ABOUT THE COMPANY

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, has registered under the name of Ericsson, is a Swedish

organization who deals with multinational networking and telecommunications. It is
headquartered in Stockholm. It offers services, technology related to software and
infrastructure in information for telecommunication operators, traditional
telecommunications and Internet Protocol networking equipment, mobile and fixed
broadband, operations and business support services, cable television and video systems.
The company is headed by its president and CEO Borge Ekholm. It has a elite group of
industrious stalwarts in its board which is headed by its chairman of the board Ronnie
Leten. The company achieved a net revenue of 210.7 Billion SEK (21.5 billion USD) with an
operating income of 1.2 Billion SEK (122.7 Million USD). It is listed in various stock exchanges
such as NASDAQ in New York and Nasdaq Stockholm.
Ericsson takes pride in its human capabilities with a total of 94,756 employees originating
from different countries and cultures. The company has 23% female and 77% males in its
workforce as of Dec 31,2018. The company employs nearly a quarter of its workforce in its
R&D activities. It has issued a total of 49000 patents and nearly over 100 licensing
agreements.
The company has invested in many businesses including the successful business with Sony
communications resulting in a joint venture called Sony Ericsson Mobile communications
AB. It was responsible for product design and development, marketing, sales, distribution
and customer services. In the first quarter of 2012, Sony fully acquired Sony Ericsson.
The company is focused on many innovative practices by implementing new technologies
and techniques. It is at the forefront of developing the 5G technology. Through its initiatives
on innovation, the company is a recognized leader in 3GPP and by other major standardized
organizations.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT OF ERICSSON

Sustainability and corporate responsibility are integrated into Ericsson’s approach to its
businesses and the commitment of the company to the triple bottom line of responsible
social, environmental and economic development. The company’s approach to conducting
business responsibly is in the epicentre of its culture and strategy. The company has its
vision towards sustainability - “Empowering an intelligent, sustainable and connected
world”, provides guiding stones to what Ericsson aims to accomplish and how to contribute
to the sustainable development agenda outlined in the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)
Sustainability and corporate responsibility are an inextricable part of Ericsson’s business
which have a larger mission of having a responsible environmental performance and socio-
economic development. Ericsson believes that digitalization is integral to achieving all the
SDGs, and the delivery of internet access through mobile broadband is both a business
opportunity and a way to make a positive impact on the society. Ericsson is also committed
to reduce the risk for its stakeholders, and to minimize detrimental economic,
environmental and social impacts. Ericsson’s approach is entwined in its business
operations. Performance is regularly measured and assessed.
In order to achieve these objectives, Ericsson has initiated many such activities that brings
changes to the societies through technological innovation. Initiatives such as Technology for
good, Connected Mangroves in Malaysia, Broadband for All and Millennium Villages Project
have contributed to its sustainable vision of creating an economical and a sustainable world.

Review of Literature and Practices in the Telecom Industry

The telecom industry is documented to consume 1.53% of World’s energy. The
transformation from non-renewable to renewable sources of energy is a sustainable
solution for the industry keeping in mind the reduced costs through operational efficiency as
well as carbon credits.
The industry is slowly shifting towards power efficient means. Power efficient technology is
like to consume 80% less power in comparison to traditional technologies. Therefore, it is
not only environmentally sustainable but also economically sustainable to inculcate power
efficient technologies and practices in the telecom sector. The industry is slowly
transitioning towards renewable sources of energy; however, the problem remains, that
these sources are not always reliable and it is difficult to store energy generated through
renewable energy.
However, some of the practices fostering sustainability currently by various telecom
companies entail:
British Telecom’s website ‘Bigger Thinking’ propagates the concept of sustainability across
different demography’s be it children, adult population or Senior Citizens. It is an effective
means to reach out to different people and teach them a little something about
sustainability.
Millennium Village – It is an initiative of Ericsson where it aims to foster sustainable
development through eco solutions. The program also aims at community building and
offering technologically advanced solutions to solve problems and bring about
development.
GSM Base Stations solar powered by VNL – The company provides telecom operators cost
effective solution to serve remote areas

