As a leading telecoms operator in over 30 countries serving 236m customers, Orange is at the heart of society’s digital transformation. This privileged position gives the Group the responsibility to support innovation while promoting economic, social and environmental progress.
Orange’s ambition to put digital technology at the service of society, while reinforcing its position as a trusted operator, is structured around four main fields of action:
- recognising and supporting the Group’s employees is at the centre of its development strategy. To support its commitments as a responsible employer, the Group deployed the Orange People Charter in 23 countries; it improved its occupational risk prevention measures and rolled out policies concerning workplace diversity and gender equality, for which the Group and its subsidiaries were awarded several “Top Employer” awards
- ensuring transparency, quality, security and safety for customers, in particular regarding the protection of personal data and the protection of children. The company signed the Orange Charter for the protection of personal data; set up training sessions including courses for parents; and organised numerous awareness campaigns on the safe and responsible use of new technologies
- making the benefits of the digital world accessible for the greatest number: while expanding its previous actions to bridge the digital gap, Orange has continued to develop solutions to meet consumer needs such as m-health and m- agriculture. It also explored new ways of collaboration to foster the emergence of new ideas and innovative business models
- finding innovative solutions for a greener world and promoting ecological transition: beyond its extensive projects to reduce its own environmental impacts, Orange ramped up the collection and reuse of used phones. It carried out a quantitative analysis of the rare and critical metals used in the equipment it sells and uses, in order to track risks associated with strategic metals and discuss them with its suppliers.
All these initiatives involved continual interaction with society and a renewed dialogue with stakeholders. For instance, Orange launched the Digital Society Forum to open discussions on the changes brought about by new technologies, and set up a Group information site on radio waves.
For the same sake of transparency, Orange reinforced its involvement in human rights, in particular in the area of freedom of expression and privacy protection, by active participation in the Telecommunication Industry Dialogue, a union of telecommunication operators and manufacturers, formed to establish a joint dialogue with stakeholders.
Orange is keen to share its CSR principles with its suppliers, and either directly or through partners such as BuyIn and JAC, it promotes the inclusion of CSR within their supply chains too, as at the 2013 JAC forum in China.
A responsible, audited approach with continuous improvement across the Group
Every year the Group asks Deloitte, to audit its progress. For the 2013 financial year the Group’s approach to CSR obtained the highest assurance, classified as “reasonable”, for its compliance with the AA1000APS (2008) Standard and for the roadmaps (over 300 achievements) supporting each section of the report, and for a large number of key performance indicators.
Find out more in the 2013 report and on the CSR web site.
This article was taken from here.