Sustainability
Türk Telekom’s sustainability approach
The communication sector offers basic solution tools in the fields of economy, innovation, health, education, ensuring social equality, protecting the environment and combating the climate crisis, reducing emissions, improving quality of life and many more across the world. Thus, the sector also directly serves the global Sustainable Development Goals.
Türk Telekom considers creating value for its stakeholder as one of the key elements of sustainability in addition to attaining a strong financial performance.
Türk Telekom aims to contribute to a more liveable future by using technology in the process of transforming the country into an information society, and to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. To this end, the Company aims to strengthen the working environment with the Sustainability Management System for a long term, robust and successful business model, and to manage effectively the impacts of its activities on economic, corporate, environmental and social issues by monitoring them closely.
Having set out with the strategy of creating value for its stakeholders in the transition to the digital age, Türk Telekom operates with the ultimate goal of meeting the product and service needs of its stakeholders by supporting them to create value for the society. Based on this approach, Türk Telekom identifies the effects of its activities on sustainability in economic, corporate, environmental and social axes, and determines its policies in view of the expectations of all its stakeholders in these fields. The company shapes these policies in light of its responsibilities, obligations and duties towards the environment, its employees, all stakeholders and society.
Aiming to touch all segments of society and eliminate the digital gap in society with the principle of “Accessible communication for all”, Türk Telekom fulfils its corporate social responsibility by contributing to access to information for all segments of society who have difficulties in participating in social life due to economic, social, regional or physical reasons.
Türk Telekom, which is one of the major actors of the transition to the information society, beyond just being a telecommunication operator, attaches importance to the principles and requirements of quality, environment, occupational health and safety and customer satisfaction management systems in all its business processes.
Türk Telekom takes utmost care to protect the rights of its stakeholders regulated by relevant legislation and mutual agreements with its strong corporate governance perspective in its operations and activities. On the contrary case, the Company ensures the protection of these rights as per the goodwill principles and Universal Human Rights within the limits of its capacity.
Türk Telekom holds a general approach towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) focus areas and principles. Carrying out its activities in line with the principle of “Accessible communication for all”, the Company commits to act in accordance with the 10 basic universal principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and takes the Sustainable Development Goals as its guide in its way of doing business.
Türk Telekom is the only telecommunication Company which has been included in the BIST Corporate Governance Index since 2009. Türk Telekom has also been included in the BIST Sustainability Index since its inception in 2014. Türk Telekom’s exemplary practices in environmental, social and governance fields play a key role in its successful performance in the BIST Sustainability Index. The Company continues to improve its score since the year of its inclusion in the BIST Sustainability Index.
Türk Telekom, which is also a part of the international FTSE4Good index, achieved a rating above the sector average, particularly in the environmental and governance fields, thanks to the steps it took and improvements it made in the environmental, social and governance areas in 2021.
In the evaluation conducted by Sustainalytics in 2021, Türk Telekom lowered its risk scale by increasing its environmental management system and environmental management certificate scores.
Türk Telekom increased its overall rating from BBB to A in the assessment conducted by the MSCI Sustainability Index, recording a significant grade increase, especially in the category of privacy and data security.
Türk Telekom has been reporting on the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) since 2011, an international initiative that supports the transition to a low carbon economy and is considered one of the most prestigious environmental projects in the world.
Türk Telekom is aware that institutions should take responsibility in sustainability. Operating in all provinces of Turkey with its 51.8 million customers and 35,868 employees, the Company presses ahead in two axes by reducing negative impact areas and supporting the efforts to create positive results for the society, in order to manage the environmental and social impacts that may arise especially with the growth and rapid transformation.
Türk Telekom takes all necessary measures to ensure data security by prioritising the personal data protection in all its internal and external business processes. As the number of the relevant persons and the diversity of processed data is high due to the nature of the telecommunication sector, the company conducts all its work with great discipline and awareness.
Sustainability Focus Areas
Türk Telekom believes in the importance of cooperating with its employees for the success of its sustainability strategy. Managers and employees working at different levels of the Company contribute to and support sustainability processes and take part in the implementation of the Sustainability Management System.
Türk Telekom defines its focus areas in designing a sustainable future as follows:
- Focus on Trust - Doing Business Responsibly
- Focus on Climate Change and Environment
- Focus on Value for Human
- Focus on Customer
- Focus on Contributing to Society
Sustainability Committee
Türk Telekom values the participation and ownership of the top management in achieving its goal of taking economic, environmental and social factors into account in company activities and decision mechanisms along with corporate governance principles, and effectively managing the risks associated with these factors. The Sustainability Committee, which has been formed based on this approach, determines the long term sustainability vision and strategies, reviews sustainability activities and makes evaluations within the scope of sustainability targets.
The Committee, which consists of management representatives, carries out its activities under the leadership of the CEO. The Head of Corporate Risk and Business Continuity, who also serves as the secretariat of the Committee, conducts the overall coordination and management activities on sustainability in the organisation.
The Sustainability Committee establishes sustainability working groups on the Company’s material issues with the aim of ensuring the effective execution of operational activities by the relevant responsible persons, and the coordination between the teams.