Digital Realty Trust

No evidence was found of the company having leading practices in this area.

No evidence was found of the company having leading practices in this area.

Digital Realty Trust follows best practice by reporting on senior-level responsibility for cybersecurity, having a dedicated security incident response team and having international information security management certification. It also discloses the number of data breaches.

The company demonstrates support for non-profit start-ups and those founded by members of underrepresented groups. The company has a commitment to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Digital Realty Trust has an opportunity to contribute to universal and affordable access to digital technologies for vulnerable groups and digital opportunities for women and girls. Additionally, the company could disclose the number of its employees with disabilities and how the economic value it generates is distributed among stakeholders, as well as its taxes paid and employment in its main markets of operations.

No evidence was found of the company’s activities supporting digital skills development or school connectivity. Digital Realty Trust has an opportunity to offer initiatives in this area, particularly for vulnerable and underrepresented groups.

Digital Realty Trust can enhance transparency by providing a link to its information security management certification and producing a transparency report. The company should also make a high-level commitment to child online safety and cybersecurity.

Little evidence was found of Digital Realty Trust supporting open, sustainable and inclusive innovation. The company has an opportunity to support open source initiatives and standards. It could also disclose the number of its women employees working in tech roles and how it applies inclusive and ethical considerations in research and development (R&D) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Digital Realty Trust commits to respecting human rights. The company also has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the ILO core labour rights, and it expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. However, it is not clear whether the company is committed to respecting the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in all contexts and locations. Furthermore, the company does not disclose a process to identify, assess and take action on salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. Moreover, Digital Realty Trust describes the various stakeholders it engages with in general, but it does not specify whether it engages with stakeholders whose human rights could be affected by its activities. While the company has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints, it is unclear if complainants are able to choose to remain anonymous.

Digital Realty Trust publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety. The company also discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, the company does not have a publicly available policy document stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours. Furthermore, the company does not disclose a public commitment towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. In relation to workforce diversity, the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. It has an opportunity to disclose against other indicators of diversity per employee category.

Digital Realty Trust has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. The company has a global tax strategy, but it does not disclose its income tax payments for its individual tax jurisdictions. Digital Realty Trust does disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. However, it has no public statement indicating that it does not make political contributions, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.