Environment, Health & Safety Compliance

Pursuing best practice approaches to protect our people and planet. 

Click through to learn about our 2024 impact in action. For detailed EHS data, please see our corporate responsibility KPI webpage. 

When it comes to being a socially and environmentally responsible business, EHS compliance is key. A robust EHS approach supports organizations in meeting legal obligations and maintaining a right to operate, plus the benefits extend well beyond that. Organizations with strong EHS commitments and actions tend to outperform those with less mature strategies in terms of financial growth and employee retention, as well as regulatory compliance.

We are committed to providing a safe, healthy working environment and to delivering products and services in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

Everyone at AT&T has a role to play in upholding our EHS standards, guided by our Code of Business Conduct, which they are required to review annually. Through our contract language, we also encourage suppliers and contractors to integrate EHS considerations into their processes and require that they adhere to the AT&T Principles of Conduct for Suppliers.

We evaluate EHS performance through regular reviews and internal operational assessments. The frequency of these depends on the level of risk identified after evaluating the potential for personal injury, property damage and community or financial impact. We also perform a quarterly analysis of alleged violations cited during regulatory inspections to identify trends and better understand root causes.

A System for Managing EHS in Our Operations

We use an EHS Management System that we have aligned with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 principles. The system provides a framework for managing environmental risks and health and safety hazards, as well as fostering compliance with external and internal objectives. It is underpinned by our EHS Policy, which commits all AT&T teams to operate in an environmentally responsible manner and to protect the health and safety of employees and the public, in line with relevant legislation.

The system covers various EHS elements, including:

• Planning: Our Disaster Recovery website shares best practices for proactive planning for potential hazards, risks and environmental impacts. Our Emergency Management Plan includes guidelines for business units performing event scenario work, training requirements and how our EHS organization supports post-event operations.  
• Annual Targets: Our EHS team partners with business units to establish tailored EHS objectives, goals and strategies. Progress against these is reviewed at least quarterly, supported by an executive dashboard that enables monitoring at the senior leader level.
• Implementation and Operation: We implement and operationalize annual EHS plans by setting targets, deadlines and assigning responsibility and accountability for performance.
• Checking: We evaluate EHS performance with varying frequency, depending on the business unit and type of work performed. Our evaluations analyze key performance measures and metrics and review business operations that impact EHS. If we identify any noncompliance with laws or company standards, we identify and track corrective actions to completion.

Keeping Pace with Evolving EHS Expectations

AT&T is subject to environmental inspections performed by government agencies to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Recognizing these laws and regulations are constantly evolving, we engage a vendor that monitors changes and reports potential agenda items weekly to EHS. Corporate EHS subject matter experts determine the applicability of each item, notifying the relevant groups so policy, processes and system updates can be made as needed.

We filter insights on EHS developments to business units through monthly syncs as well as dedicated forums. During these sessions, we bring business unit representatives together to discuss updates, identify gaps and ensure their respective EHS programs address regulatory, employee and customer needs and expectations. As well as strengthening business unit-specific programs, the forums and syncs drive cross-business standardization in how we develop EHS solutions.

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)

We uphold rigorous OHS standards, such as maintaining responsible radio frequency (RF) management at all our wireless facilities to limit exposure to electromagnetic energy. This is guided by a robust RF safety program that ensures compliance with Federal Communications Commission exposure limits.

We also retain a strong focus on preventing workplace accidents. If an accident does occur, we respond swiftly and appropriately. Hospitalizations and fatalities are automatically reported to AT&T Corporate EHS Field Support, while all other incidents require self-reporting, as well as supervisor reporting, via our dedicated EHS hotline. Field Support investigates and analyzes incidents, developing corrective action plans as needed to prevent similar future incidents. We also track key injury metrics to evaluate performance and report incidents as required.

Employee Training

To ensure everyone understands the role they play in maintaining strong EHS standards, we provide tailored employee training. For example, a mandatory EHS Compliance overview is built into onboarding training while EHS courses for functional responsibilities are incorporated into business unit annual plans.

We continuously track employee training hours to assist in mitigating health and safety incidents. For business units and employees at heightened risk of accidents, we deliver quarterly training performance updates to business unit leaders. By doing so, we can drive ongoing accountability for ensuring mandatory training is delivered in a timely fashion.

EHS Governance

The highest level of oversight for our EHS organization is provided by the Board of Directors. We also provide quarterly updates on health and safety performance to AT&T’s CEO. Various other individuals and groups hold responsibility for company-wide management and oversight, including:

• Assistant Vice President — EHS: Leads our EHS Management System and reports to the Senior Vice President of Global Workplace Services.
• EHS Leadership Team: Periodically evaluates EHS programs, using data from reviews, audits and new regulatory requirements. Based on this, they develop strategies to improve our EHS Management System and compliance programs as part of organizational goals and EHS plans.  
• EHS Business Unit Partners: Work with the EHS leadership team to coordinate cross-functional engagement on EHS goals, compliance and action planning. In addition to developing improvement strategies for the EHS Management System and EHS compliance, they provide EHS-related updates to key business unit stakeholders throughout the year.
• Chief Compliance Office: Assists the EHS leadership team in managing key EHS risks, providing risk oversight and holding monthly calls to discuss current and emerging issues.
• Business Unit Stakeholders: Comprises senior leaders from across business units who periodically evaluate strategic annual goals set by EHS and business units. They also assess applicable corrective actions to minimize company risk.
• Business Unit Management: Maintains direct managerial responsibility for EHS within their specific business unit.

