American Tower

American Tower facilitates digital access through several initiatives. Since 2012, it has been running the Digital Communities programme, which provides internet at its tower sites to provide economically disadvantaged communities access to digital connectivity. So far, the programme has served approximately 200,000 people across Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Perú and Uganda. Further, under the Girls in ICT initiative, American Tower provided digital training to over 3,000 girls in Ghana and technology devices and internet access to enable Chilean women to acquire digital and entrepreneurial skills.

American Tower contributes to the development of intermediate digital skills through its Digital Communities programme. Notably, the initiative has awarded almost 193,000 training course certifications, of which 2,100 graduates have found employment as a result of the skills and certifications obtained through the programme.

American Tower has assigned clear responsibilities for cybersecurity oversight. Additionally, it has a security incident response team and discloses the number of data breaches and number of accounts affected. It also considers data privacy a key topic in its materiality analysis and has a group privacy policy.

The company demonstrates support for sustainability issues. Not only does it partner with universities on sustainability-related research, but it also uses the SDGs as a framework for setting goals and measuring progress.

American Tower could consider carrying out third-party assessments for its programmes as well as disclose the relevant financial and in-kind contributions and participation metrics for these programmes. The company also has an opportunity to contribute to accessibility initiatives and disclose the number of its employees with disabilities. Additionally, American Tower could consider disclosing how the economic value it generates is distributed among stakeholders as well as its taxes paid and employment in its markets of operation.

There is scope for American Tower to support initiatives that contribute to the development of basic and technical digital skills as well as improve school connectivity. Furthermore, the company can conduct a third-party assessment on the impact of its Digital Communities programme and disclose the relevant financial and in-kind contributions and participation metrics.

American Tower could consider making a high-level policy commitment to cybersecurity as well as make its information security management certification publicly available. The company also has an opportunity to commit to child online safety and contribute to relevant initiatives.

There is an opportunity for American Tower to contribute to open innovation. There is also scope for the company to enhance support for the tech start-up ecosystem. Additionally, the company should consider disclosing the number of its women employees engaged in tech roles.

American Tower commits to respecting human rights. Although the company commits to anti-discrimination at its workplace, it does not have a public policy document committing to upholding all of the ILO core labour rights. Nevertheless, it expects its business relationships to respect the ILO core labour rights. The company also has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints. However, American Tower does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on the salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. The company also does not engage with stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its operations.

American Tower publicly commits to respecting workers’ health and safety, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships. However, it does not disclose quantitative information on workers’ health and safety, such as workplace injuries. It does disclose the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, the company does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours, nor does it explicitly state that it requires its business relationships to make this commitment. While American Tower is committed to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and already has more than 30% women on its board, it has not set time-bound targets on the subject. In relation to workforce diversity, the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender and race/ethnicity. However, it does not disclose employee breakdowns against other indicators of diversity, such as age group.

American Tower has anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies and includes anti-corruption and anti-bribery clauses in its business relationship contracts. The company also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise relevant concerns. However, it does not have a global tax strategy, nor does it disclose its income tax payments for individual tax jurisdictions. While American Tower discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement and has a public statement indicating that it does not make political contributions, it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.