United Group, a leading telecoms and media company in Southeastern Europe, has published its 2025 Sustainability Report, covering environmental, social and governance performance across its telecoms, media, and other businesses.

The report covers a year of change for the Group, which sharpened its focus on high-growth EU markets following the sale of a number of assets outside the EU and the appointment of a new management team.

Under the new strategy, each operating company is run as a business in its own right, with its own leadership and its own targets. The Group sets sustainability standards and targets centrally and funds the investment behind them, while the local teams decide how best to deliver them in their markets.

2025 highlights

Climate and energy

United Group remains committed to sourcing all of its electricity from renewable sources from 2027 and to reaching net zero emissions across its value chain by 2040. Its interim targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Work in 2025 ranged from energy efficiency improvements across the Group’s own infrastructure to renewable generation projects in Bulgaria.

Networks and digital inclusion

The Group continued to expand its fiber-to-the-home networks and speed up its 5G rollout. Working with schools and community organizations, its companies ran programs to help older people, young people and vulnerable groups use digital services safely, as well as training for small business owners.

People

The Group advanced its commitment to diversity and inclusive leadership, achieving 42% women representation at Group Leadership level and 37% across local leadership teams. It also narrowed its gender pay gap further in 2025 and is on track to provide an average of 25 hours of learning per employee each year by 2030. Its first group-wide inclusion survey received responses from around 8,000 employees.

Governance and supply chain

The Group’s compliance framework encompasses a broad range of measures supporting ethical business conduct, responsible business practices and compliance across the organization and its value chain. During the year, more than 2.700 suppliers were assessed for ethical compliance, and the Supplier Code of Conduct and climate-related supplier standards were extended further. United Group is a participant in the Joint Alliance for CSR and aligns its framework with the UN Global Compact and the Responsible Business Alliance.

Since the reporting period, United Group’s operating companies have continued to receive recognition for their sustainability initiatives. Over recent months, Telemach Croatia has earned multiple accolades for its flagship CSR initiative, and became the first major company in Croatia to achieve the MAMFORCE LEAD standard, the highest level of certification for commitment to work-life and gender balance. Nova in Greece was also honored at the recent Best City Awards and Compliance Awards, alongside international shortlistings at the World Sustainability Awards.