familiar with the concept of sustainability.

In 2009 the company was awarded several recognitions for its sustainability efforts. Among others, the company came out first in the "CSR 24/7" survey organised by Braun & Partners, and also won the Family Friendly Workplace Award granted by the Ministry of Welfare and Labour. In the "Best Place of Work" survey of Hewitt-Világgazdaság the company came out third and it was also selected into the Central and East European Sustainability Index (CEERIUS) of the Vienna Stock Exchange.

The whole report is available at Magyar Telekom's web site under the heading Society and the Environment, at: https://www.telekom.hu/society_and_environment/sustainability_reports

The company's stakeholders (customers, employees, stockholders, suppliers, civil organisations, the government, universities, etc.) demonstrate an ever increasing demand for the transparency of sustainability achievements, as they are curious to find out how the company's operation will affect them and how the company contributes to sustainable development. Magyar Telekom looks forward to receiving the opinion and expectations of all its stakeholders at the email address: fenntarthatosag@telekom.hu email.