corporate social responsibility report 2005

environment

• environmental management
• managing environmental risk
• energy and resource management
• product responsibility

staying ahead in our environmental practices

At TELUS, our commitment to environmental sustainability is reflected in our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint and in our innovative communication solutions, which help others diminish their impacts. We do this by focusing on the movement of ideas and information, rather than goods, services and people.

As a telecommunications company dealing primarily with the provision of services, TELUS is able to avoid some of the impacts associated with industries such as manufacturing. However, given the number of central offices and radio and cellular towers we maintain, we have a relatively large environmental footprint.

This section of our corporate social responsibility report addresses our environmental impacts and our efforts to reduce that impact. More information about TELUS’ overall risks and risk management is available in our online 2005 annual report at telus.com/annualreport.

Impact of labour disruption

As referenced in other sections of this report, TELUS experienced a four-month labour disruption in 2005. During this time, members of the management team were redeployed to other areas of the organization to ensure continuity and quality of service. As a result, certain environmental programs were delayed or scaled back in 2005. Specifically affected was the length of our field season, during which the environmental team is able to work outside, limiting the number of site assessments and remediation work completed. As well, other members of the organization with whom the environment team works closely were affected by the labour disruption, which had an impact on some of the metrics tracked in this section. Where impacts were felt, they have been noted.

Despite the labour disruption, the environment team was able to maintain a scaled-down presence in B.C., Alberta and Quebec in order to ensure timely response to environmental emergencies. The team also continued work on high-risk remediation projects. A summary of our results relative to our 2005 targets is shown below: