Initiatives for issues in the telecom industry

4.2.3.Initiatives for issues in the telecom industry

Among the wide array of issues tackled by Globe, the researcher pays specific focus on the environmental and social issues particular to the telecommunica-tions industry as identified by Sutherland (2016) and can be seen in table 1. Of the 11 environmental issues mentioned by Sutherland (2016), Globe was able to tackle seven. These are (1) “carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to network operations, offices and shops, vehicles and business travel”, (2) “chlorofluoro-carbons from air conditioning and refrigeration”, (3) “lead and beryllium oxide from components”, (4) “noise from base station generators”, (5) “waste phones, network and office equipment”, (6) “waste recharge vouchers”, and (7) “water used for sanitation and irrigation of grounds”. Meanwhile, all of the three social issues were acted on by the company although most of which were in the later

0 30 60 90 120

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

20 4

18 11

19 7

97 109

92

71 86

52

Strategic Cosmetic

FIGURE 8 Trend in frequencies of Strategic and Cosmetic CSR initiatives of Globe from 2011-2016

years. These social issues pertain to (1) “procurement of raw materials”, (2)

“corruption”, and (3) “customer data privacy”. The initiatives that Globe has launched or undertaken to address these issues are presented as appendices to this study while a summary is provided in table 11. The issues specific to telecommunications that were not tackled by Globe on their reports are (1)

“electromagnetic fields from base stations and handsets”, (2) “perfluorocarbons from fire suppression systems”, (3) “solvents from installation processes”, and (4) “visual and aesthetic effects of masts and base stations”.

As can be seen in table 11, the company has made plenty of efforts to minimise their carbon footprint. In fact, among all of the environmental issues identified by Sutherland (2016), this had the most number of activities and pro-grams. Likewise, these activities and programs varied greatly in type from the simple publication of guidelines for energy conservation to investments in more efficient equipment. Worth noting as well is that the initiative to tackle waste recharge vouchers had more to do with reducing waste from the bills mailed to postpaid subscribers. There were no initiatives explicitly mentioned in Globe’s sustainability reports for the recharge vouchers but since the paperless billing initiative was somewhat comparable, it was indicated as an initiative partially tackling the issue. Meanwhile, as the construction of the company’s new head-quarters building adopted the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, it allowed the company to tackle at least three types of envi-ronmental issues. These were issues related to CO2 emissions, waste manage-ment, and water management. All the environmental issues specific to telecommunications follow the principle Reduce environmental footprint (cf. Hes-lin & Ochoa, 2008, p.131) and were then coded as strategic. Local Communities and Society were considered as the stakeholder recipients for these initiatives.

With regards to the social issues of telecommunications, the codes for soci-etal value and stakeholder recipients varied. The issue on “procurement of raw materials” mostly offered economic security to their suppliers. This is because the suppliers being referred to are social enterprises who will have substantial and stable earnings by having Globe as their customer. Initiatives tackling this issue have been manually coded as Strategic as it follows the principle “green-ing of supply chain”. For the issue of “corruption”, the initiatives tackl“green-ing this were interpreted to benefit customers from the practice of fair competition or fair treatment of customers. All initiatives relating to this issue are either “inte-grated into the company’s routine operations” or “cultivate needed talent” and were therefore coded as Strategic. Similarly, the issue on “customer data priva-cy” is tackled by initiatives which contribute to Fair Competition. Since one ini-tiative tackled this issue by discussing the relevant rights and laws to the em-ployees, then they were considered as the recipients. Although it can also be in-terpreted that the ultimate stakeholder group to benefit from the new gained knowledge of the employees are the customers. This initiative has been under-stood to help “protect labour welfare” and was thus, coded as Strategic. Mean-while, the constant monitoring of unauthorised access to Globe’s database di-rectly benefits the customers. As this initiative is integrated into the day-to-day operations of the company, then it was coded as Strategic as well.

TABLE 11 Summary of Globe’s performance in tackling telecommunications issues Issues Performance Type/s of initiative/s which tackled

the issue Strategic

1 Electromagnetic fields from base stations and handsets

Not tackled N/A

2 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to network operations, offices and shops, vehicles and business travel;

Tackled Communication ✓

Association ✓

Donation & Funding ✓

Volunteerism ✓

Adoption of Standardards & Rules ✓ Modification of Procedures ✓ Assessment & Measurement ✓

Incentives ✓

Asset Modification ✓

3 Chlorofluorocarbons from air conditioning and refrigeration

Tackled Modification of Procedures ✓

Asset Modification ✓

4 Perfluorocarbons from fire suppression systems

Not tackled N/A

5 Solvents from installation

processes Not tackled N/A

6 Lead and beryllium oxide from components

Tackled Donation & Funding ✓

Modification of Procedures ✓

7 Noise from base station generators

Tackled Asset Modification ✓

8 Visual and aesthetic effects of

masts and base stations Not tackled N/A 9 Waste phones, network and

office equipment

Tackled Donation & Funding ✓

Adoption of Standardards & Rules ✓ Modification of Procedures ✓ 10 Waste recharge vouchers Partially tackled Modification of Procedures ✓ 11 Water used for sanitation and

irrigation of grounds

Tackled Assessment & Measurement ✓

Asset Modification ✓

12 Procurement of raw materials Partially tackled Association ✓

13 Corruption Tackled Modification of Procedures ✓

Training ✓

14 Customer data privacy Tackled Communication ✓

Assessment & Measurement ✓