Sustainability at Singtel

Our Group purpose, Empower Every Generation, guides Singtel’s sustainability framework and our four sustainability pillars of Climate Change and Environment, People and Future of Work, Community Impact and Sustainable Value Creation, with the aim to create a sustainable and equitable future for everyone.

Underpinning this is our focus on empowering our stakeholders, including our employees, customers, communities and suppliers, to create stakeholder trust and sustainable value as well as an equitable and inclusive future for all. This is supported by our six corporate values: Cultivate a growth mindset; Operate with integrity; Make customers first; Maximise teamwork; Innovate with a challenger spirit; and Take ownership, which form the mnemonic COMMIT, demonstrating our commitment to excellence, innovation and sustainability.

Our Group purpose and values serve as a compass to guide our strategy, governance, programmes and performance so that we deliver long-term business growth and value creation for stakeholders while delivering purpose and care for our people and the environment.

We also introduced a five-module e-learning course on the fundamentals of sustainability for our people in Singapore to raise more awareness and deeper understanding on the subject. We believe this is key to arming them with perspectives they need to advance sustainability on corporate and personal fronts.

The Board is the highest governing body and provides oversight and guidance to the Singtel Group. The Board, together with the Management Committee, provides direction on the Group’s strategy, initiatives, materiality register, targets and sustainability-related disclosures. Each subsidiary, including NCS and Optus, is responsible for managing sustainability-related risks and opportunities and implementing sustainable practices in its business and operations.

The Risk and Sustainability Committee (RSC), assists the Board in providing oversight of sustainability matters, including climate, strategy, targets, programmes and performance, in addition to risk matters. RSC also reviews the Group’s sustainability targets and performance, and endorses our sustainability and climate-related reporting disclosures.

Singtel Group Management Committee is the overarching governance body at the management level, supported by a dedicated Group Sustainability function that manages and coordinates the broader sustainability issues throughout the Group, and is headed by a Vice President who reports to the Group Chief People and Sustainability Officer. The function collaborates with key business units from the operating entities for execution and accountability.

Our ESG performance is integral to the company’s success as we strive to build a sustainable future. Given that many sustainability issues cannot be addressed overnight and require a longer-term perspective, our top executives have collective and common ESG targets representing 20% of their long-term incentive plans. These targets cut across key sustainability themes like climate change and environment, community impact, and talent and people. They include specific, time-bound KPIs such as reaching 32% of female employees in management and one million persons and SMEs in our digital enablement programme by FY2025. This is to advance the sustainability agenda and embed deeper accountability and ownership across the company.

In addition, Management Committee members have ESG targets for their short-term incentive plans, which comprise 10% of their annual balance scorecard performance. While they relate to common sustainability themes, the focus and weightage may vary for each executive given their different levels of influence and impact on these ESG KPIs. For example, energy efficiency and decarbonisation targets carry more weightage for members with energy-intensive functions or a stronger role in influencing the company’s decarbonisation strategy. The Management Committee’s KPIs are cascaded down to their business units, departments and employees, whose performance bonus and other incentives are tied to their KPIs.

At the execution level, we have formulated steering committees and working groups for Singapore, Australia and our regional associates. These groups comprise representatives from business and corporate functions, and are actively involved in developing and implementing our sustainability strategy and programmes in their respective countries. We bring the various working groups together regularly to drive and collaborate on sustainability programmes in key markets, as well as share best practices across the Singtel Group of companies.

Risk management

Singtel Group identifies, assesses and manages risks to mitigate potential adverse impacts on the sustainability of our business. We have a comprehensive Risk Management Framework which sets out our governance structure for managing risks, risk philosophy, risk appetite and tolerance levels, management approach and risk factors.

Our Enterprise Risk Management rating and methodologies define the impact and likelihood of the risk used to identify, assess and prioritise key sustainability-related risks including climate ones. In addition, through stakeholder engagement and materiality assessments, we regularly review and assess the ESG risks and opportunities that exist or are emerging in our broader value chain. We have undertaken a climate scenario analysis to understand the climate-related financial risks on our business which was first reported in our standalone TCFD report.

Our risk categories include sustainability-related risks like environmental sustainability, of which climate change risk is a subset, while human resources as well as data protection and privacy are key strategic operational risks for the Group. We continue to monitor and mitigate our exposure to them through appropriate risk management strategies and internal controls.

Ethics and compliance

Singtel Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity, corporate governance and ethics. Our Group purpose and values guide the way we operate and hold ourselves accountable for our business decisions and actions, including full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

This commitment is supported by a comprehensive framework that covers strong leadership and corporate culture, robust and effective internal controls and policies, and risk management. Our Internal Audit, Group Risk Management, Legal and Group People and Sustainability functions work closely with our business units to continuously uplift our corporate governance, raise staff awareness and train our people.

We have enhanced our corporate governance practices by establishing a dedicated anti-bribery and corruption compliance function within the Group Risk team, reporting to the Group Chief Corporate Officer and Board Risk Committee. Besides the Singtel Group Code of Conduct for employees, we have a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for our Board of Directors as well as a Supplier Code of Conduct.

