RATING

Outlook

Negative

SECTOR

Wired telecommunications activities

Chief Sustainability Officer

Megan Rast

Contact Details:

T: N/A

E-mail: N/A

Stock Exchange and Ticker

NASDAQ: CHTR

Website

www.spectrum.com

Contact

T: 203 905 7801

E.mail: N/A

Listing

Forbes’ “Best-In-State Employer” for CO, CT, KY, MO, and NC,
WayUp’s “Top 100 Internship Program”
“Best Employers for Veterans” on Forbes list
“Best Companies for Latinos to Work” on Latino Leaders Magazine’s list
Spectrum Internet® ranked No. 1 in rural Internet service in the U.S. News & World Report

Awards

2021-22 “Best Rural Internet Service Providers” rankings

Charter Communications Sustainability Report

Evaluation of Charter Communications

Spectrum does not publish its own Sustainability report and therefore an evaluation will be performed on the ESG report published by the “mother” company, “Charter Communications”. ESG metrics included in this report are reported as of December 31, 2021 (unless otherwise noted), they have not been independently audited, and have not been prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

The report does not mention Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the analyst linked the ESG goals identified in the report, with specific SDG targets to measure the progress. The information is not clearly conveyed, especially when it comes to the progress towards the goals. The company focuses mainly on the social aspects, where financial benefits can be obtained. Examples include better and safer connectivity and control to allow customers to optimize their home networks, expand the network to provide high-speed broadband access to unserved and underserved rural customers, while in terms of environmental impact, Charter seems to be struggling with the progress towards carbon neutrality by 2035. Specifically, initiatives taken to reduce emissions only account for about 3% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Also, when it comes to building and data centers LEED certification, it is also difficult to assess how much these certifications contribute to emission reduction. Similarly, recycling efforts can’t be quantified for emission reduction.

The awards received contribute negatively to the company’s efforts to achieve sustainability. No articles relevant to sustainability have been found, but the rest of the sustainability factors weigh heavily on rating Charter a D, with a negative outlook.

Sustainability Scorecard

Charter Communications Company Activity

Charter Communications, Inc. is in the business of providing broadband communications services. Its services include Spectrum TV, Spectrum Internet, and Spectrum Voice. The firm offers business-to-business Internet access, data networking, business telephone, video and music entertainment services, and wireless backhaul. It operates through Cable Services segment. Its advertising sales and production services are sold under the Spectrum Reach brand. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Stamford, CT.

Charter Communications Sustainability Activity - As per company declarations

For Charter, sustainability is reflected in the ESG pillars, namely a highly skilled workforce, a superior network and connected communities, validated by a strong governance. These pillars set the foundation for the ESG goals and define the ESG priorities. Furthermore, the ESG Goals identified in the 2022 report are achieve carbon neutrality in operations by 2035, continue to build a highly skilled workforce reflecting the diversity of the communities served, provide better, safer connectivity and control for communities, expand the network to provide high-speed broadband access to unserved and underserved rural customer locations and lastly invest $30 million to improve 100 rural and urban community centers that provide job skills training.

Certificate & Labels, Standards and Frameworks

LEED Gold® for the Denver data center
LEED Silver® for the Charlotte data center
SASB
TCFD
CDP

Charter Communications in the news: Press Reviews and Social Media

Highlights from HDFC Bank Sustainability Report

Achievements

Goal achieved in 2022 to increase the starting minimum wage of all hourly employees to $20
Achieved in 2022 to make the Advanced Home WiFi platform available to 100% (1.1 millions) of Internet serviceable

