Management & facts

As part of our waste management program, we transparently track our waste production. In 2021, we added a performance indicator for technology waste to our set of KPIs. As a result, we are now able, for the first time, to differentiate between electronic waste (e-waste), cable waste, and other technology waste. We have not defined Group-wide targets for the reduction of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Instead, the national companies are guided by our “International Waste Management Framework”, which was adopted in 2013, using it as a basis for developing or revising their own waste management strategies. They are also setting their own targets, giving top priority to reducing hazardous waste such as lead batteries.

Group-wide waste increased by 5 percent compared to 2022. We provide detailed information on the figures for each individual company in our interactive benchmarking tool.

Waste generation Deutsche Telekom Group

Data audited by Deloitte. Data is partly based on estimates, assumptions and projections. Data is partly provided by external service providers.

Running a large company like Deutsche Telekom involves high paper consumption. For several years now, we have gradually been reducing our paper consumption. With our Paperless Office project, we aim to completely eliminate paper use by 2025.

Print on demand has many advantages. For example, quick reference guides can be printed as needed depending on orders and don’t need to be preprinted, transported, and stored. Changes to information sheets for our customers can be made on short notice, eliminating large quantities of outdated documents that need to be destroyed. In 2021, we expanded this project, and print on demand is now available for printing quick reference guides for all the rate plans we offer in Germany (MagentaZuhause, MagentaTV, business-customer and hybrid plans). We also reviewed whether there are other materials suitable for print on demand – such as brochures and SIM cards. The process is not yet suitable for all of the materials we work with. This applies to the SIM cards for our hybrid plans, for example. Since March 2021, print-on-demand instructions have been marked with our #GreenMagenta label. 

In 2022, we implemented various measures in Germany with a view to minimizing our consumption still further:

• Correspondence with our millions of customers is one of the biggest levers for saving paper. Despite online billing and increasing use of digital communication, we sent out around 3.9 million more items in 2022 than in 2021 – equivalent to 47 tons of paper. This was particularly due to the fact that we were obliged to inform a large number of our customers about a rate adjustment.
• A portion of each delivery note is provided in digital form. As a result of this conversion, our paper delivery notes now comprise only one page instead of two – a change that saves seven metric tons of paper per year.
• A growing number of employees are now working from home, with the result that fewer documents were printed out in the company’s offices. Also, awareness campaigns and digitalization procedures have led to further reductions on printing – amounting to total savings of 3.5 metric tons of paper in 2022. Flipcharts, notebooks and the like are also increasingly being replaced with digital alternatives.
• A successful pilot project for reducing printing at Deutsche Telekom Headquarters in Bonn was launched in December 2021, followed by another project in Düsseldorf in May 2022. Both projects ran successfully and are currently being evaluated. As we look to the future, we plan to reduce Deutsche Telekom’s printer fleet considerably at all locations.
• Our EmployeeApp (“MitarbeiterApp”) is used to handle HR and accounting processes – such as travel expense reports – digitally and paperlessly.
• We have also been able to save large quantities of paper in connection with our shops. The paper-based “Mehr Magenta Magazin” (“More Magenta Magazine”) has been discontinued, decreasing paper use by 92.3 metric tons.
• Until we reach our goal of going paperless, we will continue to use certified paper from sustainable sources. Furthermore, over 65 percent of the articles in our range of office products are currently sustainably certified – that’s 15 percent more than in 2021. By 2025, we plan to use certified alternatives for all products for which such alternatives are offered.
• We have discontinued most of the flyers available in our shops, keeping just a small selection for customers to take away with them. This has saved 55.14 metric tons of paper.

