Compliance with existing environmental legislation

As active and responsible members of the community, the Group’s companies are committed to observing and ensuring the observance of the laws in force in the countries in which they operate and adopt the organisational tools needed to prevent the violation of legal provisions1. During 2016, no significant financial penalties2 were imposed on the Group’s companies in Italy for violations of environmental legislation in the areas in which they perform their activities. This consideration is also valid for the previous two years.

In Brazil, 341 significant penalties were inflicted on TIM in 2016, all for having put radio base stations into operation without waiting for environmental authorization from the relevant body; TIM submitted an appeal and is waiting for the judgement from the relevant authority. In 2015 one was inflicted for the same reason, which was resolved, while none were received in previous years.

Seven non-financial administrative sanctions were reported for 2016; no penalty of this type was recorded in the previous two years, while no environmental dispute resolutions via conciliation mechanisms were reported. In Brazil, there is no arrangement for environmental disputes to be resolved by conciliation.

ICT can influence the price, efficiency and relative convenience of products and services, eventually affecting the demand for services and increasing the overall demand for energy. It can also accelerate the obsolescence of products and require the resulting technological waste to be managed. It is the responsibility of the ICT sector, and therefore also of TIM, to consider these effects, focusing on research and development to create products with a low environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle (see Digitisation).

In 2016, the Group centrally handled 90,177 audio conferences (-5% compared to 2015) and 45,223 video conferences (+2% compared to 2015). In addition to these is the use of “Free Access” audio conference services assigned to authorised employees/working groups, but the actual use is not assessed at present3. The use of these communication systems is estimated to have allowed a significant amount of carbon dioxide (and other pollutants) associated with the use of means of transport () to be avoided.