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| Our approach to corporate responsibility | |||
| We aim to act responsibly in all we do as a company. We want to ensure that we take full account of the social, environmental and ethical impact of our business on our customers and on the communities we serve.
Click here to see how corporate responsibility affects the different parts of mmO2. Our approach to corporate responsibility is straightforward. We believe it should be part of the normal pattern of things we do as a business - as important as getting customer service right, and as fundamental as striving to operate efficiently and profitably. Ever since our demerger in November 2001, we have striven to create a culture of responsibility throughout the Company. During the past financial year we have made considerable progress in this area. |
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| Championing corporate responsibility | |||
| In July 2002, we established a Corporate Responsibility Advisory Council, led by our Chairman, David Varney. The Council meets every two months to review corporate responsibility policy and performance and make recommendations to the Executive Committee and the main Board. Senior management, our internal audit team, functional experts and representatives from our operating businesses are all represented on the Council.
Members of the Board and the Executive Committee act as champions for different aspects of our corporate responsibility strategy. The Group's corporate responsibility management team is supported by a "virtual" team. The virtual team covers all main areas of corporate responsibility policy and practice across the Group, including environmental protection, human resources, health and community investment. Our UK, German and Irish operations have a specific corporate responsibility contact person. During the past year we have published an environmental policy, launched a major study of employment diversity within the Group and completed a new ethical purchasing policy. A highlight of the year was the launch in December 2002 of our "Can Do in the Community" programme which aims to find ways we can use our mobile services and skills to bring social benefits to the communities in which we operate. |
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| How we are seen and judged | |||
| mmO2 is now represented in some of the main sustainability funds and indices. During the year we were selected to join both the Dow Jones Global Sustainability Indexes World - which covers the top 10 per cent of some 2,500 companies around the globe - and the Dow Jones Indexes Stoxx - which tracks leading European companies. In addition we are now represented on the FTSE4Good index of top 50 UK companies and the FTSE4Good Global index. We are also a member of the Brussels-based Ethibel investment and sustainability registers.
Together with some 120 major companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange, we took part in Business in the Community's Index of Corporate Responsibility. We were among the top ranked companies overall for our performance in this field and the highest placed mobile telecoms company in the Index. These are important achievements for a company that is still relatively young. But we are ambitious and we know we have a great deal more to do. This corporate responsibility report, and the associated printed, describes the policies and processes we have put in place - or are planning to introduce - to manage our operations responsibly. We also describe our efforts to engage fully with all of our stakeholders. It covers all of our fully owned businesses and includes relevant data for the year under review. Data has been included for O2 Netherlands, the business that was sold in June 2003. The scope of this report covers the year ended 31 March 2003. This report is independently verified by the external assurance providers, Ernst & Young. Their assurance statement can be found on here. We aim to produce annual updates of this report. |
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| Reporting guidelines | |||
| We have looked at all the external reporting guidelines for corporate responsibility to assess which of them provides the most challenging criteria by which to judge our activities.
We have chosen an integrated approach in benchmarking and measuring our corporate responsibility performance. We have opted to use the Business in the Community (BITC) reporting guidelines as the framework for this report and for our wider reporting activities. In addition, to ensure that we have covered all the essential areas, we have also incorporated the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting guidelines to provide us with sub-categories not dealt with by the BITC guidelines. And we have added Health as a category of our own because we see it as important to the business. The GRI reporting framework requires that we present quantitative data covering numerous subject areas. In those places where we do not measure our performance, we have tried to illustrate our performance through qualitative information and case studies. In our determination to engage in active dialogue with all of our stakeholders, we aim to account for ourselves openly and frankly. It is important how we are seen and judged. We welcome views from all groups and individuals who want to engage with us on what we can do to improve our performance. 
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Corporate responsibility is an everyday part of our operations. It touches every corner of mmO2 in a wide variety of ways and we aim to manage all aspects of it carefully. This section describes the issues we are addressing in the different areas of the business.
 As a sizeable company, employing some 12,000 people, we operate a number of offices and buildings as well as a network of call centres in the markets we serve. We aim to run these buildings efficiently, with minimal impact on the environment and to ensure we provide a safe and healthy workplace for employees. The issues raised include: energy usage and efficiency, emissions, landscape and bio-diversity, waste management, recycling, health and safety standards, employment practices, community liaison and dialogue.  Our shops are one of the places where we interface with our customers. We aim to run them efficiently, offering excellent service and clear and knowledgeable help and advice. We want our shops to be a pleasant environment for our customers and our employees. The issues raised include: energy usage and efficiency, packaging, equipment recycling, health and safety, customer service standards, training, employment practices and openness and frankness with customers and employees alike.  Our networks are extensive and account for the vast majority of our energy use. They have to be widespread to provide the level of coverage our customers demand. But that means base stations and antennae are sometimes sited close to people's homes and communities. We take safety concerns about the network extremely seriously and abide by strict safety guidelines set out by independent international experts. The issues raised include: energy efficiency, use of renewable power, health and safety of our employees and of the general public, training, environmental impact, community liaison and dialogue, emissions, planning and the support of scientific research.  Many of our employees drive extensively in the course of their work. We are examining ways to use wireless technology to cut the amount of travel our employees have to do and provide clear guidance to them about safe driving. The issues raised include: emissions, fuel and energy efficiency, health and safety, employment practices, flexible working and training.  We are determined to provide excellent service to our customers and are working hard to develop a customer-centric culture throughout mmO2. The values we attach to the O2 brand are to be bold, open, trusted and clear. The customer is the most important judge of those values. The issues raised include: customer service training, employment practices, pricing policies, providing information, regulation, improving response times, listening to and acting on customer complaints and ensuring that our products are safe. |
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| PDF: THE REPORT > |
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