Verizon

Verizon offers discounted broadband internet services to low-income households in the US through its Fios Forward programme. The company works to reduce the gender digital divide by teaching technical digital skills to girls living in rural areas in the US. Verizon also implements accessibility features in several of its products, such as its hearing-aid-compatible phones and its TV text-to-speech feature. In addition, the company co-founded the Teach Access programme through which it aims to integrate concepts and skills related to digital accessibility into the higher education curriculum.

Since 2014, the Verizon Innovative Learning programme has supported 264 schools and their students across the US with free technology, free internet and a technology-driven curriculum. The company also supports skills development by teaching technical skills to girls and partnering with Generation, an organisation which offers a reskilling programme for people looking for jobs in fields such as digital marketing and web development.

Verizon demonstrates high-level accountability for cybersecurity and clearly explains its approach to information security management on its website. The company follows best practice by reporting the government requests it receives for personal information by country. Verizon provides clear guidance on how to report online content that is sensitive to children, and discloses how it works with the authorities and other third parties towards fighting child online abuse. It also enables parents to control the content their children see online through various product features.

Verizon demonstrates best practice in promoting open and sustainable innovation. It shares the source code for its products via one platform, and it partners with academia on developing the 5G ecosystem as well as on research addressing sustainability and environmental concerns. The company provides venture capital and additional support for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the form of funding, organising business challenges and offering its 5G technology for use. Verizon discloses its carbon emissions across all scopes and applies solutions that make the grid less resource intensive.

Verizon can disclose more information about its programmes for expanding affordable internet access and digital inclusivity for women and girls. In particular, it can report the resources it contributes, the participant numbers and the resulting impact of these programmes. The company discloses how it adapts its workplace to meet the needs of its employees with disabilities. However, it can also report the number of people with disabilities it employs. Additionally, Verizon should disclose how it distributes the economic value it generates among its stakeholders and the income taxes paid and employment in its main markets.

Verizon has an opportunity to expand its support for programmes that advance digital skills and allow the participants to land a job in the tech sector. The company can also disclose the financial and in-kind contribution it makes towards the Verizon Innovative Learning programme and publish a third-party impact assessment of the programme.

Verizon reports that its information security management system is certified according to international standards, but it can make this certificate publicly available. The company can also report the number of data breaches it experiences. Additionally, the company should adopt a group-wide privacy policy that applies uniformly to all customers regardless of their location.

Verizon has an opportunity to improve its performance in the area of innovation by extending its venture capital funding to businesses owned by people from underrepresented groups. As a company that applies new technology, such as 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), in its operations, Verizon should demonstrate how it ensures its innovation activities are inclusive and ethical. This includes disclosing how many of women it employs in technical roles and which publicly available principles it commits to for ethical AI development.

Verizon commits to respecting human rights, and it has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. The company does not provide a publicly available policy statement committing to respect all of the ILO core labour rights. Verizon identifies, assesses and takes action on the salient human rights issues in its own operations. The company also identifies and engages with stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its operations. However, it has an opportunity to improve its disclosure in this area by providing specific examples of its engagement with these stakeholders. Verizon has a grievance mechanism available to both employees and external stakeholders to raise human rights complaints and concerns.

Verizon publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. It also requires this from its business relationships and monitors their performance. Verizon does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours. It also does not explicitly state that it expects its business relationships to make this commitment. Furthermore, the company provides no relevant evidence in relation to paying its workers a living wage and has not committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Verizon provides a breakdown of employees in different categories by gender, race and ethnicity. However, it can improve its disclosures on workforce diversity by reporting number of employees per employee category by age group as well.

Verizon has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationship. The company does not have a global tax strategy. It discloses the income taxes it pays in three categories: US federal, US state and foreign taxes. However, it does not disclose income tax payments for all its individual tax jurisdictions. Verizon discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement. However, the company lacks a publicly available statement indicating that it does not make political contributions. The company also does not disclose its lobbying expenditures for its global operations.

The below datasheet disaggregates scores within the three core social measurement areas and by specific indicators.