Elena Valderrábano is one of the 100 most influential women in the world of sustainability, according to the British magazine ‘Sustainability Magazine. A list in which no other Spanish name appears, although she plays it down. “I don’t know how this is accomplished,” she replies. Valderrábano surprises with her talkativeness, her spontaneity and, above all, for mastering every aspect related to business sustainability. She does not miss the latest Royal Decree or any ISO standard, it is her work since 2014. There she took over the reins of sustainability at Telefónica, one of the great Spanish firms. For almost a decade at the helm of the ESG of the Spanish teleco, she has served to “shape the future, and our present, as we live it” according to Blaise Hope, editor-in-chief of ‘Sustainability Magazine’. Valderrábano flees from that and sees it easier.
-Almost a decade at the forefront of sustainability at Telefónica, how has the company evolved in this area?
-Quite. Telefónica was a pioneer in addressing sustainability for more than two decades. At that time, in general, the companies that worked on it were those that were at risk, such as oil or textile companies. Telefónica did not have it and it was more a matter of opportunity, it was all very voluntary. As of 2014, with the non-financial information directive, it began to be mandatory for companies, and we embarked on making it a reality.
-How do you work this in a company like Telefónica? How is it transmitted?
-It is one of the most complex things. In 2014 we began to work on responsible business plans, but there was no mandate like now to do so. We were involved area by area and it had a fantastic reception.
-According to the British magazine ‘Sustainability Magazine’, she is one of the 100 most influential women in the world in business sustainability (ESG), the only Spanish firm… How is this achieved?
-The truth is that I do not know, it is a compliment and I feel very honored.
-There is a perception of many people that relates to sustainability that women carry because they consider that it is as it has always been, communication that women carry. What do you think of that?
-It is still a reality that there are more women than men, but the difference is less and less. In my working life it has always been the other way around, I have always been surrounded by colleagues, and as I dedicated myself to marketing and then to sustainability it has changed.
-But sustainability in the company has already been separated from marketing and communication, right? Now they are also actions…
– In my opinion, thinking that sustainability is in the communication part is a huge mistake, it has more to do with compliance. Sustainability goes from caring for stakeholders, to natural resources…
-They are the company in the telecom sector with the highest sustainable or green financing, why? What does it mean for a firm like Telefónica?
–When I arrived, in 2014, the first thing I did was go see the finance colleagues and ask them why we didn’t do sustainable financing. There we began a path that has led us to the current situation: close to 17,000 million euros in sustainable financing, since we launched the first green bond in the industry in 2019. In terms of emissions, we are leaders in the telco sector with more than € 6,600m of funds raised in the capital market
-What did they need to be prepared?
-See the opportunity to incorporate the telco sector; include the new sustainability criteria in the financing area and broaden the investor base. The truth is that with such an established culture of sustainability and Telefónica’s solid track record in terms of financing, it was a relatively simple process.
“Thinking that sustainability is just communication is a mistake”
-Have you given up something for this sustainable financing?
-No, it has made us have a lot of work, but it has been very worthwhile for the characteristics it has. There is a lower cost of financing, and with the green taxonomy and the regulation for financial institutions promoted by the European Union, there are more possibilities of attracting resources in the market.
-Telefónica is synonymous with communications and, now, with digitization, how can this last concept help sustainability?
– It’s completely linked. We say it many times: without telecommunications networks and digitization there is no ecological transition. Digital solutions have been shown to help reduce emissions by between 15 and 35%. On the other hand, without telecommunications networks and digitization, there is no progress either. All technological advances have to be sustained in a telecommunications network. If you don’t have it, the gap widens. We think that job destruction will be less than the creation of new jobs. What you have to fight for is that no one is left behind, something that we continuously insist on at the company.
-And how prepared is Spanish society?
-Fairly good. There is a generation, which is mine, that we are not digital natives, but there is no other choice but to adapt. Spain is a prepared society and, furthermore, we are advancing so that 100% of our broadband customers have access to fiber, this is indeed having connectivity.
-We’re talking about ESG… E stands for environmental, S stands for social, and G stands for governance. Which of the three legs is the most difficult to manage?
-(Sighs) I don’t know how to tell you. For us, the S is very intrinsic, because we are a source of progress and of avoiding inequalities. We have always seen the green part as an opportunity. And in the G of governance we are taking steps and progressing in the objectives that we have set for ourselves, but at this moment it is possibly the most challenging of the three.
-Because?
-Because there is a whole regulation that establishes that the obligations of a company go beyond what is its own management, and also covers the value chain, all the ethical aspects of human rights… This is one of the great current challenges for any company and that forces you to modify processes, because you have to link all your suppliers to achieve better conditions for everyone. And that is complex because it forces the company to completely change the way it works.
-Speaking of suppliers… Recently, they have been classified as “high risk”, which implies a greater volume of auditing and monitoring of their actions by Telefónica. Have they stopped working with suppliers for not meeting their sustainability standards?
-Not yet. We have an evaluation process, to which we as suppliers are also subject, in which there is an evaluation and improvement guidelines are set. Working on these guidelines, we have not canceled any provider, but it will be there and more with all this regulation.
-Some of them may be a small SME that does not have the capacity to adapt to those standards, what do they say?
– Now we are changing the system, because before we evaluated risk providers and now all of them are going to pass, but according to their size and the risk that the action entails. It may surprise you, but so far we tend to have more problems sometimes with the big ones than with the small ones. In addition, we are seeing that there are many shared suppliers in the sector and we have to carry out these audits by sector, because the problem is that if you veto one and the rest do not, we could have supply problems.
-One of those providers is the smartphone industry. A couple of years ago they released the ecorating system to assess the sustainability of manufacturers… How did you take the news?
-It has been one of the issues that has brought us the most work. Sometimes we bring things up too soon, but we persevere and the results are there: nine European mobile phone operators; more than 20 manufacturers of mobile devices and 71% of the catalog evaluated and all with the aim of reducing the ecological impact.
-Going back to the topic of social social, now there is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence. How will it impact us as a society? Can you help us?
-It is a very complex issue and we were one of the first companies to establish ethical principles and guidelines for Artificial Intelligence already in 2018. Regulation is not easy and, in fact, there are voices that are saying that it is necessary to stop . There is a time when the machine learns by itself and it may do it wrong, that is why projects have been stopped because it is seen that they could cause more discrimination and violation of rights. It cannot be that rights that humanity has suddenly achieved through artificial intelligence are violated.
#Telefónica #Artificial #intelligence #violate #rights #humanity #achieved