Grameenphone is connecting progress with purpose for a safer and smarter tomorrow
As Bangladesh’s digital landscape continues to evolve, our focus is on creating long-term value while ensuring that the way we grow remains responsible and sustainable.
Sustainability is more than a responsibility; it is a strategic business priority that shapes how Grameenphone creates long-term value for their customers, communities, shareholders, and the country
At Grameenphone, we see Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) as an integral part of how we build a responsible, resilient and future-ready business. At the scale at which we operate, that responsibility extends across how we grow our network, reduce our environmental impact, uphold responsible governance and ethical business practices, build customer trust and digital safety, expand opportunities for people to participate in the digital economy, and work with our partners to strengthen standards across the wider ecosystem.
These priorities are interconnected. As Bangladesh's digital landscape continues to evolve, our focus is on creating long-term value while ensuring that the way we grow remains responsible and sustainable. Whether we are expanding our network, investing in new technologies, developing digital products or working with communities and partners, environmental impact, responsible governance, customer trust, digital safety and inclusion are considerations in how we make decisions.
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Environmental sustainability is one important part of this broader journey. As we continue expanding digital connectivity and maintaining a reliable network that millions depend on every day, we are also working to steadily reduce the environmental footprint of our operations.
Turning connectivity into opportunity
Connectivity is the foundation of digital inclusion, but its real value lies in what people are able to do with it. Access to technology becomes meaningful when people have the skills, confidence and trust to use it to learn, access essential services, pursue livelihoods and participate in an increasingly digital economy.
This thinking shapes how we approach all aspects of digital inclusion at Grameenphone. We look beyond the reach of our network to the opportunities that connectivity can help unlock, particularly for communities that may otherwise be left behind by rapid technological change.
The same principle applies as emerging technologies such as AI reshapes the world of work. Expanding access must go hand in hand with building relevant capabilities so that people are not simply consumers of technology but are equipped to use it productively and confidently.
For us, this is ultimately what meaningful digital inclusion looks like: turning connectivity into capability, and capability into opportunity.
Bringing our ESG efforts together
We put this philosophy into practice through initiatives addressing different dimensions of inclusion, skills, safety and sustainable development.
Our Digital Inclusion for Marginalized Communities Initiative with Plan International Bangladesh has impacted more than 3.3 million people, helping underserved communities build the skills to navigate and benefit from the digital world. Through our partnership with UNICEF, more than 9.7 million children and 238,000 teachers have been trained with digital literacy and online safety education thus far. Grameenphone Academy complements this by equipping young people with digital, AI and other future-ready skills, with more than 350,000 enrolments to date.
Alongside these social initiatives, our environmental efforts focus on progressively reducing the footprint of our operations, while responsible business practices and partnerships help extend sustainability principles across our wider ecosystem.
These efforts address different challenges but together reflect a common objective: using our connectivity, technology and partnerships to expand opportunity, strengthen resilience and contribute to Bangladesh's sustainable digital progress.
Raising standards across the value chain
Sustainability is a collective effort. For a telecom business, meaningful progress also means working alongside suppliers, vendors and partners to raise standards across the wider value chain and create lasting change together.
At Grameenphone, we integrate sustainability expectations into supplier engagement through responsible sourcing practices, ethical business standards and environmental requirements. We work closely with our partners to strengthen governance, improve transparency and encourage more sustainable ways of operating.
Partnerships are equally important across our broader ESG efforts, from digital inclusion to circularity and responsible waste management. Challenges of this scale cannot be addressed by any single organization acting alone.
Collaboration enables us to combine capabilities, strengthen standards across the ecosystem and create impact at greater scale.
Embedding ESG into business decisions
For ESG to have meaningful impact, it cannot remain a reporting exercise or a separate set of initiatives. It must become part of how decisions are made across the business.
Whether we are expanding our network, procuring equipment, developing digital products or investing in new technologies, we consider long-term value alongside financial performance. That includes environmental impact, responsible governance, customer trust, digital safety and how our decisions can contribute to greater inclusion.
The objective is not to treat ESG as a separate workstream alongside the business. It is to embed responsible and sustainable thinking into how the business itself operates.
Ultimately, this is about building an organization that is resilient, responsible and relevant for the future. When these principles influence everyday decision-making, sustainability moves beyond reporting and becomes part of organizational culture.
Looking ahead we would like to see our ESG commitments taking shape through meaningful progress and transformative impact.
Success would mean millions more people having the skills, confidence and opportunity to participate meaningfully in the digital economy, while our own operations continue becoming more resource-efficient and climate-conscious.
But meaningful progress cannot be achieved by one organization alone. Digital inclusion requires collaboration between government, businesses, development partners, educational institutions and communities. Grameenphone's role is to bring together our connectivity, technology and partnerships to help accelerate Bangladesh's sustainable progress, making digital transformation more inclusive, more sustainable and ultimately more beneficial for the country.
