Our Business Principles define our management model and can be applied to our entire value chain. More specifically, they guide our relationship with customers, suppliers and employees to build a strong engagement based on trust.
Responsible Purchasing
We share a commitment to innovation and sustainability with our suppliers:
- We identify risks regarding ethical behaviour and corruption thanks to the Dow Jones Risk & Compliance tool.
- We assess potentially high-risk suppliers through an external platform, based on ethical, social, environmental and supply chain management aspects.
- We conduct audits at the facilities and/or factories of critical suppliers.
- We ask our key suppliers to set science-based decarbonisation targets validated by SBTi.
- We help suppliers improve with training and by following up on specific plans.
We have 8,462 awarded suppliers, 57% of which are SMEs. Our purchasing volume exceeds 23,300 million euros and we allocate 83% of it to local suppliers.
From a commercial relationship to a relationship of trust
Collaboration with suppliers is the basis for making a positive impact on our environment:
- Allies Programme, with our contractors and subcontractors.
- Joint Audit Cooperation sectorial initiative with our equipment manufacturers.
- Global Waste Management System (Gretel).
- Supplier Engagement Program, for the reduction of our supply chain’s emissions.
We reduced the CO₂ emissions of our value chain by 31% compared to 2016
Our employees
Ethical behaviour and responsible management of our business are fundamental parts of our organisational culture. We seek to align internal behaviours, processes and objectives with the company’s purpose and values. Our fundamental maxim is to ensure consistency between what we say and what we do, so that this shared vision permeates from our employees to our customers and from our customers to society as a whole.
At Telefónica, we also believe in the value of diversity and inclusive leadership to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment in our team. We are convinced that it is only with a diverse team and a work culture which values differences that we will be able to innovate, understand our customers’ needs and grow in the long term.
Our clients
We want to build a relationship of trust with our customers. That is why, in all our actions, we are guided by three basic principles:
- Integrity: we deliver what we promise and acknowledge when we are wrong.
- Transparency: we provide all relevant information proactively.
- Simplicity: we use clear and direct language and make it as simple as possible to deal with us.
We apply these guidelines to our product and service contracts, invoices, advertising, privacy and security information, so that everything is easily understood by any user.
Digitalisation for a better experience
The digitalisation and automation of processes help us to improve the customer experience in all customer service channels (shops, websites, telephone channel and apps), minimise breakdowns and speed up the resolution of incidents with more accessible, agile and user-friendly solutions.
Digital trust: protected digital rights
In an increasingly digital world, it is imperative that people can trust that their data is private, secure and transparently managed. That is why we design policies and processes that ensure full transparency regarding how their data is collected, stored, used and protected, how we use AI ethically and how we promote the responsible use of technology.
As a sign of our progress on privacy. freedom of expression as well as cybersecurity in 2022, Telefónica reaffirmed its leadership and for the third year in a row was ranked first among all global telecommunications companies evaluated in the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR).
Privacy
Transparency and access to take control of data.
Security
Security of networks / systems to ensure the integrity, availability and confidentiality of information.
Artificial Intelligence
Ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) to promote people-centred digitalisation.
Responsible Use
Protecting the most vulnerable groups.
Responsible design in the development of products and services
We work to incorporate ethics and sustainability into the design of products and services, from the initial approach to it is placed on the market, identifying and minimising our risks and maximising social and environmental benefits. In the white paper “Product and service sustainability assessments”, is detailed the importance of taking ESG into account in innovation processes and it is shown as an example our internal Responsible by Design framework.
By the end of 2023, we had assessed more than 80 products under the Responsibility by Design framework. And we aim to have 100% of our new products and services under this model by 2025.
