Press Releases

Budapest, August 21, 2014 16:30

Magyar Telekom published the eleventh time this year its report introducing its sustainability performance, which this year again has been prepared at the highest compliance level, fully conforming to the criteria of transparency and comparability.

One of the outstanding results of the sustainability activity is that the company had reached by the end of last year already the 20% CO ₂ emission reduction having been set for five years in 2010, therefore the original target has been modified to 25%. In the same way R&D investment related targets had been successfully outperformed: the ratio determined in the third sustainability strategy, according to which the corporation would use 10% of the R&D costs for environmentally or socially focused innovation, had trebled by the end of 2013.

An important element of the sustainability strategy is the enhancement of the sustainability-related awareness of the company’s employees and customers. Employees are familiar with the topic of sustainability well beyond the Hungarian average: whereas 18.6% of the persons interviewed in the framework of a residential survey in 2013 were able to define the essence of sustainable development, 74.3% of Magyar Telekom employees knew the precise definition.

The two flagships of the corporation’s volunteer program designed for Telekom employees are the Digital Bridge aimed at closing the digital gap, and the Mobile School popularizing safe mobile and internet use. Last year 662 Telekom employees took part in these and other programs organised by the individual company units, which equals close to a 30 million HUF worth theoretical contribution. The efforts in the field of voluntary work have also been recognised by the Corporate Voluntary Program of the Year Award, which has been won by the Mobile School program.

The aim of the Sustainability Day organised for the sixth time in September last year was to educate as well as to introduce new ideas and solutions having come into being in the field of sustainable development and enabling both current and future generations to create a conscious way of living.

The traditional awarding of the DOLPHIN Prize established by Telekom aims to promote the popularization of the idea of sustainability among Hungarian companies by recognising their corresponding activity. In 2013, in addition to the corporate volunteer program prize, Magyar Telekom was also awarded the Excellence in Customer Service Prize in the telephone customer service large companies’ category; furthermore it won the Disabled Friendly Workplace Award for the first time. In addition the company also won the Family Friendly Workplace Prize as well as the Bicycle Friendly Workplace Prize due to the success of the TeleBike.

Telekom’s sustainability activity has been recognised internationally as well: early in the year it was included for the fifth time in the international CEERIUS (Central and Eastern European Responsible Investment Universe) sustainability stock exchange index, while Oekom Research, an independent German agency analysing investment targets from the point of view of sustainability, rated the company to belong in the responsible, PRIME category recommended for investment.

For the first time in Hungary and the seventh time this year the report has been prepared according to the GRI G3 A+ compliance level, which means that, applying the internationally valid guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative and certified by an external party, the report fully complies with the criteria of transparency and comparability. Click here for the Sustainability Report and for further information at Magyar Telekom’s sustainability initiatives and achievements.