We engage our internal and external stakeholders through regular dialogue on an extensive range of topics using various platforms and feedback mechanisms. This is on top of our regular interim and formal materiality assessments. With a deep understanding of all our stakeholders – their changing needs and interests as well as emerging concerns – we ensure the relevance of our sustainability strategy and programmes to deliver the intended outcome and impact. Regular engagement also gives us the opportunity to initiate collaboration and be part of formulating or facilitating a solution.

As environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations become increasingly important investment criteria for investors, we engage them regularly to communicate our sustainability goals, plans and progress. These sessions help us understand their views on sustainability and how it influences their investment decisions. For example, our investors are very interested to understand what Singtel is doing to address environmental impact and climate change, data protection, sustainable supply chain management and digital inclusion for underserved communities. Through our sustainability-linked financing, we also give investors an opportunity to participate in our sustainability journey.

We conducted our last formal stakeholder engagement and materiality assessment in 2021 across Singapore and Australia. We also undertook an abridged interim materiality assessment in 2023. This exercise resulted in a list of material topics and issues that our stakeholders are most concerned with. These key topics formed our areas of focus from FY2021 to FY2025. More details of our stakeholder expectations can be found here.

We are fully committed to listening to our stakeholders, who can share their views and comments anytime with us via email to sustainability@singtel.com.

In 2023, at the halfway mark of our 2025 sustainability goals, we undertook an abridged interim materiality assessment in line with the new GRI 2021 Standards. With the new materiality methodology, greater emphasis was placed on the impact of our business operations in Singapore and Australia on people, environment and economy, including human rights.

For the materiality assessment, we performed an internal review of our business activities and relationships, and the ESG issues pertinent to the telecommunications and ICT industries through desktop research and peer benchmarking. This helped us understand the positive, negative, actual and potential impacts that Singtel Group creates. Based on our assessment, we listed the relevant potential and actual impacts of our operations, products and services, as well as major value chain activities. We then assessed the significance of each impact by considering its severity, including the potential for remediation of negative impacts and likelihood of occurrence for potential impacts. We prioritised the impacts according to their significance and derived a list of material topics.

These material topics have been grouped under our four sustainability pillars. 

Our ten material topics 

The Singtel Group respects and promotes human rights across our operations to create sustainable value and an equitable future for all. The telecommunications sector is exposed to a range of potential human rights impacts, both positive and negative. For example, access to telecommunication services can support children’s right to education but also expose them to harmful online content. We pay attention to where vulnerable groups – including children, seniors, migrant workers and persons with disabilities – may be particularly affected. Read the Singtel Group Human Rights Statement.

We conducted our first salient human rights issues assessment together with our key business units in Singapore and Australia. We have identified six salient human rights issues where the most severe human rights impacts could occur, along with actions to mitigate any risk and gap. Moving forward, we will work closely with our people, business partners, suppliers and other stakeholders, including civil society organisations, to better understand and address these impacts.

1. Support safe and fair work in our supply chains

We have large, diverse and extended supply chains, which may expose workers to labour exploitations, like substandard working conditions, especially migrant workers. We are committed to sustainable supply chain management and engaging our suppliers to set clear expectations for these areas such as respect for workers’ human rights.

2. Promote user safety, well-being and access to services

As a major enabler of the digital ecosystem through our digital services and products, we recognise that network failure or poor service and product quality can negatively impact the well-being of our customers. We also focus on maximising the positive impact of our services through digital safety and inclusion while taking preventive steps to mitigate the negative impacts on children, youth and other vulnerable users.

3. Safeguard data and privacy of customers and employees

We place utmost importance on safeguarding the right to privacy of our customers and employees. With the increasing prevalence and severity of cybercrime, we seek to uphold the highest standards of data privacy protection and cyber security measures as we develop and expand our digital businesses and services.

4. Protect our environment

The telecommunications value chain can involve a range of potential environmental impacts which negatively affect the well-being of communities, ranging from the build-up of hazardous waste to displacement through land clearing. We endeavour to limit our operation’s environmental footprint through initiatives such as close engagement with suppliers and key stakeholders, decarbonising our operations and promoting circularity across our value chain.

5. Provide a safe and equitable workplace

Our employees have the right to a safe and equitable workplace that is free from harassment and discrimination. We actively promote health, safety and equal opportunity at the workplace, and foster a culture of trust, respect and inclusion.

6. Respect the human rights of communities

Our operations and value chain may involve a range of potential human rights impacts that could significantly harm local communities or disrupt their way of life. We will collaborate with our suppliers, business partners and other stakeholders to assess and address these potential human rights impacts on communities.

We have set five-year 2025 sustainability targets for the ten most material topics for the Singtel Group. We report our plans, achievements and progress towards these targets in our annual sustainability reports. 

We have identified six priority UN SDGs where we can create the most significant impact for our society and environment. These SDGs are aligned with our key focus areas and programmes. Building a sustainable future for all requires the commitment and effort of all stakeholders involved. SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals – therefore underpins our sustainability strategy as we seek collaboration with stakeholders to create shared value and positive impact.