AT&T Releases 2016 Annual Sustainability Update: A Letter from our Chairman and CEO
By Randall Stephenson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T
Since our start, AT&T has been about one thing: harnessing the power of our network to change lives and improve the world. And just as our network technology has gotten better over the years, so has our ability to address some of society’s toughest challenges.
A great example is education, where technology is radically changing how students learn and teachers teach. In the U.S., AT&T Aspire, our $400 million education investment, is helping prepare more young people to succeed in school, on the job and in life. We’re working with external organizations – like Udacity, Coursera and numerous universities – to create opportunities for specialized online degrees or certifications. And in Latin America, our ESCUELA+ initiative has connected teachers and students in more than 7,500 schools across 8 countries to a world of educational discovery.
We’re even using these same tools to help our employees gain the high-tech skills they need as we become a more software-centric company.
Technology can also speed the transition to a low-carbon economy – from networks that use less energy and water to better ways to conserve fuel through smart traffic management. Our 2025 goal: To enable carbon savings for our customers that are 10x the footprint of our operations.
Finally, as one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, we want people to use our technology responsibly. Over almost 8 years, our It Can Wait® program has signed up millions of U.S. drivers who have pledged to keep their eyes on the road, not on their phones. And now we’re expanding our work to Mexico.
None of this would be possible without our employees, who are as dedicated to their communities as they are to their jobs. In 2016, AT&T employees and retirees volunteered more than 5.4 million hours to make their communities better places to live and work.
Leveraging technology to build a better tomorrow is something we take very seriously. I invite you to learn more about our efforts in the 2016 edition of the AT&T Annual Sustainability Update.
The AT&T Annual Sustainability Update launched, June 28, 2017. We also unveiled the methodology and first case study that shows our work to achieve AT&T’s goal to enable carbon savings 10x the footprint of our operations by 2025.
