Report Showcases Idea’s achievements across the Aditya Birla Group’s three pillars of Sustainability – Responsible Stewardship, Stakeholder Engagement, and Future Proofing, outlining a comprehensive roadmap and targets upto FY21

India CSR News Network

MUMBAI: Idea Cellular, one of the leading telecom operators in the country, has released the company’s first GRI-G4 Sustainability Report which marks Idea’s achievements across the Aditya Birla Group’s three pillars of Sustainability – Responsible Stewardship, Stakeholder Engagement, and Future Proofing, further outlining a comprehensive roadmap and targets up to FY21. The report is aligned to GRI-G4, the highest international standards in sustainability reporting.

‘Calling Tomorrow 2016’, Idea Cellular’s first standalone sustainability report, outlines its journey of achieving national and international standards of being a responsible business and being accountable for social and environmental impacts while pursuing high growth.

According to Himanshu Kapania, Managing Director, Idea Cellular, “Sustainability at Idea Cellular is the holistic pursuit of a vision to be the most admired telecom company that creates long-term value for all stakeholders by balancing economic growth with environmental and social development.”

The report lists achievements in Idea Cellular’s journey to be the leading Indian group for sustainable business practices:

Over 19% of Idea owned telecom towers are operated by hybrid power, reducing Co₂ emissions by 52,000 tons per annum in 2016
Reconfigured sites further reducing CO2 emissions by 62,000 tons
90% of servers are virtualized across data centres, resulting in 1/3^rd the power consumption
Zero cases of child labour and zero human rights violations in 2016
One-third of young leaders in Idea are Women
62,572 man-days of training conducted in 2016
100% compliance on EMF norms
CSR activities reached 9 States, 33 districts and 3,250 villages providing support for education, healthcare and sanitation
#1 position in C-SAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores
Idea Money operations expanded to 2 million customers in its goal towards digital financial empowerment
Sustainability extends to all partners and suppliers through a Code of Conduct

Kapania further added, “Access to information has a significant impact on livelihoods, better healthcare, education, environment and community empowerment. Being at the centre of this transformation, Idea has a significant opportunity to bring technology, networks and expertise of our people to create sustained value for all our stakeholders, customers, community and the society at large.”

Idea’s sustainability roadmap and execution covers 13 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), the key framework for responsible businesses across the world. The company has framed its approach to sustainability as per the Aditya Birla’s Group framework: pursuing responsible stewardship, stakeholder engagement, and future proofing. Along each of these pillars, Idea Cellular has defined material issues of importance based on stakeholder interest and impact on business, on well-defined targets for each business function, across a roadmap that extends till FY21.

According to Anil Tandan, Chief Technology & Sustainability Officer, Idea Cellular, “We are focused in our commitment to reaching the farthest corners of the country and continuously increasing the reach of our network. Hence our approach to business, in line with the Group ethos, is to think about tomorrow, today. We are building an organisation and a business with a strong focus on “Calling tomorrow”. This defines our Sustainability strategy, which ensures that we take a long-term view and build an organisation that is future ready.”

The company’s sustainability agenda is not confined simply to its business practices, but also extends to its employees, customers, partners and suppliers. Idea is also engaging its employees across the country so they can become agents in promoting the sustainability agenda across the organization and in the community.

Idea’s network reaches nearly a billion people through a network of 241,540 sites across over 400,000 towns and villages.

Key highlights of the report (FY16):

Achievements – Governance & Enablers

A formal grievance redressal mechanism for internal and external stakeholders
Zero reported cases of child or forced labour in FY 15
Zero human rights violations
Rigorous risk management (ERM) throughout the enterprise

Achievements – Responsible Stewardship

100% of Telecom hardware procured in FY16 comprises of low power devices
100% compliance with relevant EMF radiation limits
90% of servers are virtualized across the data centre
Over 19% of Idea owned telecom towers are operational with hybrid power solutions
10,500 sites converted from indoor to outdoor, reducing CO2 emissions further by 62,000 tons

Achievements – Stakeholder Engagement

#1 leadership position in C-SAT scores
Over 8,000 My Idea Service centres, Idea Points and Idea Service Points comprising of 14,000 service personnel spread over 6000 villages and small towns with over 6100 sales executives
Idea has succeeded in reaching out to 60% of villages in India, and 74% of the village population in these areas, which is more than its licensing obligation.
CSR activities reached 9 States, 33 districts and 3250 villages supporting education, healthcare and sanitation
6.27 average training man-days per employee, and 62,572 man-days of training conducted in FY 16
10% of Idea Cellular employees are women, and there has been a 35% increase in number of women in the previous financial year alone

Commitments

74% reduction in energy intensity and 70% reduction in emission intensity by FY21
Maintain 100% rate of women employees returning to work after maternity leave
100% of employees trained on safety by FY21
45% of all projected sites moving to eco-friendly stations by FY21
Zero incidents of Non-compliance concerning marketing communications and regulations and voluntary codes concerning product and service information labelling

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