Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today released its 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, posting it on the company’s web site rather than printing thousands of paper copies. Alcatel-Lucent also is taking this virtually paperless approach with its 2008 financial report as one step to help the company reach its aggressive goal of cutting its 2008 carbon emissions in half by 2020.
The CSR report is a comprehensive review of the company’s goals and achievements in meeting its obligations to operate as a responsible and involved corporate citizen in the communities around the world where its employees and customers live and work. The report includes detailed descriptions of its actions through 2008, a month-by-month timeline of the activities undertaken throughout the year to support CSR initiatives and the goals it is setting for itself for future years.
In his introduction to the report, Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen notes: “A striking development over the past decade has been the recognition that Corporate Social Responsibility has become essential to business strategy, critical to building a stronger business and vital to a company’s long-term success. For Alcatel-Lucent, CSR is about being a values-driven company where values are not just words on a piece of paper, but things we do automatically. It’s about being a company that is a responsible citizen everywhere we do business. . . . My ambition is for Alcatel-Lucent to be best in class in CSR and to be a values-driven business that will make us a better company and underpin our financial success.”
The report highlights actions taken in five areas:
- Reducing the impact of Alcatel-Lucent products on the environment and enabling the deployment of eco-sustainable networks for its service providers and enterprise customers
- Minimizing the company’s carbon footprint and improving its overall environmental, health and safety performance for more efficient and eco-sustainable operations
- Fostering a corporate culture that opens up opportunities for employees
- Working with suppliers to create a socially responsible supply chain
- Becoming involved in the communities where Alcatel-Lucent employees and customers live and work
Alcatel-Lucent energy efficient products and more sustainable networks – The report includes an extensive section on the work the company is doing to address climate change as it takes steps to reduce its own impact on the environment while developing the products, technologies and applications that will enable other industries to operate in more eco-sustainable ways. The company has committed to improve the energy efficiency of key products by at least 20 percent over the next two years. In 2008 Alcatel-Lucent had developed eco-declarations for more than 95 percent of its product portfolio. These summarize the impact these products have on the environment, taking into account characteristics such as energy consumption, emissions, material content, packaging and disposal concerns. The company is creating innovative techniques to ensure network equipment uses less power with no impact on performance. For example, the company introduced the Dynamic Power Save feature for its GSM/EDGE mobile networking portfolio. This feature cuts back power consumption when traffic drops, reducing average consumption by as much as 30 percent and can be installed on all of the 500,000 base stations deployed since 1999. The company also set up an alternative energy lab and pilot site in France, and the company and its Bell Labs research arm is developing innovations in areas such as energy-efficient networks, solar and wind-powered base stations, smart metering, and smart power grids that help service providers, businesses – and even consumers – reduce their energy use and shrink their carbon footprint.
Alcatel-Lucent’s commitment to eco-efficient operations – In 2008 the company measured its CO2 emissions and committed to reducing its current global annual output of about 1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions by half by 2020. To reduce energy use it is improving insulation in its buildings, installing more energy-efficient lighting, consolidating facilities where possible, initiating waste recycling programs and minimizing the need for travel by enhancing the company’s videoconferencing capabilities at many of its facilities. By eliminating the mass printing of the CSR and financial annual reports this year, the company will avoid using 748,000 sheets of paper, the equivalent of a stack as high as a 40-story building. Responsible management of hazardous and electronic waste is a keystone of Alcatel-Lucent’s commitment to protecting the environment and the health and safety of employees, customers and communities. In the U.S., the company was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for recycling customers’ lead-acid batteries and preventing 1 million kilograms of hazardous materials from entering the nation’s waste stream.
Opportunities for employees – Alcatel-Lucent strives to provide its employees with a range of opportunities to develop their skills, contribute to meaningful projects and have access to the people and programs that will help them reach their professional goals. In 2008, our 77,000 employees averaged 18 hours of training and some 55,000 employees received formal training at 20 accredited centers around the world through the Alcatel-Lucent University, which was one of only 14 corporate learning organizations in Europe awarded a certificate of quality by the European Foundation for Management Development. The company also focuses on diversity, and more than 100 nationalities are represented among its employees. There was an emphasis on ensuring that women play a larger role in business around the globe and Alcatel-Lucent has developed a range of training, mentoring and coaching tools designed to support women’s career development.
Socially responsible supply chain – The company carefully evaluates how its suppliers operate to ensure they fulfill their ethical, social, environmental and health and safety responsibilities. Alcatel-Lucent enhanced its supplier evaluation process in 2008 to ensure that CSR considerations are embedded in all purchasing processes. In 2008, more than two-thirds of Alcatel-Lucent’s global procurement volumes came from suppliers whose CSR practices had been assessed, representing some 600 assessments with more than 550 suppliers. In 2009, the company will enhance its assessment methods and employ software and services that will present assessment results according to internationally recognized indicators.
Community involvement – Alcatel-Lucent strives to be a responsible and active member of the many communities around the world it touches. On a global basis it has signed the United Nations Global Compact and is a member of the World Economic Forum. It continued its involvement in the development sector of the International Telecommunication Union, which helps developing countries expand access of communications capabilities to more of their citizens. Employees are involved in their communities wherever they do business, giving their time and money to worthy initiatives around the world. The Alcatel-Lucent Foundation leads the company’s charitable activities, managing grants and employee volunteering on a global scale. During its month-long International Days of Caring event, Alcatel-Lucent employees volunteered some 85,000 hours to company-organized or supported projects. In 2008, the Foundation continued its support for “Cercle Passeport Telecoms,” an industry program designed to help young people from disadvantaged urban areas in France gain access to better career opportunities. The company provided these students with more than 150 mentors, including U.S. employees who regularly telephoned them to help the students develop their English-language skills. After the devastating earthquakes in China in May 2008, the Foundation provided funding for temporary schools, including funds to help cover the costs of movie equipment, libraries and sports equipment.
Alcatel-Lucent’s 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility report is available at
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/csr/csr-report/Alcatel-Lucent-CSR-Report-2008-EN.pdf.
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions that to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
