AT&T Highlights Supply Chain Engagement, Energy and Water Efficiency and Tackling High School Graduation Rates in 2013 Sustainability Update

Annual Performance Review Complements Ongoing Updates on Sustainability Website

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Jun 24, 2014, 09:00 ET

DALLAS, June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Environmental and social sustainability takes many forms at AT&T. The company invites interested parties to learn more about the company's community activities by engaging with its website, People | Planet | Possibilities, which shares ongoing updates through videos, social media and blogs.

To complement these frequent updates, AT&T today released a condensed Annual Update of key topics that links to an online library of details on more than 30 key areas, including:

Supporting students most in need;
Addressing resource challenges like water use;
Exploring the power of technology through the future of "Smart Buildings;"
Hearing from employees who are passionate about serving their communities; and
Working with suppliers to reduce environmental and social impacts.

"Our 2013 update shows how our employees, customers and like-minded organizations are addressing some of society's biggest challenges," said Charlene Lake, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President, AT&T Public Affairs. "We invite others to join us on our sustainability journey by engaging on our People I Planet I Possibilities website."

Some of the highlights from 2013 include supplier engagement, energy and water efficiency and AT&T's education initiative, Aspire.

Supply chain
AT&T reports that its top suppliers achieved an average score of 63 percent on the company's Citizenship and Sustainability Scorecard. The scorecard grades suppliers in four key categories including policy breadth, rigor of goals, reporting transparency and governance. This moves AT&T closer to its goal of achieving an average score of 80 percent from its top suppliers by 2017. AT&T also set an additional goal that, by the end of 2015, a majority of spending with strategic suppliers will be with those who track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and have specific GHG emissions goals. Supplier engagement is important to finding opportunities to streamline operations, reduce environmental impacts and influence positive social change while mitigating long-term costs.

Energy & Water
In 2013, AT&T teamed up with Environmental Defense Fund to develop a free toolkit that could save up to 28 billion gallons of water annually, if implemented across U.S. commercial buildings. In addition, AT&T realized annualized energy savings of more than $191 million from 18,800 energy efficiency projects implemented since 2010.

AT&T Aspire
AT&T Aspire is AT&T's signature education initiative, focusing on school success and workforce readiness. AT&T has invested more than $94.6 million over the past two years as part of a $350 million commitment. Employees are also mentoring students at risk of dropping out through Aspire Mentoring Academy. Through the program employees have provided students more than 339,000 hours of mentoring since the program's October 2012 launch. The company is on track to meet the goal of 1 million hours through the end of 2016.

Other highlights from the 2013 Annual Sustainability Update include:

Reaching the halfway mark toward the goal of deploying 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by 2018. AT&T has deployed 8,230 alternative fuel vehicles and reduced unleaded gasoline use by 4.6 million gallons in 2013.
Contributing 5.3 million volunteer hours by employees and retirees.
Increasing veteran hiring by nearly five times, compared to 2012.
Reaching 95 percent of postpaid AT&T branded devices being rated as 3 or above out of a potential rating of 5, using the Eco-Rating system.
Receiving more than 4 million pledges to never text while driving through the It Can Wait campaign.
Investing $21.2 billion in IP (Internet Protocol) – enabled networks.

To learn more about AT&T's Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability initiatives, visit People | Planet | Possibilities. The site also invites consumers to comment, sign up for regular updates, follow key leaders from the AT&T sustainability team on Twitter, and engage using the hashtag #ATTImpact.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. global wireless coverage, based on offering roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier, and offers the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV service with the AT&T U-verse^® brand. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://about.att.com or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

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SOURCE AT&T Inc.