Telefónica has become, according to the Social Transformation Benchmarking Assessment 2022 (STBA), conducted by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), the Spanish multinational with the best socially responsible business conduct, and leads the global telco sector, based on the 1,000 most influential companies in the world, across multiple sectors.
The company, which is among the top 15 companies worldwide, scored 14.5 points out of a maximum of 20, taking into account the 18 indicators that measure the impact of companies on people, focusing on three aspects: respect for human rights; promotion of decent work; and ethical conduct.
These 1,000 companies span 26 sectors, employ 56 million people and have a combined turnover of $25 trillion. Dan Neale, the WBA’s Social Transformation leader, said at the launch of the report that there is “a big gap between what companies are doing and what they need to do to help address inequality and ensure a just transition to a sustainable future”. The WBA aims to incentivise and mobilise business to close that gap as the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals approaches.
Achieving this position is an incentive for Telefónica in its aim to continue improving and fulfilling its purpose as a company, to make our world more human by connecting people’s lives, as one of its main contributions to the SDGs.
Last December, the same international organisation published the Digital Inclusion Benchmark (DIB), which analyses how the most influential technology companies help to promote a more inclusive digital economy and society, and Telefónica came out on top, scoring points out 89,5of 100, with a clear margin over the next, making it the most influential ICT in the world due to its “commitment to harnessing digital technologies to address the digital divide”.
Committed to sustainability
Telefónica has been committed to sustainability for two decades, and all its actions revolve around the UN SDGs, as is also reflected in its sustainable financing framework, verified by Sustainalytics. Sustainability is a cross-cutting element throughout the Group and focuses on three pillars:
- (E) Build a digital and greener future: Net zero by 2025 in its key markets and by 2040 across its entire footprint, including the value chain. To achieve this, it will continue to reduce direct and indirect emissions under the 1.5°C scenario by 70% globally by 2025 and as an interim target will start neutralising the remaining emissions in its key markets in 2025.
- (S) Helping society to prosper by fostering socio-economic progress through mobile broadband connectivity to unconnected and/or poorly connected areas in rural areas and contributing to bridging the so-called digital divide through more accessible technology and digital skills education.
- (G) Lead by example to maximise positive impact across our value chain by moving towards models that facilitate co-responsibility, flexibility and work-life balance with 33% women in management positions by 2024 and zero gross pay gap by 2050.
