Stronger Together: TELUS Sustainability Report 2017
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Stronger together TELUS Sustainability Report 2017 Contents Forward-looking statements 4 Stakeholder engagement 58 Report scope 5 Limited assurance report 6 Approach 59 Identifying material issues 60 Our purpose 9 Indigenous Peoples relations 62 United Nations Global Compact 62 Approach 10 Enhancing supply chain sustainability 63 Targets and Sustainable Development Goals 10 Procurement and Supply Operations 63 Demonstrating leadership 13 End-to-end collaboration 63 CEO letter 13 Building mutually beneficial relationships 63 Chief Sustainability Officer letter 16 Driving sustainability in procurement and supply chain 64 Taking action 18 Improving TELUS’ Supplier Code of Conduct 64 Together, we are building stronger communities. 18 Expanding TELUS’ Supplier Diversity Program 64 Caring for our planet 26 Monitoring our critical suppliers’ Corporate Social Responsibility 65 Responsible resource use 33 Process improvements in our value chain 66 Creating better health experiences 39 Looking ahead to 2018 67 Educating future leaders 42 Community Boards 68 Contributing to the Canadian economy 45 Research and development 70 Creating shared value 45 Supporting Canadians 48 Investing in our networks 52 Putting customers first 72 Approach 73 Good Governance 54 Privacy and trust 73 Transparency 76 Approach 55 Product and service responsibility 79 Sustainability governance 56 Innovative products and services 80 Sustainability Leadership Team 56 Network and systems reliability 82 Sustainability Council and Green Teams 56 Customers First 82 Ethics and integrity 57 Reliability 82 © 2018 TELUS Communications Inc. 2 Regulatory compliance 83 Learning and development opportunities 91 Compliance with legislation, regulation and industry codes 83 Work Styles 93 Accessibility 86 Board of Directors Diversity Representation 94 Total rewards 95 Business continuity 87 Recognition 97 Planning, readiness and testing 87 Looking ahead into 2018 98 Collaborating with communities and industry 87 Health, Safety and Wellness 99 Responding to incidents 87 Health 99 Recognition 88 Safety 99 Current and future focus 88 Wellness 100 Our people and culture 89 Labour and Human Rights 102 Labour 102 Approach 90 Human Rights 103 Employee Experience 90 Diversity & Inclusiveness 105 Global Reporting Initiative 108 Monitoring Engagement 90 Turnover 91 Performance development 91 Glossary 121 © 2018 TELUS Communications Inc. 3 Forward-looking statements Caution regarding forward-looking statements summary This sustainability report contains forward-looking statements including Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements relating to our business outlook and expected performance, statements as a number of factors (such as competition, technological our 2018 targets, our capital investment plans, our multi-year dividend substitution, regulatory developments, government decisions, economic growth program, and statements regarding our sustainability plans and performance in Canada, our cost reduction initiatives, our earnings and free objectives including those describing our planned strategic sustainability cash flow, and our capital expenditures) could cause actual future performance initiatives, plans for our community board programs and charitable and events to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking giving, supplier relationships, cost forecasts, real estate plans, employee statements. Accordingly, such statements are made subject to the disclaimer relations, and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward- and are qualified by the assumptions (including assumptions on which our looking statements are typically identified by the words assumption, goal, 2018 annual targets and guidance are based and regarding semi-annual guidance, objective, outlook, strategy, target and other similar expressions, dividend increases through 2019), qualifications and risk factors as set out or future or conditional verbs such as aim, anticipate, believe, could, in the Management’s discussion and analysis in our 2017 Annual Report, expect, intend, may, plan, predict, seek, should, strive and will. By their especially Sections 9 and 10, and in other TELUS public disclosure documents nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and and filings with securities commissions in Canada (on SEDAR at sedar.com) predictions, and are subject to inherent risks. There is significant risk that and in the United States (on EDGAR at sec.gov). the forward-looking statements will not prove to be accurate and there can Except as required by law, TELUS disclaims any intention or obligation be no assurance that TELUS will achieve our targets or performance goals to update or revise forward-looking statements, and reserves the right to (including our sustainability objectives) or maintain our multi-year dividend change, at any time at its sole discretion, its current practice of updating growth program. annual targets and guidance. © 2018 TELUS Communications Inc. 4 Report scope Every year we share our sustainability strategy and progress to help us build independent assurance of select key sustainability performance indicators. trust with our stakeholders. Therefore, we declare our report in accordance with GRI-G4 guidelines at the core level and have engaged Deloitte LLP to confirm our declaration. We use Sustainability is embedded in our core business strategy and our sustainability the following symbol to highlight information reviewed by Deloitte LLP, an performance provides us with social, environmental and economic opportunity. Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm. Through our Sustainability Report, we aim to disclose our performance on important issues in a way that highlights the relationship between business Information contained in this 2017 report covers January 1 to December 31, success and sustainable development. As signatories to the United Nations 2017, unless otherwise stated. The material includes TELUS’ operations across Global Compact (UNGC), which asks companies to embrace universal Canada and internationally, as well as the operations of TELUS International principles, we also report our progress on human rights, labour, environment in other countries, unless otherwise stated. Also contained in this report are and anti-corruption. targets, aligned with key focus areas and the Sustainable Development Goals. Our long-term targets are forward-looking information that should be read To continuously improve our sustainability reporting, each year we review how together with the cautionary note regarding Forward-looking statements. All we: financial Information is reported in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. • Construct and build our report Certain products and services named in this report are trademarks. The TM ® • Manage data and create content that matters symbols and indicate those owned by TELUS Corporation or its subsidiaries. • Share our report, so that it is relevant, timely, accessible and EcoLogo and PrescribeIT are trademarks owned by third parties. understandable for stakeholders. We are always seeking ways to improve our Sustainability Report and welcome Our report is available on our website at telus.com/sustainability. Based on your feedback and suggestions. Please send any questions or comments to stakeholder feedback, and our goal of continuous improvement, in addition to [email protected]. our report, we have added complementary information, stories and data on our TELUS is Canada’s fastest-growing national telecommunications company and website that will be updated regularly. provides a wide range of communications products and services, including Throughout our report, we highlight TELUS’ focus on how we are making the wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment, video future more friendly. We include data and information from the operations of and home automation, including security. TELUS, headquartered in Vancouver, some of the subsidiaries of TELUS International (Cda.) Inc. (TELUS International) British Columbia, is also Canada’s leading healthcare IT provider, and TELUS and have once again increased the scope of our climate change disclosure. We International delivers business process solutions around the globe. believe that best sustainability reporting practices include alignment to widely For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com. accepted reporting and disclosure standards as well as securing third-party © 2018 TELUS Communications Inc. 5 with respect to the selected performance indicators that we reviewed. Our criteria were Limited assurance report based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. Our procedures included: To: The Board of Directors and Management of TELUS • interviewing relevant TELUS management and staff responsible for data collection and reporting; • obtaining an understanding of the management systems, processes and the Our scope of our work relevant controls used to generate, aggregate and report the data at TELUS We have undertaken a limited assurance engagement of the accompanying selected regional operations and head office; corporate-wide and business unit performance indicators (Appendix A) included in TELUS’ • reviewing relevant documents and records on a sample basis; 2017 Sustainability Report (the Report) for the year ended December 31, 2017. • testing and re-calculating information related to the selected performance indicators on a