Blackle: Blackle is developed by Google. Blackle homepage offers a dark screen thereby
saving energy. The screen also shows the number of watt hours saved till the time of making
visit to the site. At the time of visiting the site, it claimed to have saved approximately
76409999150 watt-hours.
CISCO with its advanced optical transport network has enabled telecom companies to
reduce cost’s incurred on networks via optical consolidation.
Video Miles is another advanced software currently being employed by Telecom companies.
The tool presents accurate real time data on financial, technical and performance domains
for decision making. This data is useful for videoconferencing planning and strategy.
The above mentioned are some of the industry practices towards both economic and
environmental sustainability.
In India, the industry is making use of the concept called ‘Tower Sharing’ whereby they are
able to share towers with transparency and without any discrimination. This contributes to
saving a lot of energy.
Approximately 91000 diesel free sites have been installed by the industry. The industry has
also managed to install Li-On Batteries to store power. Therefore, the entire concept of
sustainability in the telecom sector globally and in India is revolving around saving power.

Analysis of Company in the light of SDG Compass

In 2012, The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development conceived a set of
developmental goals that aimed to address issues ranging from environmental, political and
economic upheavals that our world was faced with.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), started in 2000, a global effort to tackle
poverty. The MDGs established plottable and mutually agreed upon objectives for tackling
poverty, hunger, deadly diseases, and providing primary education to all children, amongst
other priorities. The SDGs took it a step ahead by deciding to tackle some of the more
pressing challenges the world is faced with today. All 17 Goals are interconnected, meaning
the result in one affects the other results. Handling our natural resources, achieving gender
equality and better health by eradication of poverty, and aiding peace will determine how
our economies fare. This is the one shot we have to impact the life of our future generations
in a positive way.
The SDGs went in hand with the COP21 Paris Climate Conference. These agreements
provide a list of targets for reduction of carbon emissions, and managing the risks of climate
change and natural disasters along with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
While the SDGs primarily target governments, they are also designed to include a wide
range of organizations, and prioritize sustainable development efforts around a fixed
framework. The goals are universally applicable to both developing and developed
countries. It is expected from the Governments to translate them into action plans, policies
and initiatives that are appropriate for their countries.
Most importantly, the SDGs recognize the impact that businesses can have on achieving
them. More than 1,500 companies provided input and guidance through the UN Global
Compact.
The SDG Compass helps companies in synchronizing their strategies to realize there SDGs.
The Company believes that new technologies like 5G and IoT, will be how industries, towns,
cities and countries can reduce their carbon footprints exponentially. The stakeholder
engagement approach enables Ericsson to learn about its stakeholders’ expectations and
concerns thus providing insights into the risks as well as opportunities.
The Company’s stakeholders include customers, shareholders, employees and society. By
society Ericsson means suppliers, governments, civilians, NGO’s, industry partners and
academics. Engagement methods can take a variety of forms starting from joint projects and
initiatives, meetings and surveys, participation in industry groups and representation on
decision making bodies. Other ways to gain stakeholder insights are research collaborations
with institutions and industry peers.
There are a number of areas of concern which Ericson is trying hard to address.
Privacy and surveillance: The extensive nature of ICT can result in the loss of privacy and
the growing menace of surveillance by the government or any other party. Violations of
human rights due to oversight and boundaries. The value of the personal information has
been increasing with the passage of time. The amount of data produced by the world and
the people who handle them. Having privacy in a connected world requires effort across the
industry with continuous communication between industries, governments and society.
Cyber-security: A connected economy is more vulnerable to network failures. With more
and more people adopting the concept of a connected living, the risk of data theft from
cloud as well as a failure of key infrastructure like telecommunications may lead to
catastrophic consequences. The giant steps taken in the field of robotics also will end up
disrupting certain occupations especially workers without advanced qualifications.
Diversity and Inclusion: The company has been striving hard to create diversity not just in
terms of race and gender but also including other parameters like gender orientation,
marital and parental status, disability, ethnicity and age. But this isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Ericsson’s strategy to continue to make profits makes it a tough choice to hire recruits while
also taking into account the overall diversity of the workers.
Occupational health and safety: The company take an inclusive approach to occupational
health and safety that includes employees, suppliers and public that are a part of its
operations.
Ericsson’s OHS vision is for zero major incidents, and it adopts best practices in the industry
for performing high risk tasks. Most hazards are generally confined to the site areas and
hence Ericson tries to improve OHS by regular consulting and training of the work force. But
this isn’t easy to perform as Ericson doesn’t have control over the whole gamut of
stakeholders and as a result, the lack of compliance to occupational health and safety
requirements in the supply chain cause failure in meeting the zero major accident goal.
Responsible sourcing: Sustainable management of supply chains is very important to all the
stakeholders. In 2018 the Ericsson Code of Conduct (CoC) was deployed, enhancing
compliance through its responsible sourcing program. Ericson engages a third-party audit
company to assess the suppliers. It has tried to reinforce its ethics compliance program as
well as to uproot corruption amidst the suppliers and other stakeholders so as to meet
Ericson’s integrity.
Radio waves and health: The adoption of mobiles since the late 1990’s has resulted in
increasing apprehensions of the impact of radio waves from base towers as well as the
devices that people carry around with them. Most national authorities have accepted
scientifically stated wave exposure limits as a safety threshold. All of Ericson’s products are
tested in the EMF laboratory which is a separate entity from the company and reports
directly to Ericson research. The company also provides research knowledge to its
customers to keep them updated with the latest facts and figures regarding safety from
radiations and its impact. Even though antennas or base stations have high amount of
radiation, they cull down at a distance but to prevent people living nearby from getting
impacted the company has made arrangements to prevent unauthorized access to these
areas.
Internet for all: Ericson also deploys solutions to improve mobile broadband connectivity
and affordability to enable the delivery of digital services to a wide gamut of audiences
living in various parts of the world. Even though the world is set to have 4.4 billion mobile
connections, the internet connectivity is still only about 50% leading to growing concerns
about digital inequality. The company has been conducting a joint research with The
Imperial College in London which found that an average 10% increase in mobile broadband
adoption led to a 0.8% increase in GDP.
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According to Ericsson, digitization is highly important in order to achieve all 17 SDGs. It is
also committed to reducing risk in the company and for its stakeholders, and to minimizing
negative social, economic and environmental impact. The company has set sustainability and
corporate responsibility objectives based on its strategy. It has further categorized its
objectives and tracked its performance in order to achieve these objectives. They are:
Positive Impact objectives:

