Meanwhile, 73.3% announced at least one measure in social welfare, and 60% announced measures to improve the recycling capabilities of their operations.
The figures are the first analysis by Omdia to assess service providers’ ESG initiatives and are published in its ESG Service Provider Index. The insight confirmed green energy was accountable for the highest number of individual measures over the research period, equivalent to 25.3% of the total, followed by digital inclusion (16.7%) and social welfare (16.7%).
Omdia crunched the numbers on all telecoms company and sector ESG initiatives announced between November 2019 and November 2020 – a total of 192 announcements from the largest 15 service providers by revenues.
Paul Lambert, principal analyst at Omdia, said: “In formulating ESG strategies, service providers have followed a broad range of measures to improve their near-term ethical standing, and, over the mid and long term, reduce their impact on both the environment and their costs by using sustainable energy.
“Service providers covered in the research have also been active in putting in place inclusion, social welfare, and digital initiatives in ways that enable them to apply their strengths and capabilities in new ways to bring tangible benefits to diverse communities. Looking forwards, an industry that thrives from connecting people can be expected to accelerate its efforts to forge better connections between us, our society and the environment.”
Despite the gain, some areas under the ESG umbrella received less attention. For example, Omdia said diversity and digital ethics were two areas that saw "less activity over the research period", with 73.3% making no announcements around digital ethics and 53.3% of operators announcing no diversity measures. This was despite the significant public pledges made across the sector following the BLM movement, which started in the US in late May.
