The award, presented by Ethical Corporation, has recognised Ronan Dunne, CEO of O2 UK, as a clear leader in sustainability management. The Ethical Corporation’s Responsible Business Awards #RBA15 which celebrates responsible business practise from around the world.
Telefónica UK has also been awarded the “Best Consumer Engagement Campaign“, thanks to the involvement of our customers in sustainability initiatives launched by the company: Eco-rating, the charger “out the box”, O2 Refresh and O2 Recycle. In addition, we have received the award for “Best B2B Partnership” for the agreement with Bauer Media to address social mobility and youth unemployment through GoThinkBig.
Ethical Corporation praised Ronan Dunne’s achievement in having worked to position O2 at the forefront of sustainable businesses on a diversity of topics including youth employment schemes to large industry recycling, environmental stewardship having a direct impact on both employee and consumer behaviour. According Ethical Corporation “Telefónica UK (O2) has demonstrated tremendous leadership in promoting different consumer models with a direct impact on the environment, the circular economy and consumer behaviour. They have creatively combined strengthening customer relationships through sustainability.”.
The judges looked at the impact of leaders over a period of two years, from 2013 to 2015, where Ronan Dunne and the Think Big team have so far achieved:
- Launching the world’s first point-of-sale Eco-rating scheme for handsets, engaging customers and suppliers in considering the impacts of their choices.
- Championing the first device in the UK to be sold without a charger, and working with manufacturers and other retailers leading the path to eliminate automatic provision of chargers with new handsets.
- Giving more than 136 million euros (£100million) back to customers through O2 Recycle.
- Believing in over 6000 young people to invest at least 400 euros (£300) in each of them to lead social action projects.
- Launching GoThinkBig in partnership with Bauer Media, and ensuring the employment platform is open to other employers to openly offer young job seekers work-experience and skills opportunities (over 22,000 to date), a key component in O2’s recognition by Government as a Social Mobility Champion.
- Championing the digital skills agenda – for young people and the economy.
- Dedicating 20% of Ronan’s time to support Think Big.
- Saving more than 16,000 kilometers of travel (10,000 miles) each month through driving flexible working at O2.
- Achieving 1:1.4 ROI by engaging employees in sustainability.
