Skip to primary navigation or Skip to search
 

Environment

 

UN Global Compact – reporting

The United Nations has developed a global agreement, or compact, to help businesses align their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. TELUS supports the compact and we report in line with its principles. The Company became a signatory of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) in 2010 and continued our support in 2011.

 
 
 

 Supporting environmental initiatives

UNGC Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.

Responsibility for managing TELUS' environmental footprint is shared by senior leaders from across TELUS who have specific areas of expertise such as Risk Management, Technology Strategy, Network Operations, Real Estate Operations, Supply Operations, Procurement and our environmental consultants. The Corporate Governance Committee of TELUS' Board of Directors receives quarterly reports in regards to TELUS' ongoing environmental risk management activities, a responsibility previously held by our Audit Committee of the TELUS Board of Directors.

The Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility team, which is located within the Risk Management department of the Finance business unit, is comprised of professionals from across Canada responsible for TELUS environmental programs, including our environmental management system. The Environmental policy explains TELUS’ commitment to environmental responsibility. TELUS has had a formal environmental management system (EMS) since the mid-1990s. Our current goal, set in 2009, is to align our EMS programs with ISO 14001:2004 by 2014. In 2011, we continued executing the implementation plan and aligned our utility pole storage program with the ISO14001:2004 standard.

UNGC Principle 8: Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.

The strength of our environmental and sustainability culture at TELUS is the result of almost two decades of dedicated work in this field. Since we published our first environmental report in 1992, we have continued to evolve our environmental management and sustainability program to support what we believe is a best-in-class corporate responsibility program. Our disclosure now aligns to the Global Reporting Initiative A+ level and we have been included as either a World or North American leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the past decade. In addition, we have been twice named a Carbon Disclosure Leader by the Carbon Disclosure Project. The Environment section of the 2011 CSR Report details all of our initiatives that promote greater environmental responsibility.

UNGC Principle 9: Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

TELUS has a host of environmentally friendly technology offerings both internal and external. The internal technologies not only serve the sustainability efforts and help meet our own goals, they benefit society as a whole in that they reduce resource use and GHG emissions. We are currently investing in innovative energy reduction projects such as:

  • TELUS is building two modular, LEED Gold standard Internet Data Centres in Quebec and British Columbia. These high-efficiency facilities are designed to industry leading 1.15 Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
  • Test piloting new heating, ventilation and cooling projects at more than 20 sites and launching network utilization projects resulting in the elimination of close to 1 million kWh of waste
  • TELUS Real Estate Services implemented building consolidation projects and launched TELUS’ Work Styles program resulting in a reduction of almost 20 million kWh in energy consumption
  • TELUS’ National Service and Infrastructure Support team retired legacy equipment, launched network optimization projects and improved efficiency within existing infrastructure resulting in the elimination of close to 3 million kWh from the network
  • TELUS Business Transformation server rationalization projects yielded close to 450,000 kWh of energy waste elimination
  • TELUS Network Transformation projects such as installation of temperature control systems, infrastructure upgrades, data centre free-cooling projects and HVAC upgrades resulted in just over 9.5 million kWh of energy waste elimination
  • TELUS actively engages with many major companies through a sustainability network, where we discuss and share best practices.

TELUS’ video and telephone conferencing technologies provide customers and team members with an environmentally friendly alternative to travel. The telecommunication industry as a whole provides a mechanism for information sharing that reduces the need for people to travel.