Corporate responsibility.

We aim to be a world leader in corporate responsibility (CR) by 2015, having assumed this position in many areas already. Since 2008, we have been working towards this goal within the framework of our Group-wide CR strategy with its three central fields of activity “Connected life and work,” “Connect the unconnected” and “Low carbon society.” We set the milestones for our ambitious CR goal with a new internal project: We began by using external benchmarks and internal SWOT analyses to determine the status quo of the integration of CR in Group processes and the Company’s specific performance vis-à-vis third parties in terms of content. Our CR unit used the findings to not only derive criteria for achieving our goal, but also to develop specific recommendations for action. We put the first measures into practice in 2010. We will monitor and control each recommended measure until 2015. We will likewise review existing KPIs until 2015 on the basis of the findings of the internal project.

Climate protection activities. Climate protection was a special focus of our CR activities in the 2010 reporting year and involved not only reducing harmful greenhouse gases in our own operations, but also helping our customers to reduce emissions through the use of our products and solutions. In our own operations, we concentrated – among other aspects – on sustainable mobility. In accordance with the new Green Car Policy, for example, the CO₂ emissions of new cars throughout the entire vehicle fleet will average 110 grams per kilometer by 2015. This corresponds to an average consumption of 4.2 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers. This figure is actually below the climate protection targets of 120 grams per kilometer that the European Union hopes to achieve by 2015.

With more than 33,000 cars and service vehicles in Germany, our company fleet is one of the largest in Europe. Our fleet was analyzed in detail by the TÜV Rheinland technical inspection agency in 2010 and awarded the Blue Fleet certificate for carbon-aware fleet management. This certificate will be reviewed every twelve months.

Furthermore, Deutsche Telekom employees travel carbon-free with Deutsche Bahn. Our staff travel some 128 million kilometers by train each year. Deutsche Bahn feeds the power needed for this directly into its grid from renewable energy sources. This agreement with Deutsche Bahn alone allows us to play our part by avoiding emissions of around 5,700 tons of carbon dioxide every year.

With the services we provide, our customers can also make a sizeable contribution to climate protection and the sustainable use of resources, for example through smart metering, an intelligent technology that helps make energy consumption more transparent and thus save energy, in both in companies and private households.

Smart grids are indispensible for connecting local energy generation plants efficiently. They enable energy providers to feed only the power needed at the time into their grid – or buy it in the required quantity. Using smart grids could avoid 23.6 megatons of carbon emissions by 2020 in Germany alone (source: Smart 2020 study, Germany Addendum).