The next step is to network more closely with our national companies, who can already boast a number of successes:

• Slovak Telekom: Through greater reliance on online billing, the company is saving about 10 metric tons of paper per month. In addition, our Slovakian national company uses no paper flyers in its shops, and its customers are able to conclude their agreements entirely online.
• Makedonski Telekom: Paper bill use was cut by 10 percent between 2021 and 2022, saving 1.5 metric tons of paper.
• Croatia: Since 2021, Hrvatski Telekom’s business customers have been receiving online bills too; this has reduced paper use still further.
• Magenta Telekom in Austria: The company’s customers can also receive their monthly bills online if they so request. Furthermore, green receipts, made entirely from recycled paper, have been used in shops since 2020. Additional paper is being saved and resources conserved as a result of the switch from paper bags to rePET bags.
• T-Systems in Brazil: 90 percent of customers receive their bills online; supplier contracts are also processed paperlessly using digital signatures.
• T-Mobile Polska: For every two pages of paper saved via business customers’ switching to online bills, T-Mobile Polska plants one tree.
• T-Mobile US: In the United States, use of digital alternatives for printed bills and flyers is also increasing. Additionally, the company has reduced the numbers of printers in its office buildings in order to conserve resources.
• Greece/OTE: With the “MyNet.Go” app , employees can do such things as submit vacation requests online.
• Deutsche Telekom Services Europe (DTSE): Paper consumption is being cut through the “Let’s go paperless” project, which is digitalizing as many processes as possible. A digitalization community offers tips, ideas, workshops and digital tools for saving paper and reducing the number of printers.

As of mid-2022, all Deutsche-Telekom-branded products launched on the German and European markets have been packaged sustainably. For this conversion, we have developed appropriate sustainability criteria, and enshrined them in a packaging guideline. Wherever possible, we use recyclable and biodegradable materials, recycled paper, and non-toxic labels and printing (e.g., using soy ink). In addition, we eliminate 100 percent of single-use plastic in our packaging. This packaging guideline is part of our Standard Design Specifications, which apply throughout the Group (with the exception of T-Mobile US), and which also include sustainability requirements for product components and design. All product manufacturers must meet these criteria when developing Deutsche Telekom devices.

For our product packaging we use materials such as PaperFoam, a biobased and biodegradable alternative to conventional packaging materials. PaperFoam is non-toxic, and recyclable in paper recycling streams, and it reduces the carbon footprint by up to 85 percent compared with other materials. As of 2021, the packaging of the Speedport Smart 4 router sold in Germany is made of this material, for instance. In addition, 95 percent of the router’s housing consists of recycled plastic.

We also use sustainable product packaging with non-Deutsche-Telekom-branded devices that we source from third-party providers. By the end of 2022, almost 90 percent of the third-party smartphones that we sold in Europe were sustainably packaged. As a result, the target of over 90 percent by the end of 2024 is realistically achievable.  We enter into dialog with suppliers that are unable to meet our sustainability standards. Some manufacturers that do not yet fully meet our requirements have nonetheless introduced promising plans for sustainable packaging.

Since 2021, we have reported Group-wide figures on sustainably packaged devices, differentiating between our own sustainably packaged fixed-network devices and sustainably packaged mobile devices (e.g., mobile routers, smartphones, and tablets). The increase compared to the previous year is mainly due to the consistent application of the packaging directive for all newly launched own products and an improvement in the survey methodology.

We also want to make logistics more sustainable. To that end, we plan to optimize parcel packaging, for example. In particular, we plan to discontinue use of plastic in such packaging. Since 2021, we have been saving around 4 700 kilograms of plastic per year by dispensing with wrapping plastic in technical logistics in Germany alone. But we also optimize paper and cardboard consumption in our shipping logistics. In 2020, we began using a cardboard shredder. This has enabled us to reduce our use of paper as fill material – by 50 metric tons of paper per year. To make even greater use of optimization potential in this area, we are in discussion with the national companies outside of Germany and are working with them to develop relevant innovative concepts.

Many of us have discarded or defective cell phones that contain valuable resources gathering dust in a drawer somewhere. We launched the Good Cause initiative in Europe in 2022 with the aim of returning these devices to the cell-phone ecosystem while doing some good at the same time. Almost all of our European national companies are involved in the initiative. The goal is to collect discarded devices on an ongoing basis until 2024, returning the valuable resources they contain to the cell phone ecosystem. For every cell phone collected, we make a donation to local projects working in one of the following areas: marine conservation, forest conservation, or ICT  solutions to tackle climate change. In addition to donations, each funded project receives a fixed sum of money annually from the Group or the respective national company to strengthen continuity and planning. Projects are also supported by a local NGO or local authorities.