Stakeholder Engagement

We maintain various routes for engaging employees and other stakeholders on EHS progress:

• Employee and Stakeholder Reporting: We promote our toll-free number (800-KNOW-EHS) for employees, contractors and the public to call regarding EHS-related issues such as hazardous material spills and employee health and safety incidents. Each call is managed by an EHS representative, documented in our EHS Incident Tracking System and tracked to resolution. Response times vary depending on incident type and regulatory requirements. Incidents not handled within expected timeframes are escalated to leadership.
• Communications Platform: We have an internal communications platform through which we maintain a two-way conversation with employees on EHS content and campaigns.
• Governance Readout Summary: We create and deliver a governance readout summary to senior leaders that highlights business units’ quarterly regulatory performance and goal progress.

The EHS landscape is constantly evolving and we are keeping pace leveraging data insights, automation and technology to keep our people and the environment safe. For example, during 2024, we overhauled how employees access our 800+ EHS guidance documents, making it easier to find relevant information. We have created and fully implemented an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform, KnowEH&S, through which employees can quickly and easily find the EHS guidance they need, immediately. Taking the platform one step further, employees can also access information on current regulations to ensure they’re aligning with AT&T’s standards and external best practices.

Throughout the year, we also deployed technology to update our physical assets and improve environmental performance. This includes installing Internet of Things (IoT) equipment on generators to enable remote performance monitoring. By doing so, we improved data accuracy, access to real-time performance data and eliminated the need for field technician dispatches for physical inspections, simultaneously reducing associated transportation emissions.  

Monitoring EHS Performance

Throughout 2024, our EHS inspections and outcomes included:

• Environmental Inspections: 3,455 environmental inspections, resulting in 24 enforcement actions that also resulted in 17 penalties. Each matter was resolved, and any abatement or corrective action was implemented to provide closure.
• Health and Safety Inspections: 64 inspections, resulting in five enforcement actions and four penalties. In 2024, we paid a total of $1,805 in fines.¹
• Hazardous Material Spills: 20 hazardous material spills, which required reporting to a regulatory agency. We had no hazardous waste spills, therefore generating zero metric tons of waste.²

We also conducted internal assessments to better understand performance. We completed 3,610 internal Environmental Site Assessments at 3,185 locations in California, which focused on compliance with environmental regulations such as hazardous material storage and air emissions.

OHS Performance

In 2024, our Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) total recordable incident rate (TRIR) was 1.81 per 100 employees.² This rate is lower than the most recent (2023) employee average published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the telecommunications industry, which was 2.0 per 100 employees.³

Our Days Away, Restricted Duty or Transfer Duty (DART) rate — also known as Lost Time Incident Rate — was 1.34 per 100 employees.²⁴ Of workplace incidents:

• Zero resulted in a fatality.
• 1,159 resulted in lost time. 
• 591 resulted in job restrictions or transfer.

Throughout 2024, we evolved how we assess performance. While continuing to review lagging indicators, such as TRIR and DART after incidents have occurred, we now utilize leading indicators that allow us to mitigate risks with proactive incident prevention. By assessing emerging risks and adapting our programs and awareness campaigns to address them, we can protect employees against accidents before they happen.

Additional initiatives in 2024 included incorporating AI resources into systems and devices to help drive more proactive incident prevention. We also promoted increased collaboration and improved communication to foster a safer work culture. To provide ongoing oversight and accountability for this preventive approach, we delivered quarterly updates on OHS data, trends and emerging risks to business unit vice presidents and our executive leadership team.

We also continued to deliver employee training on health and safety to mitigate incidents. Throughout 2024, employees completed over 55,400 hours of health and safety training.

Protecting Employees from Heat-Related Health Impacts

In addition to keeping employees healthy and safe within AT&T facilities, we also focus on how to protect them while performing work in the field. In a collective effort between the Corporate Responsibility and EHS teams, we are leveraging our long-standing partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to assess the human impacts of heat exposure.

In 2024, we utilized in-depth data from Argonne National Laboratory to develop a heat illness risk score for field operations teams and on-the-ground sales representatives.

Our initial focus was on mitigating heat risk through targeted campaigns at AT&T centers with the highest risk of heat exposure. This initiative goes beyond OSHA compliance, aiming to mitigate heat risks through enhanced education, monitoring, personal protective equipment and more frequent breaks. As a result, we saw a 66% reduction in recordable heat-related illnesses compared to 2023. We attribute this success to our safety campaigns which effectively educated the workforce on early identification and treatment before the impacts became more severe.  

We plan to expand these efforts in 2025 by implementing temperature monitoring and additional campaigns in at-risk centers.

Learn more about our work with Argonne National Laboratory in our Efficiency & Emissions issue brief and Network Resilience issue brief.