Verizon Communications Inc. CEO, Lowell McAdam, has announced new sustainability and education goals during the annual shareholder’s meeting as outlined in the company’s 2017 Corporate Responsibility Report. After undergoing a rigorous evaluation of its corporate social responsibility efforts, Verizon is continuing efforts to support a target under United Nations Sustainability Goal #8 of improving sustainable consumption and production and Goal #4 of ensuring quality education for all.
Verizon is addressing SDG 8 by continuing to leverage its connected solutions that increase resource efficiency and minimize environmental impact in travel, transportation, building management, power grids, healthcare, goods distribution and more. The company has set a new goal to cut the carbon intensity of its operations from 2016 levels in half by 2025, and a goal to enable customers to save more than twice the amount of carbon emissions produced by Verizon networks, products and operations by 2022. In 2016 alone, Verizon’s solutions aided in the elimination of 7.7 million tons of CO2e emissions, equivalent to removing 1.6 million cars from the road for one year. (Emissions for 2017 will be reported this summer).
Verizon is addressing SDG 4 by helping to give youth relevant skills for good jobs and entrepreneurship through its education initiative, Verizon Innovative Learning, which provides free technology, free access and innovative curricula to under-resourced students. Earlier this year, Verizon announced that it is investing $200 million into the initiative, bringing the total investment to $400 million, to provide millions of students the skills and resources needed to thrive in a tech-dependent economy. In 2017, about 128,000 students participated in Verizon Innovative Learning.
Verizon set these new goals working in partnership with leading global sustainability nonprofit BSR to conduct a broad stakeholder engagement process. Based on feedback from customers, investors, employees, nonprofits and policymakers, the company identified the two UN SDGs as its focus, and set targets to measure progress.
Other highlights from the 2017 Corporate Responsibility report include:
Humanability: Verizon’s new campaign illustrates how the company is continuously inventing for new markets and revenue opportunities yet to emerge. Humanability refers to Verizon’s mission to give humans the ability to do more in this world by using its unique technology to transform cities and industries through solutions that enhance food safety, healthcare and more.
Diversity & inclusion and pay equity: Verizon once again received widespread recognition as a corporate leader in diversity and inclusion.
Protecting consumer privacy: Verizon provides its customers with strong and meaningful privacy and security protections. Verizon was the first telecom company to issue a Transparency Report, outlining how it handles government requests for customer information. Its most recent report was published in January 2018.
For more information on Verizon’s responsibility programs, visit the corporate responsibility website.