Telia Receives Gold-Level Quality Award from CSR Forum

Telia has received gold-level quality label from the Corporate Social Responsibility Forum (CSR), which is a highest level of recognition for a fair, conscious, and environmental friendly business.

The award is given to companies who are part of the Estonian Business Responsibility Index and value sustainable development, as well as strategic social and environmental development. The CSR index includes the following categories:

• Market environment (incl. consumer issues, relations with suppliers, involving and developing communities)
• Governance and ethics (incl. involving target groups, unison with legal system, human rights and corruption)
• Natural environment
• Good employer (incl. usage of the workforce, occupational safety)

These categories are rated and the results are then summarized. The index has three levels: bronze, silver, and golden. It is important to note that, in order to receive the quality label, medium and large companies must perform equally well in all categories.

In order to reach the gold level, the company must be very responsible and reach at least 90% in all categories. Companies who receive gold-level quality label are knowingly responsible, show initiative, systematic approach, and consistency, which ensures responsible behavior on all management levels and by all employees. These companies set an example and help to spread responsible way of doing business within its industry and among associated parties. Telia received a score of 96%.

According to Katrin Isotamm, Head of Communications at Telia Estonia, the company values CSR gold-level quality label very highly and promises to continue with activities worthy of a responsible company. “Today’s acknowledgement by CSR shows that we have made right decisions in several areas, and we plan to continue in the same way. Of course, we are continuously launching new initiatives and projects that help to improve our methods even more, because there is always room to grow and develop.“

One the most recent projects initiated by Telia is Younite, which is a charity initiative enabling Telia employees to help to develop Estonian digital society. To do this, Telia gives each full-time employee 8 hours of paid time to be used for charity activities.

Corporate Social Responsibility Forum (CSR) is a movement which is becoming increasingly popular in the world. Member of CSR must meet certain values and criteria in social, environmental, work environment, and market environment categories. Each CSR member should go through an evaluation (CSR index,http://indeks.csr.ee/), performed by a team of members of various Estonian organizations, including Ministry of Justice, Enterprise Estonia, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Labor Inspectorate, Estonian Human Resource Management Association PARE, and others.