Colt’s CEO urges industry action on climate change and diversity

In a preview event for TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Series, which starts 22 September, Keri Gilder, CEO of Colt, urged the telecoms industry to take more serious action on climate change, diversity and inclusion, and data protection.

Gilder will be one of more than

60 industry CxOs

from around the world speaking at TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Series

. She is also the chair of

TM Forum’s Diversity & Inclusion Council

.

Sustainability is a matter of growing importance for the industry, particularly as increasing data usage and network densification drives up

energy consumption.

Gilder encouraged telecoms companies to set out to achieve science-based targets, noting that Colt has signed up to meet Scope 3 reporting targets.

As Deloitte explains,

Scope 1, 2 and 3 is a way of categorizing the carbon emissions a company creates

in its own operations and in its wider value chain. Scope 3 is the most challenging category to report on because it covers

all the emissions an organization is indirectly responsible for across its value chain, from its suppliers’ products, through to its customers’ use of its services.

“If we don’t make an effort to sign up to Scope 3, then that dynamic of us (the telecoms industry) being the third-largest energy user in the world is going to remain,” said Gilder.

Competing for much-needed skills

She also underscored the importance of creating more diverse and inclusive businesses, pointing out that it makes sound business sense, notably when it comes to competing with other industries for new skills.

“Our industry consistently lags against other industries in D&I. We must understand that other industries need the same skills,” she said, citing software development, Agile methodology and data science expertise.

“We have a retirement cliff coming on with the industry. The only way that we’re going to start to build the pipeline is if we start to think more seriously about our purpose, because millennials want that and they will leave the company if they think the company is not being true to [their] … values,” she said.

Gilder gave the example of gender, which she says is the simplest measure to take of a company’s D&I.

“Out of 31 telecoms companies, five CEOs - of which I’m one … are female. Sixty out of 230 top executives are female and out of those, 20 are in traditional female positions like HR. Only three companies have more than 30 % representation on their top management teams… Colt is one of those with my management team having 50% gender representation.”

Gilder is one of several CxOs working with Bain &Co and TM Forum’s D&I Council to create a new D&I benchmark for the telecoms industry.

“We have been working for the last nine months on a benchmark we can use across the industry to enable data as the foundation for change. It will provide that knowledge-to-action gap that we need to enable the change necessary in our industry,” said Gilder.

In addition, she called on the industry to maximize its efforts to protect customers’ data.

“

Binding corporate rules for GDPR

are extremely hard. But that’s what we have to do in order to ensure the safety of our customers’ data,” she explained.

Join Gilder and the CXOs of the world’s leading telcos at TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Series

. It is a global event for telco leaders who want to solve the problems of digital transformation.

Keri Gilder is speaking at two DTWS sessions: Operating in an era of responsible business: Making cultural change a business imperative and The search for growth: Can telecoms deliver?

Join the four-week digital event and hear from over 50+ C-level speakers, network with 10,000+ attendees from 165+ countries, upskill yourself through masterclasses, training sessions and more. Register now. Note: Communication service providers: you can 

claim your free pass here

.