Message from the Chairman

We are reinventing our networks around mobility, broadband and global connectivity. Our investment creates a platform for long-term growth not just for us, but for America and the world.

Smart networks will help spread collaboration and innovation on a global scale, Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in his keynote address at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show.

We are pleased to present Verizon’s 2010–11 Corporate Responsibility Report, “Tackling the World’s To-Do List.” You will see in these pages the progress we’ve made over the past year in the areas that define our approach to corporate responsibility and meet just a few of the thousands of Verizon people who give life and meaning to these priorities. The actions in this report reflect Verizon’s steady, concerted efforts to use technology to address some of our society’s most urgent issues.

More broadly, they are the latest steps in our continuing journey to expand the area of intersection between Verizon’s business interests and those of society as a whole.

Officially, this journey began in 2004 with the launch of our formal corporate responsibility initiative, but the impulse to have a positive impact on society has animated our company across its more than 125-year history. Communications is by definition a deeply social enterprise, and the belief that what we do — connect people and communities, provide great products and services, and invest in innovative technology that fuels commerce and drives growth — is inherently valuable lies at the heart of our company’s mission.

Our approach to corporate responsibility derives from this fundamental belief, which gives it integrity and connects it to what we do in the marketplace every day. With that legacy as our starting point, we built a disciplined process for creating a values-based culture and channeling those impulses into actions that produce measurable benefits to society.

Our top priority — then and now — is to make sure we run our own company right. Therefore, our first action was to codify the values by which all our employees live and implement an extensive ethics and compliance program to reinforce that culture throughout Verizon. Over the years we have extended our values system through a supplier code of conduct and employee Credo to guide our global interactions. We work hard to create a safe, stimulating and diverse work environment that allows employees to reach their full potential. In keeping with our long tradition of volunteerism, we encourage our people to contribute their time and money to our communities, which they have done in amazing numbers — volunteering nearly 4.2 million hours since 2004, the equivalent of nearly 480 years of service. We also focus on being good stewards of our own resources, setting aggressive energy efficiency targets for ourselves and our suppliers, developing green products and technologies, recycling products and taking active measures to reduce our own environmental impact.

Next, we needed to build the right system for organizing our corporate responsibility efforts and holding ourselves accountable for results:

• We established a Corporate Responsibility Council — led by two senior officers, overseen by the board of directors and populated by leaders from across the business — to set priorities, performance targets and measurements.
• We also created a Consumer Advisory Board and Strategic Alliances program to maintain a constant dialogue with our stakeholders and act as an early warning system for emerging issues and customer concerns.
• Most recently, we established Verizon’s first formal sustainability program under the leadership of a chief sustainability officer.

With the systems in place to give us good inputs and market intelligence, developing the priorities for our corporate responsibility efforts came naturally. We instinctively believed that the Internet would transform education and developed an online learning resource called Thinkfinity that has become one of the most trusted educational sites on the Internet. Our wireless employees felt strongly that mobile technology could empower women to escape the scourge of domestic violence and created our signature program, HopeLine®, to raise resources and awareness of this issue. Our customers tell us they’re concerned about issues of privacy and safety when it comes to the use of technology, motivating us to provide parental controls, take the lead in preventing distracted driving, educate communities about online safety and do groundbreaking research in cybercrime. And our business focus on increasing broadband availability led naturally to our commitment to accessibility, which has resulted in an increasing number of products tailored for seniors and people with physical challenges.

We continue to expand our view of how to use our technology to deliver both business and social value. As mobile and broadband technologies permeate every dimension of modern life, we are constantly exploring business opportunities that leverage these transformational technologies for social purposes. Already, we’re working with utility companies to create smart grids that maximize energy efficiency. We’re working with partners in our innovation labs on new products and applications for home energy management, remote health care monitoring, video conferencing and accessible products.

You’ll learn about these and many more accomplishments in this report. Our process works because it’s connected to the core of what we do. Communications technology really does solve problems for people and for society. Our consistent and disciplined approach keeps us focused on results, holds us accountable for meeting our commitments and assures that our actions live up to our words. Most important, our people really do believe in the value of our work, a commitment that spans every level of our company.

I am confident that my successor, Lowell McAdam, will bring fresh energy and new ideas to our corporate responsibility initiatives when I retire as Verizon’s chief executive officer and chairman later this year. Lowell’s thumbprint on our culture is already evident in the Verizon Credo, which we introduced company-wide in 2011. In it, we reinforce our belief that building long-term business and social value is at the heart of what we do: “We are good corporate citizens and share our success with the community to make the world in which we work better than it was yesterday.” I know Lowell will challenge the next generation of Verizon leaders to find a “higher gear” — to use one of his favorite phrases — when it comes to putting our technology to work for society.

At Verizon, we have spent the last 10 years building a foundation for success in the wireless and broadband era. We’ve invested in technology, expanded our innovative capacity and sharpened our skills, maintaining that focus on investment, innovation and execution through good times and bad in our quest for long-term value creation. In the process, we’ve changed our own growth trajectory and created new opportunities across the whole industry. And while we’re a different company than we were a decade ago — more high-tech, more mobile, more global — we have built our success on a culture of integrity and fundamental values that have united our company throughout its history.

I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with the thousands of Verizon colleagues who have made corporate responsibility a dynamic force at our company. With their passion for service and their can-do spirit, they have inspired and challenged me every day of my career. Together, we have built a solid foundation for creating value that will generate expanding returns for our communities as well as our customers. The more deeply embedded technology becomes in our society, the more these opportunities to create shared success will grow.

I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Ivan Seidenberg
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer