Our Social Commitment

Management Approach

Materiality, Impact, and Risks

As an internet supplier, we operate in a dynamic and highly competitive market. However, our economic activities aren’t the whole story: We are also part of society and we can only be successful if this functions properly, too. This explains why we are committed to helping ensure a stable society that can meet future challenges.

Our products are targeted at a broad range of people in society and help them connect with each other. In line with this, we take social responsibility within our Company. In addition, we want to ensure this happens throughout the value chain. As a result, we expect our business partners to show responsibility for society and their stakeholder groups.

For many stakeholders, initiatives and projects focusing on the bigger picture beyond our day-to-day business are extremely important. For example, it is becoming more common for potential customers to select suppliers and products on the basis of the companies’ social and environmental commitment. Staff also increasingly want to be able to identify with their employer – something that is easier, among other things, if the latter shows social commitment and supports its employees in performing voluntary work.

Goals and Measures

We take good corporate governance to mean that we should not lose sight of how our various business activities impact people and the environment, and that we should help ensure a stable and forward-looking society. Our goal is to contribute to people’s prosperity both within and outside our corporate environment. We do this by creating jobs and traineeships, through our products, and through our social commitment. Our activities here comprise the following initiatives:

• United Internet for UNICEF
  Back in 2006, foundation donor and United Internet CEO Ralph Dommermuth laid the groundwork for an initiative designed to help children throughout the world. The United Internet for UNICEF foundation, which has been highly successfully in the years since then, supports projects run by UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) worldwide. By doing so, it helps improve equal opportunities for, and the well-being of, children around the world.

• Supporting inclusion
  As already described in the chapter entitled “Climate and Environmental Protection,” we also support the inclusion of, and employment opportunities for, people with physical or mental disabilities. Among other things, we do this by passing on waste equipment to AfB gGmbH, a recycling specialist. According to AfB, 45% of its workforce are people with disabilities. Another way in which we promote working together with people with physical or mental disabilities is our partnership with disabled people’s cooperative GDW (Genossenschaft der Werkstätten für behinderte Menschen Mitte eG), which has shredded and recycled our old files and records for more than four years now.

• Employee volunteering
  The catastrophic floods that hit Germany’s Ahr Valley in fiscal year 2021 cost many people their lives. The infrastructure was also completely wiped out, with 150,000 mobile and roughly 14,000 fixed network customers being temporarily unable to use any communications services. A special task force was formed to coordinate dealing with the consequences of the storms, allowing phone and internet services to be successively restored to a large majority of affected customers. A complete new fiber-optic infrastructure will be installed in the coming months in those areas that were completely destroyed. In the meantime, the affected customers have been provided with temporary mobile solutions. The organizations and public agencies involved in the general rebuilding operations have established supply depots. Staff from 1&1 Versatel and 1&1 established a powerful telecommunications infrastructure complete with WLAN links for two distribution centers, working partly during their time off to do so.

Results and Assessment

The success of our social commitment can be measured in a number of different ways. We are seeing an increase in donations received and in the number of sponsor members for the United Internet for UNICEF foundation. We are also receiving feedback from our long-term partnerships with AfB and GDW that shows the cooperation is working well. These partnerships allow us not only to live our social commitment but also to help the environment.

Contribution to the SDGs

End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.