Social involvement

We report a set of three KPIs for calculating the impact of our social commitment. They comprise the Community Investment ESG  KPI, the Beneficiaries ESG KPI and the Media Literacy ESG KPI. Our activities are based on the methods employed by the London Benchmarking Group (LBG), which incorporate the aspects, "input," "output" and "impact".

The Community Investment ESG KPI illustrates activities in which Deutsche Telekom was involved in the community either financially, through its employees, or through donating materials.

The investment volume for our entire network infrastructure in 2018 was € 12.2 billion (with more than € 5 billion of this in Germany), and we are already providing LTE to 97 percent of the population in our national companies. What's more, we operate the largest fiber-optic network in Germany, with more than 500,000 kilometers of cables, and are driving the expansion of a large-scale NB-IoT infrastructure for the cities of the future. Thanks to the Internet rollout, our investments are making an important contribution to facilitating access to fast Internet for large sections of the public. This, in turn, is the foundation for the positive development of our business KPIs, e.g. the Media Literacy ESG KPI. Furthermore, our products and services are contributing to climate protection and resource efficiency. Our products range from ICT  solutions such as video conferencing and Industry 4.0  to sustainable connected farming and Smart City concepts.

Additionally, the Community Investment ESG KPI makes an important contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2018, more than 20 million euros of the community investments have contributed to the SDG 4 (quality education).

The report comprises a set of three KPIs for calculating the impact of our social commitment. In addition to the Community Investment ESG  KPI, we report the Beneficiaries and the Media Literacy ESG KPI here. Our activities are based on the methods employed by the London Benchmarking Group (LBG), which incorporate the aspects, "input," "output" and "impact".

The Beneficiaries ESG KPI reflects the number of people who got involved in community activities and the number of people in the target group that participate in or benefited from such activities (e.g. media literacy trainings, DSL  connection in schools and crisis helpline).

The Media Literacy ESG KPI reflects the share of people we have reached through programs addressing this topic. This KPI establishes a direct correlation between these activities and our core business. The ESG KPI reached 42 percent by the end of 2018 and our aim is to achieve a share of 45 percent by 2020.

Employees at the national companies show their commitment to society in many different ways. This commitment (corporate volunteering) frequently focuses on helping people who are not yet able to help themselves - children and young people in need. Corporate volunteering  is very popular at almost all of our national companies. Core data is collected within the context of international implementation of engagement‎‎@telekom.

In view of the massive challenges involved in aid work for refugees, our Board of Management set up its own task force in August 2015. It pools our various aid programs in Germany to ensure that support can be provided faster and with less red tape. In 2018, more than 100 intern positions and about the same number of apprentice positions have been filled with refugees. Further information is available here.

  Data verified by PwC.