Verizon Provides Powerful Answers to Address Challenges in Healthcare, Education and Sustainability

NEW YORK, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon has released its 2012 annual report of financial and corporate responsibility performance, showcasing solid progress in delivering powerful answers in the areas of healthcare, education and energy management.

Among report highlights: Verizon enabled new growth in markets such as healthcare; strategically refocused the Verizon Foundation as an incubator for innovation and social change; and is ahead of its commitment to halve its carbon intensity by 2020.  An interactive version of the full report is posted at http://www.verizon.com/2012annualreport.

(NOTE: Verizon Corporate Responsibility Senior Vice President Kathryn C. Brown and Chief Sustainability Officer James Gowen will discuss Verizon's corporate responsibility progress at a CSRWire webinar on April 3 from noon-1 p.m. Eastern Time.  Details can be found at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/130460031.)

"At the core of our growth strategy is our commitment to using our technology to address the world's biggest challenges," wrote Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam in a shareowner letter in the report.  "We call this strategy 'Shared Success,' an integrated approach to growth that drives both our business development and corporate responsibility efforts."

The annual report also notes that Shared Success opens new markets for Verizon, provides long-term value for shareowners and helps solve community problems.

Strategic Philanthropy

Last year the Verizon Foundation refocused its strategy to become a channel for social innovation by combining Verizon's advanced technology with its philanthropic resources to address challenges in education, healthcare and energy management.

The Verizon Foundation is collaborating with leading nonprofit organizations to apply the company's sophisticated technology and expertise to real-world settings and accelerate positive social change, faster and easier.  This is especially true in underserved communities, which might experience the most benefit and rapid improvement from the adoption of Verizon's newest technologies.

For example, the Verizon Foundation is partnering with the Children's Health Fund to equip mobile pediatric medical units in several key cities with Verizon network access and health-information solutions that enable the next generation of healthcare.  As a technology incubator, the Verizon Foundation will track and measure outcomes and improvements at every stage, gaining insights on how to best integrate technology into solving social problems.

Preparing Today's Students for Tomorrow's Workplace

Verizon is using mobile and broadband technology to create innovative solutions that improve the way teachers teach and students learn in America.  In 2012, the Verizon Innovative Learning School program was launched in 12 underserved schools across America.  The program, led by the International Society for Technology in Education, ensures that teachers receive extensive training on innovative ways of using technology in the classroom to help increase student engagement and achievement in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math).

Commitment to Sustainability

By the end of 2012, Verizon reduced its carbon intensity by 37 percent from the baseline set in 2009 – placing the company ahead of schedule to meets its goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2020.  Carbon intensity – the amount of energy needed to move data across Verizon's network – is a measurement of energy efficiency.  It is improved by moving more data with the same unit of energy.  In addition, the company set five new sustainability goals, including a supply chain goal to direct 40 percent of supplier spending to companies that measure and set targets to reduce their carbon emissions by 2015.

For more information about how Verizon is growing its business by applying innovative technologies to solve important social issues, visit http://responsibility.verizon.com/.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 98 million retail connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with nearly $116 billion in 2012 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 183,400.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon