Budapest, June 6, 2019 14:00

Last year, 35 percent of Magyar Telekom’s annual sales came from products and services of a sustainable nature, and 15 cities across the country used the company’s economical city management solutions. In its report published on the World Environment Day, Telekom gives a summary of the “half-time” results of its five-year Sustainability Strategy.

Magyar Telekom’s five-year Sustainability Strategy covering the period from 2016 through 2020 puts extra emphasis on climate protection, education, sustainable digital solutions, and sets the goal of establishing a diverse and inclusive corporate culture. In the report published on the World Environment Day, Telekom gives a summary of the results achieved in the context of the strategy last year.

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As to its climate protection activities, Magyar Telekom is ranked by several international organizations as being among the top performers in the industry ¹ . Between 2016 and 2018, the company lessened the burden on the atmosphere by eliminating the emissions of greenhouse gases equivalent to 300 thousand tons of CO ₂. That is the same as the emissions generated by the city of Szolnok in a full year, and the mass of the gas thus eliminated is close to that of the Empire State Building. A similarly outstanding achievement is that Telekom provides the total of its electricity consumption in Hungary from renewing sources. In the past three years, the company consumed 563 MWh renewable energy, which equals to the annual consumption of close to 300 thousand households. In order to promote environment-friendly energy sources, the company started to mount solar panel systems on the roofs of its facilities, and involved its employees in the effort by offering them the option to adopt solar panels for one-year periods.

Telekom aligns its everyday operations more and more with its sustainability objectives, too: as a result of the fact that the company supports telework, employees saved a total of close to 60 years and 12 million kilometers of commute in the last three years, which is the equivalent of about three hundred trips around the Earth. Telework in itself prevented the emissions of approximately 800 tons of CO ₂.

The company also strives to involve its customers in its climate protection activities: the ExtraNet Green1GB data extension option enables customers to buy data transmission volumes using only renewing energy – provided from Telekom’s solar panel system.

Telekom’s educational programs reached a total of one million people by 2018, which is ten times the number set as a target in its Sustainability Strategy, and thus enabled participants to learn more about the digital world and/or sustainability. The company’s employees assumed a significant role in reaching out to the one million participants by putting in a total of 37 thousand hours of volunteer work, which is the theoretical equivalent of a HUF 150 million contribution. That is the same as one person working 24 hours a day for four years.

In addition to programs aimed at digital education and building up a succession pool for the industry, events themed around sustainability and aimed at increasing awareness are a tradition at Telekom, too. At the Sustainability Day event, held for the eleventh time in 2018, close to eight thousand visitors followed the panel discussions and visited the interactive exhibition area, where organizations leading in sustainability presented their work, initiatives and solutions.

Sustainable digital solutions make it possible to use technology for social and business, as well as environmental protection purposes. In that spirit, Telekom continuously strives to introduce innovative developments. One of the company’s technological achievements is that it became the first in Hungary last July to demonstrate the operation of a 5G network under real-life conditions, and that it runs close to 30 smart city solutions in 15 cities across the country. A total of 35% of the company’s sales came from sustainable products and services last year. Several of the smart solutions have remained part of the customers’ everyday lives. The hello holnap! mobile application, which can be used as a smart donations interface, is not only an app aimed to increase awareness about sustainability, but also enables Telekom customers to decide whom the company’s donations should go to.

As an employer committed to the values inherent in diversity, Telekom has taken numerous steps to establish an inclusive corporate culture. In 2018, the company launched a human rights training for its employees, which more than ten thousand of them completed by September 2018. Building on its previous experience, Telekom became this year the first among large enterprises to start its Unconscious Bias Awareness training, adapted to the local cultural environment.

You can read more about other achievements in details in the Sustainability Report.

1) Magyar Telekom was the first and only company in Hungary, whose long-term emission reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).