Criteria Targets Current Performance

33%
Energy saving in legacy portfolio by 2022 35%
(baseline 2016)
Economic feasibility of alternative energy sources by
25% ON TRACK
2020
Female workforce by 2020 30% 23%

Internet for all by 2024 500 million ON TRACK

Risk Mitigation Objectives

Criteria Targets Current Performance

Risk assessment of the top 90% of supplier spend by
100% 98%
2020
Reduce CO2 emissions by 2022 35% 8%
Adherence to the sensitive business process by
100% 98%
2020

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Ericsson has been successful in integrating sustainable business practice into its value chain
by employing industry-wide best practices and engaging with the stake holder in order to
work towards safer environment and better future. Ericsson has been involved in
responsible business by ensuring organisational safety and health of workforce, anti-
corruption practices ensuring transparency and human rights as per the principles of UN
Global Compact and UN guiding principles highlighting Business and Human Rights.
Ericsson commitment towards climate action can be traced by its activities which involve
responsible sourcing from verified vendors scrutinizing activities from the origin to the end
product carrying out due diligence, along with the efficient utilization of raw material and
waste management of end of life products.

Ericsson has been successful in bringing down its carbon footprint by reducing energy
consumption in their own facilities, employing smart offices, improved fleet management,
improved transportation management system has been successful in switching
transportation mode from airways to surface reducing carbon emissions and prevention of
business travel by the using the virtual presence technology thus reducing the employee’s
travel requirements.

