Governance
Measurable success: Reduced CO2 generation at data centers
We keep our goal of reducing our carbon footprint in mind when planning and operating our data centers. To achieve this goal, we take a two-step approach. It starts with optimizing energy consumption at each data center site and then continues with improving processes throughout the global data center landscape.
Data Center Energy Usage | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||||
Total energy used in data centers (MWh) | 748,105 | 758,384 | 709,619 | 685,351 | ||||
Percentage of renewable energy (of total energy) | 62.5 | 98.3 | 99.3 | 99.7 |
Our aim is to increase the share of renewable energy on a yearly basis. Therefore our reported target is to increase our share in comparison to the previous year.
DT AG Health, Safety and Environment Management System and for Quality Management System
As a large corporation, Telekom assumes responsibility for environmental protection. Uniform environmental standards ensure that resource-saving behavior is anchored in all processes and in the daily behavior of employees. To this end, the Group has implemented an HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) management system in all fully consolidated companies.
There are internationally recognized standards for environmental protection in companies, such as the ISO standards (standards of the International Organization for Standardization, ISO for short). These form the basis for environmental management at Telekom. This ensures that environmental policy is implemented uniformly throughout the Group.
Telekom in Germany has been working in accordance with the international standard ISO 14001 for environmental management systems since 1998. Compliance with the ISO standard enables, among other things, resources to be used more efficiently, energy to be saved and waste to be avoided. Employees help to further increase environmental friendliness with their own suggestions.
Telekom's commitment goes far beyond the issue of climate protection: Since 2010, a uniform Group-wide HSE management system has been in place. HSE stands for the three main topics of health, safety and environment. The international standards for occupational health and safety, environmental management and quality management serve as the basis for this.
Employees and experts from all Deutsche Telekom national companies regularly exchange information and jointly develop a comprehensive management system. Internal and external audits are conducted regularly to verify that the requirements of the HSE management system are consistently implemented in the company's day-to-day operations.
Here you can find the manual for our central Health, Safety and Environment Management System (HSE MS) of Deutsche Telekom Group. This means that it covers 100% of all Deutsche Telekom units.
The Internet of Things
Machines and products are constantly becoming smarter. The technologies that make these developments possible are bundled under the term Internet of Things, or IoT.
IoT can help ideally coordinate the processes of various devices, vehicles, and entire industrial facilities. This increases industrial productivity and ensures efficient logistics, thus helping reduce energy consumption and conserve resources.
We also support the German federal government’s Industry 4.0 initiative through our involvement in IoT. The initiative’s objective is to maintain Germany’s competitive edge in the technology sector.
Digital Solutions: Connected Car – preventing traffic jams with connected cars
T-Systems has been developing and operating Daimler’s Connected Car platform (Daimler vehicle backend) worldwide since 2013. The platform is the technical basis for the Live Traffic service, which provides drivers with real-time traffic information, Live Traffic prevents about 30 percent of traffic jams per vehicle. This means the approximately 24 million vehicles equipped with Live Traffic consumed about 26 million liters less fuel. This translates into CO2 savings of around 65,000 metric tons.
Digital Solutions: SHOW – Connecting automated vehicle fleets with the main axes of local public transport, making urban mobility more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Project goal:
SHOW aims to support the deployment of shared, connected and electrified automation in urban transport, to advance sustainable urban mobility.
- Demonstrations in 20 cities across Europe
- Integration of automated fleets in Public Transport
- Including 69 partners from 13 EU-countries
- International cooperation with organizations from the US, South Korea, Australia and China
Benefits:
- Reduction of 20% energy consumption and 10% emissions
- Reduction of overall number of private vehicles through intelligent combination of smart Public Transport solutions
- Improved traffic flow
- Establish new business models and improve virtual validation
Achieving more together: international collaboration
How can international corporations put sustainability strategies into practice across borders? Deutsche Telekom employs CR managers for the relevant business segments and national companies to reach this goal. They use the CR Manager Network to regularly share best practices and discuss new challenges, thereby jointly promoting essential CR issues. The central Group Corporate Responsibility (GCR) department is responsible for managing the network. In the year 2021, the CR Manager Network encompassed more than 100 CR Manager from 34 subsidiaries based in 20 countries across the globe.
The participants are regularly invited to virtual meetings and capacity building calls by Group Corporate Responsibility. In 2021, content and likely implications of the EU Green Deal were discussed as well as progress within the #GreenMagenta programs and the new strategic stream "Positive impact on society" defined by the EU segment. Furthermore, the network members could gain insights into issues like Impact measurement and the future of a greener mobility.
Digital health care system: Our solutions
In addition to customer projects, we are also developing our own solutions for digital health care.
Our telehealth platform is being used by increasing numbers of participants in Germany. The platform is based on the first Europe-wide open, trans-regional network, East Saxony CCS Telehealth (THOS). It allows patients, doctors, hospitals, nursing staff, pharmacies, and health insurers in a given region to exchange information over a specially encrypted data network. In April 2018, we presented the new “Teleneurologie Parkinson” application at the world’s largest health care IT trade fair ConhIT: In addition to the family doctor or neurologist, the new solution also allows patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease to consult with a teleneurologist.
Our Telekom Healthcare Cloud (THC) provides health professionals with a reliable and simple path toward the digital transformation of their work structures. One of our customers in this area is Gesundheit Nordhessen Holding (GNH). We support the group of hospitals by providing our cloud for its daily work.
IoT: Roambee – “bees” make the logistics chain transparent
Since the beginning of 2017, we have offered businesses a solution for tracking and locating deliveries and assets and for monitoring the status of goods: Shipment & Asset Monitoring powered by Roambee. A “bee” equipped with sensors is attached to the consignment to record information such as temperature, humidity, light, and movement and store this information in the cloud. The bee measures all information in in defined timeframes. A web portal gives users anytime access to a full overview including the device status, location, and details on deliveries and assets.