Below you will find three examples of projects that have been launched under the umbrella of the Good Cause initiative:

Cleaning up beaches with Mediterranean CleanUp (marine conservation)
The OTE Group in Greece is working with NGO Enaleia to support and sponsor the Mediterranean CleanUp project. The goal is to curb plastic pollution in the coastal regions and seas of the islands of Corfu, Kefalonia, Skiathos and Agios Nikolaos (Crete). The project involves local stakeholders  such as fishing communities and students in order to raise public awareness of the problems caused by plastic pollution.

Reforestation at the Ottenstein Reservoir (forest conservation)
Magenta Telekom in Austria has been working with NGO “Gut Ottenstein” since March 2022 to support reforestation work in the region around the Ottenstein Reservoir. It has become necessary to plant new trees following storm damage, the death of local ash trees, and felling as a result of a massive bark beetle infestation. The project also aims to promote sustainable agriculture, pond cultures and forestry, along with the production of regional produce.

Clever Landscape project (ICT solutions to tackle climate change)
Clever Landscape is a long-term project by T-Mobile Czech Republic and the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. It seeks to develop and implement measures for mitigating the negative impact of climate change and of extreme hydrological events on forests. The project is based in a model area over 1 700 hectares in size close to Prague in the Czech Republic. Sensors and measuring equipment have been installed in the area to enable researchers to monitor and analyze a range of parameters, including humidity, temperature, groundwater, and tree growth. The findings will be used to identify and model the potential impact of climate change, with a view to then adapting the landscape to the changes in natural conditions. It should be possible to apply the findings and methods to similar types of landscapes in future. T-Mobile Czech Republic is supporting the project through donations from the Good Cause initiative, most notably for the establishment of a campus data network to facilitate the mass deployment of sensors and faster data analysis, among other things.

We report the Take Back Mobile Devices ESG KPI based on the reference value “number of devices in circulation.” This makes it possible to show the ratio of collected devices to the number of devices sold. When the devices are used for longer periods of time, the environment benefits and, as a result, this has a positive impact on the KPI.

In 2022, the value of the Take Back Mobile Devices ESG KPI was 3.8 percent for the Group (excluding T-Mobile US and DTSE units). This means, for every 100 devices put into circulation each year, we take back around 3.8 via collection campaigns. In 2021, we expanded our data collection and, in addition to the return of mobile devices, also report the return of mobile phones. The KPI for mobile phone take-back was 2.3 percent in 2022.

Our ambition in this connection: Increase the KPI

In 2022, over 150 000 mobile phones were collected throughout the Group (excl. T-Mobile US). The corresponding KPI for the Group (excl. T-Mobile US) is 2.3 percent. The aim of the scheme for collection of used mobile devices is to give the devices a second life and, where that is not feasible, to properly recycle them, in order to recover the valuable raw materials they contain. With these efforts, over 3.4 million used mobile devices have been reused or recycled in Germany since 2003. This has conserved resources, and it has helped to improve the life cycle assessments for mobile devices overall.

The quantities of collected devices are reported in kilograms or in numbers of items. When using kilograms, we apply a Group-wide conversion factor of 7.25 items per kilogram, except where a different conversion factor is typically used in the country concerned. The mobile devices in circulation include smartphones, simple phones, tablets, and cordless phones. In the interest of data quality, numbers of items are reported by Procurement.

In keeping with our circularity strategy, we also promote refurbishment and proper recycling of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE ). The CPE category includes modems, routers, repeaters, and TV receivers. The aim of the scheme for collection of such devices is to give the devices a second life and, where that is not feasible, to properly recycle them, in order to recover the valuable raw materials they contain.

We have reported the Take Back CPEs ESG KPI  and the numbers of refurbished CPE items involved since 2021. In 2022, more than 4 million CPE items were collected across the Group (excluding T-Mobile US), and 62 percent of that quantity were refurbished.

We are aiming to further improve the collection and refurbishment processes, and to achieve 100 percent sustainable management of collected CPE items. This would mean that all CPE items collected in Germany or by European national companies would either be refurbished, stored for future refurbishment, or recycled. Work on implementing relevant measures has already begun.