At Charter Communications, we believe that serving our more than 32 million customers and supporting our more than 93,000 employees means going beyond delivering best-in-class Internet, TV, mobile, and voice services. It means being hyperlocal, from expanding our network to connect more homes and businesses, to the news we bring our viewers each day, to hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce and providing career opportunities, and being active members of the communities we serve. Last year, we introduced Charter’s first Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) report and responded to the CDP Climate Change Questionnaire for the first time. I am pleased to introduce Charter’s 2021 report.
Our ESG efforts continue to be structured in a comprehensive three-pillar framework to reflect how our business drives sustained value in a virtuous cycle. By investing in a highly skilled workforce, we are able to deliver a superior network that connects communities. The services we deliver are important in the lives of our customers and the communities we serve, which is why we established the following goals to help create long-term value through sustainable connectivity:
1. Drive efficiency by achieving carbon neutrality in our operations by 2035.
2. Continue to build a highly skilled workforce reflecting the diversity of the communities we serve by increasing the starting minimum wage of all hourly employees to $20 per hour in 2022.
3. Provide better, safer connectivity and control for our communities by making our Advanced Home WiFi platform available to 100% of Internet serviceable homes passed in 2022, which allows customers to optimize their home networks with detailed visibility and control over connected devices.
4. Expand our network to provide high-speed broadband access to one million unserved and underserved rural customer locations by investing over $5 billion over the next six years through our rural construction initiative.
5. Invest $30 million to improve 100 rural and urban community centers that provide job skills training over the next five years, benefiting 50,000 people in the communities we serve.