Weaknesses and Setbacks

Charter does not report on SDGs
The progress towards goals cannot be assessed

Targets vs Progress Reported

Target	Results reported
Reach carbon neutrality in operations (scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions) by 2035	Current emissions volume in 2021 from operations: 1,433,532 MT CO2e, a decrease of approximate 40,000MT CO2e since 2020 - Current emission volume from value chain at 1,007,783 MT CO2e in 2021, an 7,000 MT CO2e decrease from 2020 - Scope 1, direct emissions produced from fleet, natural gas, corporate-owned aircraft, and fugitive emissions from fire suppression systems decrease approximately 7% annually due in part to initiatives to reduce truck rolls, as well as increased vehicle fuel efficiencies - Scope 2, indirect emissions from electricity and steam purchased by Charter have been decreasing each year, 11% since 2019 and 2% since 2020: - Due to increasing availability of clean, renewable energy on the grid - Underlying electricity consumption decreased approximately 2% since 2019 in part, due to lower electricity use in operations during the COVID-19 pandemic
Electrification of a portion of the fleet responsible for Scope 2 emissions	Charter systematically replaces older vehicles to increase efficiency and leverage new technology - Telematics devices installed in vehicles to optimize routing, customers’ self installation, lower customer churn and operational efficiencies resulted in decreased overall truck roll count in 2021, compared to 2019 and 2020 - The fuel avoided from 2021 fleet efficiency efforts was equivalent to 10,800 metric tons of CO2 e. (approximately 3.3% of the total emissions from fleet) - Charter has been conducting a feasibility study on the possibility of a portion of the fleet being electric vehicles and by the end of 2022 will launch a pilot utilising a number of light duty electric vehicles in one market area; The pilot will help assess the viability and extent of fleet electrification
Electricity efficiency	- Eight locations (out of how many is not mentioned) that generated approximately 9,300 MWh of renewable energy from solar arrays in 2021, equivalent to 2,500 MT of CO2 e in 2021 (0.24% of the total emissions generated from electricity) - In 2021, Charter provided tax equity investments for four solar projects that together will generate at least 30,000 MWh of clean energy to the grid each year - Two out of the five National Data Centers (“NDC”) LEED certified - NDCs were designed with energy-efficient mechanical, electrical, and cooling systems to optimize performance and energy efficiency, and use the industry standard Power Usage Effectiveness (“PUE”) metric to measure overall efficiency
Scope 3 emissions - no reduction goa	- Scope 3: Select other indirect emissions produced upstream and downstream of Charter’s operations, increased 9% since 2019 due to the increased customer demand for Internet services and the growth of the Spectrum Mobile business (2021 value at 1,007,783MT CO2e)
Training and investing in employees to be masters of their craft	- $277 million invested in employee training Broadband Technician Apprenticeship Program, certified by the U.S. Department of Labor - 7.1 million hours training in 2021 - 94,635 learning experiences in 2021 - Increase the starting minimum wage of all hourly employees to $20 in 2022
Empower and advance local communities by promoting economic opportunity and access to information	- Spectrum Digital Education program offers to nonprofit organizations broadband education, training, and technology through - In 2021, Charter awarded $1 million in grants to 49 nonprofits, increasing the program’s total investment to $7 million in grants, since the program launched in 2017
Diverse representation by race and ethnicity	- 33% of the workforce is composed of individuals identified as females - Total diverse representation by race and ethnicity: 49% - Black/African American: 21% - Hispanic/Latino: 18% - Asian: 5%
Invest $30 million to improve 100 urban and rural community centers that provide job skills training over the next five years	- In progress - Through Spectrum Community Assist (SCA), Charter partners with national and local nonprofit organizations to identify and improve community centers in need of support, with: - job training efforts with cash grants and in-kind contributions - improving physical classroom spaces - providing technology to enhance participants’ learning experience, including laptops and classroom furniture - providing each community center with advanced 1 gigabit per second (“Gbps”) Internet service - Launched SCA in St. Louis at Better Family Life (“BFL”) and four additional SCA partnerships in Charlotte, Glen Falls, Orlando, and Stamford
Invest $30 million to improve 100 urban and rural community centers that provide job skills training over the next five years	- In progress - Through Spectrum Community Assist (SCA), Charter partners with national and local nonprofit organizations to identify and improve community centers in need of support, with: - job training efforts with cash grants and in-kind - contributions - improving physical classroom spaces providing technology to enhance participants’ learning experience, including laptops and classroom furniture - providing each community center with advanced 1 gigabit per second (“Gbps”) Internet service - Launched SCA in St. Louis at Better Family Life (“BFL”) and four additional SCA partnerships in Charlotte, Glen Falls, Orlando, and Stamford
Provide high-speed broadband access to 1 million unserved and underserved rural customer locations by investing over $5 billion over the next six years	- In Progress - Will add over 100,000 miles of new network infrastructure to the exiting 800,000 miles - Will hire more than 2,000 employees and contractors to support rural expansion - Make Internet product more accessible and affordable through Spectrum Internet® Assist to eligible low-income families and seniors - In May 2021, Charter began participating in the FCC’s Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (“EBB”) to help connect low-income households and households on Tribal lands,with high-speed Internet - Through the Spectrum Enterprise Stay Connected K-12 program, Charter enables schools to provide high-speed, cable broadband Internet access directly to their students, educators, and staff in their own homes and are not billed for the service

