Cellnex among the five leading global telcos in sustainability

‘Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating’

The company obtained a rating of 14 points in the Sustainalytics ‘ESG Risk Rating’, improving on the previous year’s (15.5; the lower the score, the lower the risk) and consolidating its positioning in the ‘low risk’ category.

Barcelona, 5 May 2022. Cellnex Telecom has maintained its low risk ESG rating in the annual evaluation carried out by Sustainalytics, a subsidiary of Morningstar. This rating consolidates its position among the companies with the best performance in sustainability in the telecommunications sector globally.

The Sustainalytics ‘ESG Risk Rating’ evaluates the company’s exposure to risk in sustainability terms based on ESG (Environmental, Social and Good Governance) criteria and shows the commitment that the company has taken on with regard to sustainability.

The risk rating obtained by Cellnex has gone from 15.5 in 2021 to 14 in 2022 (c. 10% year-on-year improvement), maintaining the company’s place among the top five in the telecommunications sector, out of a total of 224 companies. This score consolidates Cellnex in the ‘low’ risk ESG category.

Furthermore, Cellnex ranks 1,024 out of a total of 14,662 companies evaluated by Sustainalytics in all sectors, confirming the strength of the company’s ESG programmes, practices and policies. Cellnex is in first position among the ‘peers by market capitalisation’, rising from second place in 2021.

Tobias Martínez, CEO of Cellnex, highlighted the new rating, noting that “we are proud to continue improving on last year’s performance, which confirms our commitment to sustainability.” And he added, “remaining among the TOP5 global telecommunications companies most committed to sustainability shows us that we are on the right track. ESG criteria have become a fundamental pillar of our corporate strategy. We still face great challenges and we are committed to implementing and improving our practices.”

Cellnex’s commitment can be clearly seen in the ESG Master Plan 2021-2025, approved by the Board of Directors in December 2020, which includes six major strategic lines through 92 specific actions aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All of them pursue the same objective: Driving telecommunications connectivity between territories with a common and inclusive culture and seeking to be part of the solution to society’s challenges. At the end of the first year of the plan, 97% of actions had been planned and 91% of the actions defined for 2021 had been implemented. Specifically, the Company enhanced its commitment to fighting against climate change by establishing specific emission reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) aligned with a scenario of limiting warming to 1.5ºC, based on achieving 100% green energy consumption by 2025 and reducing by 70% the emissions of 1, 2 and 3.3 of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), emissions from activities related with fuels and energy.

In terms of diversity and equality, the company is committed to  increasing the number of women in management positions and maintaining a minimum 40% female participation on the Board of Directors and increase the hiring of young talent by 30%, among other objectives.

About Cellnex Telecom

The efficient deployment of next-generation connectivity is essential to drive technological innovation and accelerate inclusive economic growth. Cellnex Telecom is the independent wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures operator that enables operators to access Europe’s most extensive network of advanced telecommunications infrastructures on a shared-use basis, helping to reduce access barriers for new operators and to improve services in the most remote areas.

Cellnex manages a portfolio of 137,000 sites —including forecast roll-outs up to 2030— in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. Cellnex’s business is structured in four major areas: telecommunication infrastructures services; audiovisual broadcasting networks; security and emergency service networks and solutions for smart urban infrastructure and services management (Smart cities and the Internet of Things (IoT)).

The company is listed on the continuous market of the Spanish stock exchange and is part of the selective IBEX 35 and EuroStoxx 100 indices. It is also present in the main sustainability indexes, such as CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), Sustainalytics, FTSE4Good, MSCI and Standard Ethics.

Cellnex’s reference shareholders include Edizione, GIC, TCI, Blackrock, Canada Pension Plan, CriteriaCaixa, Wellington Management Group, Capital Group, Fidelity and Norges Bank.

For more information: https://www.cellnextelecom.com/