Ericsson has been leveraging the technology in order to provide accessibility and its
affordability to ensure inclusion of people at the bottom of the pyramid and improve their
livelihood and societal well-being. The application of Ericsson’s information and
communication technologies includes farming, smart cities, transportation, manufacturing
and services. Ericsson has been undertaking various initiatives to improve the environment
and life of the people and these initiatives are aligned with sustainable development goals
and they are contributing towards society in numerous ways.

The section below categorizes the sustainable initiatives of Ericsson in line with the SDGs:
S.no. UN - SDGs Ericsson's Initiatives matching the goal
Targeting the poorest nations in the South-East Asia, especially
Pakistan, Ericsson's mobile payment portals is helping provide
financial assistance to marginalized people running small
To abolish beggary or
1 businesses
poverty

The Artificial Intelligence Accelerator of PS Solutions enabled

with Internet-of-Things technologies allows for upgraded
2 Elimination of starvation
farming and agricultural capabilities leading to higher yield,
productivity, and quality of the produce from the farms.
 Ericsson's CTL platform has been a boon for education to more
than 90,000 children present in more than 25 countries. CT is a
3 Essential Education cloud platform for digital education designed specifically to
benefit students who have been left bereft of primary
education.

The Artificial Intelligence Accelerator of PS Solutions enabled

with Internet-of-Things technologies allows for upgraded
4 Soundness of Health
farming and agricultural capabilities leading to higher yield,
productivity, and quality of the produce from the farms.

Ericsson has helped the STEM Centre to set up an exclusive

Non-Discrimination based
5 camp for girls that involves courses and workshops in robotics,
on Gender
bio-chem etc.

Ericsson has teamed up with Sweden to develop new

Clean drinking water and
6 innovations to measure fog, rainfall and snow with the highest
hygiene
precision so as to identify opportunities to harvest water

In collaboration with a major South Korean company, Ericsson

Clean and Economical has developed real-time traffic monitoring devices which save
7
Energy more than 14% energy (eq. to about 29.4 Watts of power) per
device.

Ericsson helped the govt. of Brazil to accomplish its project of

Appropriate Employment proliferation of 4G connectivity which not only would go on to
8
and Economic prosperity benefit the economy of Brazil, but also provided employment to
thousands of people.

The Infrastructure Department of Netherlands sought Ericsson's

support in managing its heavy traffic infrastructure by utilising
9 Infra, Industry, Innovation
Ericsson's Internet-of-Things enabled platform to reduce the
country's transport-system congestion.

To promulgate equality in employment, Ericsson had set up

seventy centres across India that helped poor, young, and
10 Diminished Inequalities
middle-aged people become computer-literate, allowing
approx. 3150 people to secure jobs after training.
 In partnership with Netherlands, sound, water and air quality
Sustainable Societies and standards monitoring systems are being set up in specific cities
11
Towns of Netherlands which would be open to all the inhabitants of
the city.

Accountability in terms of
Ericsson collects tones of electrical waste from different African
production of resources
12 nations and sends it to its recycling centre in South Africa where
and
more than 95% of the electrical waste is successfully recycled.
their consumption

Ericsson supplied China with its latest and most advanced

telecom equipment for its transmission stations that not only
13 Climate operations
helped reduced carbon footprint, but also helped Chinese govt.
save thirty percent on operating expenditures.

Ericsson has helped Malaysia retain water in its lakes by

providing it with its cloud-based vigilance system equipped with
14 Life under water
Internet-of-Things technologies that help the govt track and
observe the growth of mangroves in the marshes.

As part of a testing and experimentation project in Italy,

Ericsson has developed technologies embedded with 5G
15 Life on Land
capabilities that help track pests and rodents on the farm, so
that the yield produced may be of higher quality.

As a supporter of an NGO called Refugees Utd., Ericsson helps

Justice, Order and refugees locate their displaced friends and family members.
16
Tranquillity Due to Ericsson's efforts, half a million refugees have registered
with Refugees Utd.

