Deutsche Telekom Appoints Robert Metzke as Chief Sustainability Officer

Deutsche Telekom announced the appointment of Robert Metzke as Chief Sustainability Officer, a newly created position at the company.

In the new role, Metzke will focus on the integration of sustainability more closely into Deutsche Telekom’s corporate strategy and the core business. The new CSO position will now also report directly to the company’s CEO, Tim Höttges.

In a post announcing the new position, Metzke said:

“The message behind this step is clear to me: Sustainability belongs where we shape the future of our company, in the way we steer the business and in the core business itself. My new role makes that visible organizationally as well.”

Metzke takes on the new role a year after joining Deutsche Telekom to lead Group Corporate Responsibility. He joined the company after more than 17 years at Philips, most recently serving as Global Head of Sustainability.

The appointment follows an announcement by Deutsche Telekom earlier this year that has achieved company-wide climate neutrality across its operations, after reducing  its worldwide emissions by more than 94% compared to 2017, with the remaining 6% offset through CO2 sequestration projects.

Metzke said:

“In my new role, I want above all to strengthen the 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 that. We want to integrate sustainability more deeply into Deutsche Telekom’s existing processes, including planning, investment decisions, product development, procurement, and risk management.”