UN SDGs Compliance Analysis

Progress made toward SDG targets
As reported by Charter Communications

Energy efficiency program focuses on reducing GHG emissions within scope 2:

Charter will account for renewable energy by acquiring renewable energy certificates (“RECs”) via renewable power purchase agreements, utility green energy programs, and/or direct purchase
Evaluates and optimises renewable energy opportunities taking into account the geographic concentration of electricity consumption, the availability of renewable energy within the regional electricity grid, as well as local and state renewable initiatives such as Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS)
Use a data-driven approach focused on energy use intensity, Charter claims it normalises energy consumption by specific type of site use and geography in order to develop projects targeting our less efficient properties
Focused on reducing the carbon intensity of core operations such as customer service, by expanding self-service capabilities and working on improving the quality and efficiency of interactions to reduce transactions with customers, lower churn, and reduce costs.
From 2016 to 2021, customer relationships grew by 22%, while the efficiency of number of customer relationships per call center increased by 118%

Committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace – 2.2 total recordable injury rate (“TRIR”), an approximately 8% drop, compared to 2020

Commitment to supplier diversity is extended to all levels of the supply chain through the Tier II reporting program
Exceeded $1 billion in diverse spending in 2021
The Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund (“Loan Fund”), with over $22 million to invest in businesses in economically-underserved communities to contribute to capital growth, new jobs and strengthen the economic infrastructure in both rural and urban areas
The Loan Fund has made commitments to CDFIs in 14 states, covering nearly 85% of the Company’s footprint
Spectrum Employee Community Grants assist nonprofit organizations where employees volunteer to provide critical services, such as food pantries, homeless shelters, and job placement programs
Accessibility Learning team to provide training for customer-facing employees on product features used by customers with disabilities, such as Guide Narration, Audio Description, Closed Captions, and more

Design for Reuse program aimed at extending the longevity of useful product life, to reduce indirect carbon emissions, with two major initiatives:

Focus on the refurbishment of customer premises equipment and the reuse of materials. Currently implemented with WiFi 6 router, estimated emission reduction by 4,000 MT of CO2 3 per 100,000 units refurbished.
Analyses self-installation kits and identifies opportunities to reduce both materials used and emissions produced by reviewing current materials used, methods of manufacturing, and location of manufacturing

“Bring Your Own Device” (“BYOD”) program to incentivize customers, to trade-in old devices, which will then Charter sell to third parties for reuse and recycling (no quantitative data)
In 2021, 29,046 MT of materials recovered through take-back programs (not noted total waste generated, nor the percentage recovered)

Founding signatory of the Voluntary Agreement for Ongoing Improvement to the Energy Efficiency of Set-Top Boxes (VA STBs) and the Voluntary Agreement for Ongoing Improvement to the Energy Efficiency of Small Network Equipment (VA SNE) aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the Internet modems and video STBs:
- STB Voluntary Agreement decreased average energy consumption, achieving a 46% drop in average energy consumption since 2012
- Charter’s SNE energy use relative to average broadband download speed, or “emissions intensity”, decreased by approximately 66% between 2017 and 2020
Undergoing construction of tower two of the new Stamford, Connecticut headquarters campus follows the LEED Silver® principles for design, LED lighting, as well as other sustainability and wellness property operating practices
Interesting initiative by Charter to identify properties with oversized or redundant power and mechanical systems, decommissioning these systems to right-size for current use, such as a building on the Charlotte campus formerly designed for data center use that now saves approximately 2,300 MT of CO2e per year after Charter removed oversized generators, storage tanks, and nonessential backup power modules, and subsequently reconfiguring electrical and mechanical systems

Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”), Cyber Security Council (“CSC”), and Security Executive Steering Committee (“Security ESC”) who oversee cybersecurity across the Company
Implementation of data protection standards is informed and influenced by standards recommended in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) cybersecurity framework
Internal Audit function executes an annual audit plan
External consulting firms also conduct regular independent evaluations of Charters’ cybersecurity program

Women in Cable Telecommunications

National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications

Partnering with the League of United Latin American Citizens (“LULAC”) on Latina LEADS, to inspire careers in STEAM fields for Latina middle school girls,

Partnering with the National Organization on Disability (“NOD”) on Look Closer, to encourage employers searching for new talent to consider individuals with disabilities

Sustainability Certificates, Awards and Listings

Charter Communication Sustainability Report