After one year at Deutsche Telekom, Robert Metzke takes on the role of Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). Going forward, he will report directly to CEO Tim Höttges and explain how sustainability will become even more closely integrated with corporate governance and the core business.
The message behind this step is clear to me: Sustainability belongs where we shape the future of our company—in corporate management and our core business. My new role also makes this visible in our organizational structure.
We are not starting from scratch. Telekom has been committed to environmental and social responsibility for more than 30 years. We have set clear goals, established structures, and made measurable progress. By the end of 2025, we had reached our climate target for our own operations and reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by more than 94 percent compared with 2017. We offset the remaining emissions through high-quality projects that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
We can build on that. At the same time, the environment in which we make business decisions is changing fundamentally. Climate impacts, geopolitical tensions, volatile supply chains, and increasingly scarce resources coincide with rapid technological development and social change. Digitalization and artificial intelligence open up significant opportunities. They also raise entirely new questions about resilience, resources, sovereignty, and trust.
All these factors influence our long-term ability to succeed as a company. That is why sustainability belongs in the decisions that shape our business.
I see our mission as establishing sustainability even more firmly as part of Telekom's regular business management. Ultimately, what matters to me is whether sustainability helps us make better decisions. This applies equally to investments, technology, products, procurement, and risk management. Business management needs both: reliable information about what has already happened and a forward-looking view of what lies ahead. This is precisely the perspective we want to strengthen.
What changes are emerging? What do they mean for our business? Where are risks arising, and where are new opportunities emerging? How do we translate societal expectations, technological developments, and ecological limits into concrete business decisions?
Finding answers to these questions is the core task of the sustainability function. Its impact becomes clear when a business unit makes a better decision, when we identify risks earlier, or when new solutions emerge that bring economic and societal value together.
Our contribution to society is closely linked to our business model. We connect people, businesses, and organizations, creating the conditions for digital inclusion. When networks are available, secure, and accessible, people can learn, work, communicate, and participate in society. Businesses can develop new business models. Critical services remain accessible even under difficult conditions.
To me, this is a core element of Sustainable Business: societal benefit and economic success can arise from the same service. A high-performing network enables participation while also providing the foundation for customer satisfaction, growth, and long-term competitiveness. Trust in our technologies and in how we fulfill our responsibilities strengthens public acceptance and customer relationships.
That is why we should consistently consider sustainability wherever our business has an impact. Our ambition should be to use the capabilities of our core business to create both a contribution to society and long-term economic value.
For me, sustainability also helps safeguard Telekom's ability to act over the long term.
In this context, sovereignty means maintaining options and managing dependencies consciously. This creates the foundation for shaping partnerships from a position of independent agency. Resilience means remaining capable even under difficult conditions. This applies to our infrastructure as much as to supply chains, energy supplies, raw materials, and technological capabilities. The circular economy is also taking on an additional strategic dimension as a result. It combines resource efficiency with security of raw materials, more resilient supply chains, and long-term value creation.
This connection is especially clear in artificial intelligence.
AI offers significant opportunities. We should scale it where it creates tangible value. As we scale, robust foundations become increasingly important: security, transparency, human oversight, and energy and resource efficiency. Sustainable economic value emerges when people, customers, and society can trust how technology is developed and used.
Responsible digitalization therefore creates a foundation for innovation at scale. As Telekom, we should develop a clear vision of how technology can be used safely, in a socially responsible way, and in an environmentally sustainable manner.
The same applies to Telekom’s contribution to society. Our greatest leverage lies in our core business: digital inclusion, protecting our customers, and trust in digital technologies.
Going forward, we should be even clearer about which business decisions influence this impact and who is accountable for them. This will systematically make our „Social Impact“ part of product, technology, and business decisions.
In my new role, I want above all to build connections: between sustainability and strategy, technology and responsibility, procurement and supply chains, and products and societal impact. We do not need additional parallel structures to do this. We want to integrate sustainability more firmly into Telekom’s existing processes—in planning, investment decisions, product development, procurement, and risk management.
One point is especially important to me: the business bears ultimate responsibility for the results. The sustainability function provides guidance, contributes expertise, makes connections transparent, and supports better decisions.
The coming months and 2027 will therefore focus primarily on setting the course and embedding this operationally. We want to create a shared understanding, clarify responsibilities, and link our strategic priorities more closely with Telekom’s decision-making processes.
Next comes integration and scaling. What works should have a broad impact across the organization. Our goal is for relevant sustainability considerations to become a natural part of sound business decisions.
This is my personal ambition as Chief Sustainability Officer: to establish sustainability as a strategic management discipline – for long-term competitiveness, resilience, and responsible digitalization.
Our benchmark is better decisions, better products, more robust systems, and the ability to create value successfully over the long term.
Because that is exactly where sustainability makes a difference.
About Robert Metzke:
Robert Metzke is Chief Sustainability Officer at Deutsche Telekom. He aims to connect sustainability even more closely with the core business and corporate management. His approach brings together societal benefit, resilience, and long-term economic value creation. He is convinced that sustainability is not a program alongside the business, but part of sound corporate management. His credo: Sustainability must have an impact.
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