Ericsson partnered with the United Nations to re-establish

Cooperation to achieve internet as well as telecommunications network across the
17
goals West Indies when it was afflicted by a severe tropical storm two
years ago.

Following have been Ericsson’s contributions towards helping the United Nations achieve
the SDGs:

1. Poverty Elimination Initiatives:

Ericsson has worked along with the Telenor in Pakistan to build a mobile based platform
named as ‘Easy-Paisa’ to provide basic financial services to the customers across eight
hundred cities through its seventy thousand agents. This is amongst the largest mobile
money wallet deployment across the globe and helped in ensuring financial inclusion for
numerous unbanked populations of Pakistan.

2. Hunger Elimination Program

Ericsson introduced IoT based farming in Japan which is enabled by artificial intelligence and
helps in optimizing agricultural processes by the integration of multiple IoT devices
providing real-time data from the farm helping the farmers in selecting appropriate
fertilizers and generate analytics-based soil profiling.
Ericsson implemented information and communication-based technology in Malaysia to
develop mangroves connected by mobile, IoT devices and cloud integrated technologies.
The solution helps in improving the productivity along with the sustainability of the
agricultural produce by providing real-time monitoring and tracking the growth of saplings
resulting in improved survival rate of mangroves.

3. Initiatives for improving health and well-being of people

Ericsson was the amongst the front-runners fighting against Ebola in Africa, where it
provided thousands of pre-configured smartphones for volunteers and health workers with
Ebola prevention app, survey tools and treatment procedures in collaboration with UNICEF
to impede the outbreak of Ebola.

Ericsson developed a landslide tracking system based on IoT sensors installed in the
mountains in China which immediately sends communication to the mobile phones in
affected area thus creating alarm and saving multiple lives.

4. Improving Quality Education

Ericsson has been running massive online learning platform ‘Connect to Learn’ with more
than eighty thousand enrolled students across twenty countries providing access to learning
resources to the students through cloud-based learning solution and empowers the
teachers as well.

5. Promoting gender equality

Ericsson provides scholarship to the girls enrolled on its ‘Connect to Learn’ platform in
underdeveloped countries to complete their secondary education, thus providing them the
opportunity to improve their skill set and enhance employability.

6. Proper Sanitation and Clean Water

Ericsson deployed Smart water monitoring solution in Stockholm which digitally monitors
the status of drinking water in real-time starting from the source, through distribution till its
further treatment and return to the source which helps in maintain the cleanliness and
quality of water suitable for further consumption.

7. Cleaner Energy Initiatives

Ericsson deployed pure solar energy-based network station in Myanmar across the network
stations thus adopting renewable source of energy which helped in bringing down the cost
of traditional diesel-powered generators making them financially viable and accessible
across rural areas.
 8. Economic Growth and Well-being
Ericsson has successfully helped Tanzania in its digital inclusion program by providing mobile
broadband and internet coverage in Rural areas connecting more than thirteen million
people with energy efficient network site solution which brings down the total cost of
telecom infrastructure by forty percent.

9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Ericsson has always been amongst the innovation leader of telecom industry who
spearheaded the technology revolution from 2G to 5G. Ericsson allocate around fifteen
percent of their annual revenue into research and development initiatives and they lead the
innovation in the industry with a largest portfolio of above Forty-Nine thousand (49,000)
granted patents in communication technology.

10. Steps towards Reducing Inequality

Ericsson helps in improving skill set of youth in developing countries like India, Brazil where
individuals are trained in management, soft skills, technology personal development and
spoken English through audio visual technologies and these individuals are placed into jobs
as well which provides them sufficient earning opportunities

Ericsson also created digital inclusion platform which imparts learning in local culture and
the entrepreneurship to the children between age of fourteen and eighteen years. An online
lab is created which is available for the whole community.

11. Sustainable Cities and Communities

Ericsson introduced Intelligent Transport System which helps in providing connected urban
transportation system which provide Realtime traffic information and assists in
development of traffic programs which improves traffic handling capabilities, reduced
emissions, reduced travel time and improved safety. It has helped in reducing peak-hour
congestion in cities and more streamlined flow of traffic. It provides a smart traffic
management system based upon cloud technology and IoT platform which help in better
urban planning and management.

