Standards

BCE and other companies are encouraged to subscribe to a variety of voluntary guidelines, standards and codes of practice. In this section we describe BCE's approach to some of the more prominent ones.

Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a multi-stakeholder international initiative. Its mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable sustainability reporting guidelines. It is for voluntary use by organizations reporting on the economic, environmental and social dimensions of their activities, products and services.

The subjects covered in this report were selected on the basis of general GRI content guidelines as well as the GRI telecommunications sector supplement. Our GRI content index is provided to help readers access report content following the GRI structure and to help with comparisons to other organizations' Corporate Responsibility reports.

ISO 14001 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Our environmental management system covers all Bell Canada business units (except Aliant) as well as Telesat. It is aligned with ISO14001 standards.

ISO 26000 Social Responsibility Guidance

BCE also contributes to the Canadian Industry ISO 26000 Working Group which is involved in the development of an international social responsibility standard.

Imagine Canada

Bell Canada is a founding member of Imagine Canada, an organization committed to making Canada a better place to live by bringing together charitable and non-profit organizations with forward-looking businesses, foundations, governments and individuals. Through the Corporate Citizenship initiative, businesses are encouraged to promote public and corporate giving, volunteering, and support for the community. At the core of the program is the one-percent commitment, which asks corporations to donate at least one percent of their pre-tax profits to registered charities and non-profit organizations that exist for public benefit. Bell Canada is committed to meeting this standard.

Customer Standards

In order to ensure that customers' interactions with us over the Internet are secure and private, Bell's code with respect to e-commerce adheres to the Canadian Principles for Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.

Bell is a member of Advertising Standards of Canada and follows the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.

In addition to the CRTC's mandatory restrictions on telemarketing and the telemarketing provisions of the Competition Act, Bell's telemarketing activities adhere to Canadian Marketing Association industry standards and codes (e.g. restricted calling hours, limiting the number of times we contact a consumer within a particular time period, etc).

Supplier Standards

Bell Canada evaluates its suppliers using a set of recognized quality standards such as: ISO 9001:2000, TL 9000, and ISO 14000.

Security Standards

Bell Canada's security policies respect ISO 17799 standards. The policies are designed to ensure secure solutions for all Bell companies, customers, employees, and shareholders. To better protect assets and customer data, BCE recently introduced a company-wide, mandatory screening process which verifies historical data on potential employees.