Reviewing status, grading performance

Setting and achieving sustainability targets: Our in-house sustainability indicators are a means of continuously reviewing and grading our sustainability performance.

Deutsche Telekom's company-specific sustainability indicators serve as important internal tools in this respect. They allow us to measure current progress and review the Group's services, products and labor organization in terms of sustainability performance - and their contribution to the successful, sustainable development of our corporation. The indicators also aid the formulation of future Group-wide targets.

They also provide an insight into the implementation status of our sustainability strategy and its subsequent development. We introduced the indicators in 2004, and communicated them for the first time in the 2004 Human Resources and Sustainability Report. In 2005, the emphasis was on preserving data comparability and continuous applicability of the indicators, as well as incorporating the first year's experiences along with stakeholder feedback and evaluations of the report.

We also introduced an additional economic indicator in 2005, showing the extent to which the company's shares are supported by sustainable investment.

Some indicators have increased

Indicators of CO2 emissions have shown a significant increase. Between 2003 and 2004, indirect CO2 emissions from electricity generation, for which Deutsche Telekom acknowledges shared responsibility, have increased in numerical terms, due to inadequate information from the electricity suppliers about the supplied energy mix. Several key suppliers no longer provide a detailed breakdown of the energy mix, particularly in the case of electricity from cogeneration plants. As a result, we are forced to base much of our electricity supplies on the average German energy mix. The effects of the decarbonization of electricity consumption up to and including 2003, due to the contractual requirement to procure electricity from cogeneration plants, cannot be proven for 2004 to the same extent.

The previous year's vehicle fleet CO2 emissions were based on an incomplete database. Data for the vehicles of all national Group units and company cars has now been included.

Facts and figures about the Deutsche Telekom sustainability indicators may be found here (*.pdf; 420 KB).