Stake­hold­ers’ letter

Dear Readers,

‘Which corporations come to mind when you think of a sustainable company?’ This is what 5,555 Swiss people were asked in a survey conducted by the University of St.Gallen. They voted Swisscom into the top 3 – a strong show of confidence.

2023 saw even more top rankings. World Finance magazine named us the world’s most sustainable telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions service provider for the third time in a row. Swisscom also made it to the top of the podium at the Ethos Foundation, which rates Swiss com­pa­nies according to their ‘digital responsibility’. Although such rankings are pleasing, we can’t let them conceal the fact that the global challenges Swisscom wants to play its part in overcoming are huge and will keep us busy for a long time to come.

Climate protection and the circular economy – also in our supply chains

One of the most im­por­tant issues is and remains climate protection. In the year under review, we as a Group set ourselves an ambitious net-zero target by 2035 in accordance with the SBTi. Since 1990, we have reduced our direct CO₂ emissions in the Swiss business by over 88%. In the year under review, we took various mea­sures to reduce our total emissions by 1.6% compared to the previous year. For example, we expanded photovoltaics and produced 3,49 GWh of energy in 2023 thanks to 114 new solar installations.

After delivery bottlenecks in the previous year, the foundation has been laid to get e-car procurement back on track. In addition, we now include net-zero ex­pec­ta­tions of our suppliers in tenders and have launched joint CO₂ reduction programmes with our largest suppliers. We are also making consistent progress with our own products: our latest TV-Box is made of 65% recycled plastic, is 35% more energy-efficient than its predecessor and comes with 100% plastic-free packaging.

Data-based sustainability

We enable our cus­tomers to live and work sustainably, and are convinced that the digital trans­for­ma­tion facilitates sustainability. Using carbon management solutions, we support com­pa­nies in automatically recording and evaluating their emissions. We are also continuing to invest in innovative start-up com­pa­nies that have a sustainable focus through the Swisscom StartUp Challenge, and es­tab­lished the ‘Deep Tech Nation’ foundation in the year under review with the aim of helping promising start-ups achieve a long-term breakthrough.

The digital trans­for­ma­tion en­com­passes all areas of life

The fact that the digital trans­for­ma­tion is ubiquitous in all areas of life poses challenges to and overwhelms parts of our society. Swisscom has therefore set itself the goal of preparing the Swiss population for a life that re­quires media skills. The response has been great. For example, our Swisscom Campus course platform recorded over 200,000 visitors in the year under review. Parents’ guides on topics such as ‘My first mobile phone’ were particularly popular, as were teaching units for children, for example on the en­vi­ron­mental and social aspects of a smartphone’s value chain.

New challenges

We achieved a lot of what we set out to do in 2023. However, we also face new challenges, such as the question of how to use data and new artificial-intelligence ap­pli­ca­tions transparently and consistently for the benefit of our cus­tomers and society. We are guided in this regard by our moral compass, which also guides us in all other matters. As ‘Innovators of Trust’, our mission is to achieve a positive impact for society. You, as our stake­hold­ers, trust that we will take particular ad­van­tage of the op­por­tu­ni­ties presented by the digital trans­for­ma­tion. We do our best every day to earn this trust.

Kind regards,

Stefan Nünlist

Head of Group Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Responsibility

Saskia Günther

Head of Sus­tain­abil­ity