Transparent reporting helps companies to be sustainable and viable in the long term, drives sustainability beyond company boundaries and creates trust. Deutsche Telekom has received the “Building Public Trust Award” for excellent and consistent sustainability reporting for the fourth time, this time for the best CSRD reporting on the company's workforce in the DAX 40.
In the midst of growing global challenges, transparent, globally comparable sustainability reporting is becoming increasingly important. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) creates a comprehensive framework for this and places significantly more stringent requirements on reporting. A central concept here is “dual materiality”. This requires companies to disclose not only the sustainability risks and opportunities that affect their financial results (“financial materiality”), but also the impact of their business activities on the environment and society (“materiality of impact”). This extends the focus of reporting beyond the purely economic perspective to include the entire value chain and its impacts.
The Building Public Trust Award
With the Building Public Trust Award (BPTA), the Sustainable Finance Research Group (SFRG) evaluates the quality and consistency of the sustainability reporting of companies in the DAX 40 and MDAX that are subject to CSRD. The award is given to companies that the SFRG considers to be “CSRD-ready”, i.e. that are already well prepared for the future requirements of the CSRD. A specialist jury consisting of experts and representatives from business, academia, investors, supervisory boards and rating agencies assesses the quality and consistency of sustainability reporting. The thematic focus is on topic standards such as “climate change”, “own workforce”, “business conduct” and “governance”.
These criteria were checked for credibility, completeness and presentation using innovative analysis methods and automated text analysis. The conception and subsequent evaluation of the company reports was carried out under the direction of Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Lopatta from the Research Group on Sustainable Finance at the University of Hamburg.
Deutsche Telekom honored
Deutsche Telekom received the award for the best CSRD reporting on “own workforce” in the DAX 40. Deutsche Telekom's clear formulation of concepts, measures and goals as well as a strong focus on employee engagement and satisfaction were emphasized.
Deutsche Telekom reports annually on the progress of its sustainable actions in the areas of environment (E), social affairs (S) and good corporate governance (G) along the entire value chain in its Corporate Responsibility Report and in the non-financial statement in the Annual Report.
“Transparency and honest reporting form the foundation for trust. For us, disclosing our sustainability activities and measures is not a means of self-promotion, but has been an expression of our commitment to transparency and responsibility for over two decades. We are very proud to have received this recognition and would like to thank the expert jury for their appreciation of our efforts,” says Melanie Kubin-Hardewig, Vice President Group Corporate Responsibility.
