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 1/3rd 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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