Our social policy is based on five themes that naturally fit with KPN and which may add value and quality to society

Best ICT infrastructure

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) forms the basis of our modern society. Railways, ports and road and air traffic are all heavily reliant on ICT. Internet-based services, facilities and products for consumers and businesses are growing too, making the vital importance of ICT in this segment of society increasingly clear. Moreover, a modern ICT infrastructure drives the innovative power and attractiveness of the Netherlands as a business location. Because of these developments, KPN feels the responsibility and the obligation to provide the best ICT infrastructure in the Netherlands. In this way, a modern ICT infrastructure can contribute positively towards making the Netherlands more sustainable and economically stronger.

Healthcare of the future

We see solid strategic opportunities in the healthcare sector. In the coming decades, healthcare will undergo great changes. For example, population aging will increase, as will the prevalence of diseases of affluence. The number of people requiring care will therefore rise. Technical and medical progress is creating a difference between supply and demand, and medical care is becoming more expensive. Patients will also demand more transparency and more personal, patient-centric care. In all these developments we can see that, as an ICT service provider, we will have a role that will become more important as time goes by. The application of advanced ICT ensures that the administration and communication among healthcare providers and between healthcare providers and receivers proceed more efficiently.

The New Way of Living & Working

As ICT services become more advanced the opportunities to work any place, any time, are increasing. Being able to work without the constraints of time and place enables people to be more in control, which allows them to achieve a better work-life balance. Moreover, The New Way of Living & Working contributes towards a reduction in road traffic. KPN believes in The New Way of Living & Working, which is beneficial to both employee and employer, and which is good for the economy as well. Our contribution to The New Way of Living & Working is twofold: around nine thousand KPN people work independently of time and place one or more days per week. We are also the only ICT company in the Netherlands that is capable of providing all the ICT services needed to facilitate The New Way of Living & Working.

Energy-efficient

The concern about climate change and renewable energy supplies influences our strategic agenda as well. Energy shortages, CO₂ emissions and climate change have a major social impact; ICT consumes a lot of power. KPN, for example, accounts for 0.8% of the total electricity consumption in the Netherlands. KPN is facing huge challenges: data traffic and the use of ICT services are growing, yet we want to cut back on energy consumption. We want to be at the heart of the community as an energy-conscious ICT service provider. In our view there are excellent opportunities for smarter and more efficient data centers, network hardware and connections. This will allow us to reduce our energy consumption and to ‘make it green’. Despite the sharp increase in ICT applications we have set our organization an important goal: climate neutral business operations in 2020. This means that our operations will no longer have a negative effect on the climate.

Security & privacy

People, companies and governmental organizations are becoming more reliant on ICT in our society. The amount of confidential information being sent over the internet continues to increase. Society must be able to rely on ICT service providers to process this data traffic securely and carefully. We want to offer this confidence to our customers – government, companies and citizens – any time, any place. However, we are also aware that certain developments put security and privacy under pressure. Digital criminal activity (cyber crime and hackers), but also the explosive growth in social media, can lead to personal details easily getting into the public domain. As the largest “transporter” and manager of digital data we are conscious of our responsibility with respect to data security and privacy. We want to guarantee that every customer can use our internet and mobile telephony services without any concerns. The government, companies and organizations need to be certain that we store their data securely in our data centers and in the cloud.