TELUS 2018 Sustainability Report – Good Business, Doing Good
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GOOD BUSINESS, DOING GOOD 2018 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT Contents ABOUT THIS REPORT 4 Building stronger communities 53 Impact and measurement 53 Report scope 5 Community Boards 56 Forward-looking statements 6 Launching the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation 57 Limited assurance report 7 Connecting for good 57 CEO LETTER 10 OUR SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE 60 TELUS in 2018 21 Contributing to the Canadian economy 62 Financial and operating highlights 63 Supporting Canadians 63 MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY AT TELUS 22 Vendor payments 63 Investing in our network infrastructure 63 Stakeholder engagement and materiality 23 Paying taxes 65 Good governance 25 Research and development 68 Risk management 27 Indigenous relations 70 Targets and Sustainable Development Goals 28 United Nations Global Compact 71 Ethics 30 Business continuity management 72 OUR PURPOSE 31 OUR PEOPLE 74 Revolutionizing access to healthcare 33 Employee experience 76 Caring for the environment 39 Monitoring engagement 76 Energy and GHG emissions 41 Turnover 76 Responsible resource use 43 Talent development 77 Environmental management 46 Work Styles 78 Board of Directors diversity representation 79 Creating a friendlier online world 50 Total Rewards 79 © 2019 TELUS Communications Inc. 2 Health, safety and well‑being 82 Health 82 TELUS is committed to leveraging our world-leading technology to Safety 82 enable remarkable human outcomes in our all-connected world. Well-being 84 We have $14.4 billion of annual revenue and 13.4 million customer Labour and human rights 85 connections, including 9.2 million wireless subscribers, 1.9 million Labour 85 high-speed Internet clients, 1.2 million residential network access Human rights 86 lines and 1.1 million TELUS TV® customers. Diversity and inclusiveness 87 With the support of our talented team, we provide a wide range of communications solutions to consumers and businesses, including OUR VALUE CHAIN 91 wireless, data, IP, voice, television, entertainment, video, and home Supply chain sustainability 92 security and automation. Conflict minerals 95 Through TELUS Health, we are enabling improved health outcomes Privacy and trust 95 for Canadians, advancing our position as the leading provider of Anti-bribery and corruption 97 healthcare technology solutions. TELUS International provides Transparency 97 innovative customer experience, digital transformation and business Regulatory compliance 101 process service solutions for clients around the globe. Compliance with legislation, regulation and industry codes 101 In support of our heartfelt philosophy to give where we live, TELUS Putting Customers First 104 has contributed $1.2 billion in value – through philanthropy and Leadership in customer satisfaction 104 volunteerism – since 2000. Reliability 106 GLOBAL REPORTING INITIATIVE 107 GLOSSARY 112 All financial information is reported in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. Copyright © 2019 TELUS Corporation. All rights reserved. Certain products and services named in this report are trademarks. The symbols TM and ® indicate those owned by TELUS Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2019 TELUS Communications Inc. 3 ABOUT THIS REPORT Report scope aligned with key focus areas and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our long-term targets are forward-looking information that Every year, we share our sustainability strategy and progress to help us build should be read together with the cautionary note regarding “Forward-looking trust with our stakeholders. Our target audience for this report includes TELUS statements”. team members, community members, investors, shareholders, governments, This report contains hyperlinks to other websites operated by parties other rating agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society, suppliers and than TELUS. Such hyperlinks are provided for reference only. TELUS is not others as described in the Stakeholder engagement and materiality section of responsible for the availability of these external sites, nor is it responsible for this report. any of the content, advertising, products, or other materials shared. TELUS’ Sustainability is embedded in our core business strategy and our sustainability inclusion of hyperlinks does not imply any endorsement of the material on performance provides us with social, environmental and economic opportunity. such websites or any association with their operators. Under no circumstances Through our Sustainability Report, we aim to disclose our performance on shall TELUS be held responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any loss or important issues in a way that highlights the relationship between business damage caused or alleged to have been caused in connection with the use of success and sustainable development. As signatories to the United or reliance on any content, goods, or services available on such website. Any Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which asks companies to embrace concerns regarding external websites should be directed to its respective site universal principles, we also report our progress on human rights, labour, administrator or webmaster. environment and anti-corruption. Please see our website for our 2018 UNGC Our annual Sustainability Report is just one way we communicate our progress Communication on Progress. toward reaching our sustainability goals. Our report is available on our website at telus.com/sustainability. Throughout Additionally, as signatories to the UNGC, and by having our reporting aligned our report, we highlight TELUS’ focus on how we are doing well in business, to GRI guidelines, we are using international frameworks that both inform our by doing good in our communities. We include data and information from the strategy and help us transparently communicate our progress to stakeholders. operations of some of the subsidiaries of TELUS. Each year, TELUS uses a structured process, aligned with our stakeholder engagement and materiality This allows TELUS to achieve two important goals: activities, that helps us define our report content and topic boundaries. This process includes a mapping exercise of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 1. Integrate our sustainability strategy with universal principles and principles to our social purpose, material issues and report content. We international standards declare our report in accordance with GRI Standards at the core level and have 2. Provide stakeholders with focused, comprehensive and transparent engaged Deloitte LLP to confirm our declaration. Our GRI table can be found at information about our sustainability performance. the end of this report. We use the following symbol to highlight information We are always seeking ways to improve our Sustainability Report and welcome reviewed by Deloitte LLP, an Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm. your feedback and suggestions. Please send any questions or comments to Information contained in this 2018 report covers January 1 to December 31, [email protected]. 2018, unless otherwise stated. The material includes TELUS’ domestic and For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com. international operations across Canada, including the operations of TELUS International, unless otherwise stated. Also contained in this report are targets, About this report © 2019 TELUS Communications Inc. 5 Forward-looking statements Caution regarding forward-looking statements summary This sustainability report contains forward-looking statements including regarding semi-annual dividend increases through 2019), qualifications statements relating to our 2019 targets, expected performance and and risk factors as set out in Management’s discussion and analysis, multi-year dividend growth program. By their nature, forward-looking especially Sections 9 and 10, and in other TELUS public disclosure statements do not refer to historical facts and require the Company to documents and filings with securities commissions in Canada (on SEDAR make assumptions and predictions, and are subject to inherent risks. There at sedar.com) and in the United States (on EDGAR at sec.gov). is significant risk that the forward-looking statements will not prove to be Except as required by law, TELUS disclaims any intention or obligation accurate and there can be no assurance that TELUS will achieve its targets to update or revise forward-looking statements, and reserves the right to or performance goals or maintain its multi-year dividend growth program. change, at any time at its sole discretion, its current practice of updating Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking annual targets and guidance. Statements regarding our 2019 targets statements as a number of factors (such as regulatory developments are presented for the purpose of assisting our investors and others in and government decisions, the competitive environment, technological understanding certain key elements of our expected 2019 financial results substitution, economic performance in Canada, our cost reduction initiatives, as well as our objectives, strategic priorities and business outlook. Such our earnings and free cash flow, and our capital expenditures) could information may not be appropriate for other purposes. cause actual future performance and events to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, this document is subject to the disclaimer and qualified by the assumptions (including assumptions on which our 2019 annual