As a trusted partner, our economic performance is part of a much broader sustainable approach. This means our investments and innovations promote the development of tools and technology that create value for our customers, employees and society as a whole.
Regional connectivity
With operations in nearly 200 countries and territories, we are continuing to expand our networks to offer enhanced connectivity to ever more individual and business customers. We offer 4G in 8 countries in Europe and 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East. We’re also deploying 5G across Romania, Poland, Luxembourg, France, Spain and Slovakia.
Our very high-speed broadband services also include fiber. By year-end 2020, we provided converged services to more than 11 million customers and fiber to an additional 9 million customers out of 47 million connectable households (source: Shareholders’ Meeting on 18 May 2021, Ramon Fernandez). Thanks to our own deployment efforts – in cities and rural areas – and the development of third-party networks – we aim to open our offer to more than 65 million households across Europe by 2023.
€4.7 billion
regional investment in 2020
+ 65 million
European households with access to Orange fiber by 2023
Supporting our employees
Our Orange teams are our greatest asset, so we want to ensure they have the best possible experience: one that is caring, inclusive and digital. The pandemic meant we had to accelerate remote working. We’re now consulting with employees to see how we can reinvent future working methods while meeting everyone's ongoing needs and expectations.
With our employment rate for people with disabilities above 6,47%, Orange is also continuing to proactively recruit and support them while ensuring our buildings, products and services are as accessible as they can be.
+ €1.5 billion
invested in skills development
+ 4,051
employees with disabilities recruited in France (Orange SA)
Through our pioneering gender equality policies, we promote a balanced representation of women and men in all professions, particularly technical and digital. Today, women represent 36% of the active workforce and 34.1% proportion within leadership networks (top 1,300).
In April 2021, neurodiversity was incorporated into our equal opportunities policy through the Neuroteam program. Sponsored by our CSR and HR functions, Neuroteam facilitates collaboration within teams, to limit the biases and stereotypes of neurotypical and atypical people, recruit new talent, and think differently about innovation.
Stimulating entrepreneurship
Orange is also contributing to positive progress by encouraging innovation – and thereby creativity, efficiency and positive social impact – that makes life even easier for people. Everywhere we operate, we support the digital ecosystem and acceleration of promising start-ups. From incubation to acceleration, increased visibility and finance, we offer a variety of support mechanisms.
Orange Digital Investment holds Orange’s €350 million contribution to the internal Orange Ventures fund and has committed an additional amount of over €400 million in funds managed by external management companies. Over the 15 years to 2021, nearly 500 companies have been directly or indirectly financed by Orange.
Financing sustainable projects
In 2020, Orange met its first sustainability commitment by successfully issuing a €500 million Sustainability Bond. The projects selected and the allocation process will be overseen by Orange’s Sustainability Financing Committee. Allocation of the proceeds will be annually audited until completed and a yearly update on the impacts of investments will be provided to investors.
Leading by example as a business
Trust, a key factor for sustainable performance, requires unfailing integrity and best practice business conduct when it comes to ethics, respecting human rights and protecting the environment throughout the value chain.
- Zero tolerance for corruption
We have implemented a zero-tolerance policy for corruption, breaches of democracy and discrimination. To guarantee compliance our Vigilance Plan includes sections on identifying and analyzing risks, guidelines, training and best practices.
- End-to-end responsible purchasing policy
All of our supplier contracts include a code of ethics that describes the ethical, social and environmental behavior that we require of them. Compliance with these commitments is closely monitored as part of an assessment program, which was strengthened in 2019. We also monitor the CSR performance of our suppliers on the EcoVadis platform and carry out numerous local audits.
728
CSR audits carried out by the Joint Alliance for CSR (JAC)
in 39 countries
to improve the working conditions of 1,4 million employees since 2010.
Supporting the economic recovery
Digital technology became even more essential during the pandemic to ensure the business continuity of our economies, and it is also central to an inclusive and sustainable recovery. It concerns all sectors, both public and private, from industry to commerce, transport, logistics, health, education and more. Through Orange Business, we use our dual expertise as a network operator and digital solutions integrator to support the transformation of companies, institutions and organizations.
Evaluating our impact
We measure the impact of our actions and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations in its 2030 Agenda. We’ve identified the SDGs where we feel we can have the greatest impact and correlated these with our purpose and Engage 2025 objectives and commitments.
We also carry out studies to assess the economic and social value that we help create in our countries. We analyze the cash flows generated by our activity as well as the indirect benefits resulting from the use of our infrastructures, products, services and our CSR programs (Orange Foundation initiatives, electronic waste collection projects, financial services inclusion, etc.).
