Singtel continues to manage and minimise the environmental impact of our business and operations. We focus on energy-efficient practices and technologies, resource conservation and pollution prevention.

Our early efforts to increase environmental awareness and reporting in this area have been recognised regionally. Singtel was listed on the CDP Asia (ex-Japan) 2013 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index, where CDP recognised Singtel for having the best disclosure score in the category of Best New Responding Companies in 2013.

In the coming year, we will continue to strengthen our governance, improve our programmes and enhance our disclosure on the company's impact on the environment.

We are committed to adopting a holistic approach to manage the environmental impact across our value chain as we engage our suppliers and customers in these processes.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTS AT WORK

To reduce our environmental footprint, we continue to implement various initiatives such as the Managed Printing System, which cuts wasteful printing by holding print jobs until the user taps his or her staff access card on the network printer.

In FY2014, our Singapore office at Serangoon North achieved the Green Mark certification for existing buildings, as well as the PUB Water Efficiency Building Award, after undergoing a major retrofitting exercise. In other premises and work areas, energy efficiency and management measures continue to be rolled out. This includes overhauling and replacing chillers to more energy efficient ones and exploring the use of alternative energy in our operations.

We are extending our Performance Enhancement Lighting Management System project to seven telephone exchanges and two satellite earth stations in Singapore as a result of a successful conclusion of a trial in one of our telephone exchanges.

CUSTOMER, PARTNER AND STAFF PARTICIPATION

We create opportunities for our stakeholders to contribute to our sustainability efforts.

Optus has been a member of MobileMuster since 2007, the official product stewardship programme for Australia's mobile phone industry. We support the programme by recycling mobile phones at our corporate offices and retail stores nationwide. Last year, we collected close to 20,000 phones and worked to prevent phones, batteries and accessories from ending up in landfills.

Singtel was the first to introduce an operator-led mobile phone recycling programme in Singapore via a partnership with Nokia. Since 2011, we have been providing a channel for customers and the public to recycle their old mobile phones, chargers and accessories regardless of brand. More than 5,000 handsets were collected via post and our mobile phone recycling bins.