12. Responsible Consumption and Production

Ericsson has been successful in collecting the e-waste from multiple sources in Cameroon in
2017 in partnership with the telecom operator which was recycled by 98% to reduce carbon
footprint and bring down the disposal cost and risk associated with the e-waste. They have
been engaged in circular economy by carrying out recycle and reuse of end of life products.
They also carry out product take back partnership with Chile based company called ‘Entel’
which is involved in decommissioning, transportation and disposal of electronic equipment.
They were successful in taking back more than 400 tonnes of e-waste from Chile alone.

13. Actions for saving Climate

Ericsson provide Environmental Monitoring Solutions based upon massive IoT integrated
system which helps in real-time monitoring of various environmental parameters thus
assisting the understanding of pollution generation and their effective prevention measures.
Ericsson implemented ‘MicroWeather’ project in Sweden which provide local weather
monitoring capability and helps in collecting valuable climate change data helpful in
understanding climate resilience and change in weather pattern due to global warming and
other variables.

14. Improving Life Below Water

Ericsson’s water monitoring system deployed in Scandinavia helps in end-to-end tracking of
water from source to sink and helps in effective distribution, disposal handling and sewage
treatment of water. The close monitoring helps in early warning and prediction helping in
averting crisis under water.

15. Improving Life on Land

Ericsson introduced 5G connected solution for agriculture in Tuscany, Italy which uses 5G
connected Agri-Robots along with cloud integration and analytics capability which helps in
improving the interaction with the environment and helps in improving agricultural
production by optimizing soil moisture, humidity level, water level, temperature and
detecting pests, insects and parasites.

16. Institution for peace and justice

Ericsson is a leading partner of ‘Refugee United’ which helps in locating missing individuals
or families of displaced people seeking refuge. Ericsson empowers more than six lakh
registered individuals on its Refugees portal to find their loved ones.

Ericsson work in collaboration with World Peace & Development initiative to provide
training and management skills to the peacemaker in War torn cities of Uganda to start their
business from grass root level and help in nation building through economic growth. It also
provides elementary education to the youth survivors of civil war

17. Global Partnership to achieve goals

Ericsson has been working in collaboration with World food program to provide
humanitarian assistance in disaster hit areas by providing emergency telecommunication
and information system. Ericsson is part of Emergency Telecom Cluster responsible for
providing communication services in case of a disaster.
Ericsson provided emergency communication services, mobile and internet connectivity in
disaster hit Caribbean islands in 2017 and helped in restoration of telecom infrastructure.
As of now, Ericsson have taken part in more than forty disaster relief efforts across the
globe since 2000.

Ericsson has, since its inception, has strived to conduct its operations in a sustainable way.
As it grew bigger, it started streamlining its operations so as to match them with the United
Nations S.D. Goals. And in doing so, it has been one of the most successful companies of the
world. So much so, that it has received many awards and accolades not only for its
sustainability initiatives, but for a large part for its impeccable, consistent, and impactful
compliance with different global sustainability initiatives, in particular, the U.N.-S.D. Goals.
Some of those accolades, awards, and recognitions are stated as follows:
 - Ericsson is one of the world’s hundred most sustainable companies in existence as
per World’s-Economic-Forum
- Global Mobile Prize for conducting work on radio stations that operated on solar
energy
- Asia Mobile Prize for fostering reforestation in Malaysia
- Ericsson has been inducted in FTSE’s catalogue for its prominent sustainable
practices
- Rated as the top-most performer in term of CSR initiatives in the ESI Index
- Ericsson, as per Eco-Vadis ratings, is better than 99 percent of vendors in terms of its
sustainability initiatives
- EuroNext’s Europe One Hundred Twenty Index includes Ericsson in its list of a
hundred and twenty conglomerates for its potent social & environmental sustenance
practices
All the aforementioned laurels have been achieved by Ericsson because of the mapping of
its initiatives in consonance with the sustainability development goals of the U.N.