Annual and Sustainability Report 2011 - Teracom

Subsidized public transportation encourages
people to leave their cars at home
Since 2008, Boxer Sweden and Denmark have offered an environmental
bonus. The purpose of the environmental bonus has been
to encourage people to commute to work using public transportation.
More than half of all employees take advantage of this highly
appreciated benefit. In connection with the move to the new, shared
head office, the opportunity for subsidized public transport will now
be extended to all employees in Stockholm.
Corporate social responsibility
The Earth's natural resources are finite and it is important for companies to work
so that the business is sustainable. Today's generations and companies must be
able to exist and evolve while ensuring that future generations will have the same
conditions.
Being on the leading edge of this field offers great advantages since international
institutions, particularly the EU, increasingly recognize the importance of
laws and regulations supporting sustainable development. Companies that have
already adapted to become a more considerate business will have a head start
when the time comes for regulations to be imposed. As a state-owned company,
the Teracom Group already meets requirements from the owner to work with and
report on sustainability efforts. More and more companies are also requiring their
suppliers, just as Teracom Group does, to work and report on sustainability in order
to be a sustainable partner.
Our challenge is to develop our sustainability efforts, where environmental
work is an important part, as a natural part of our commercial work. Greater
emphasis will be placed on this work over the next few years.
Environmental strategy
To be responsible and competitive, the Teracom Group needs to work even more
proactively to reduce its negative environmental impact. The result will be better
control of the risks in the area, better procedures for environmental incidents and
greater credibility with customers, shareholders, suppliers, employees and other
stakeholders. The Group also has the opportunity to continually become more
effective and resource-efficient and thus also to reduce both costs and environmental
impact.
The Teracom Group wants to be at the forefront of environmental efforts.
Therefore, the Group formulated an environmental policy and set one of its
overarching business objectives to reduce its carbon footprint by three percent
annually. The Teracom Group chose this target because it plans to reduce its
carbon footprint at the same rate as the climate goals that the Government set for
Sweden, by 40 percent from 1990 to 2020. Each company will identify its biggest
impact areas annually and formulate activities in its business plans to reduce its
carbon footprint. Teracom Sweden worked on this target in 2011, but in the future
the carbon footprint reduction target will apply to all of the companies. To accomplish
this, the Group’s main principle is to streamline and control its activities.
Gradually switching over to renewable energy sources and more modern technology
will also help the Teracom Group achieve its environmental goal. As a last
resort, compensation for emissions would be considered. The biggest impact areas
for the Group are electricity and fuel consumption, followed by travel in the form
of business trips and commuting.
The biggest environmental
impact areas
for the Group are elec tricity
and fuel consumption.
Maria Åstrand, Environmental
Manager Teracom Group.
11