Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Reporting
For the first time, Cogent is reporting our performance in relation to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) framework for Telecommunications Providers. This report outlines how our existing disclosures align with the telecommunications services standards recommended by the SASB. We do not track or disclose a number of the metrics included in the standard, but we will continue to evaluate them for future inclusion. All data is as of or for the year ended December 31, 2022 unless otherwise noted.
| SASB Metrics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity Metric | SASB Code | Metric | Response or Comment |
| TC-TL-000.A | Number of Wireless Subscribers | Not Applicable | |
| TC-TL-000.B | Number of Wireless Subscribers | Not Applicable | |
| TC-TL-000.C | Number of Broadband Subscribers | 96,514 Customer connections. The SASB standard calls for us to report the number of broadband subscribers. Consistent with the disclosures we provide in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC (SEC reports), we are reporting the number of connections for this category because this is the metric we use to evaluate our operating performance from period to period. |
|
| TC-TL-000.D | Network Traffic | 319.3 exabytes for the year 2022 | |
| Activity Metric | SASB Code | Metric | Response or Comment |
| Environmental Footprint of Operations | TC-TL-130a.1 | Total Energy Consumed | Information on the estimated power consumed by our network equipment and Cogent-owned data centers can be found here. |
| Percentage Grid Electricity | We rely in nearly all of our locations on the facility operator or our landlord to arrange for the delivery of electricity to power our operations. Except for our Pasadena facility,. we believe substantially all of the electricity we use is grid electricity. | ||
| Percentage Renewable | Not material. Our 1MW solar array at our data center and office in Pasadena, California became operational. We are evaluating additional sites for solar installations. | ||
| Data Privacy | TC-TL-220a.1 | Description of Policies and Practices Relating to Behavioral Advertising and Customer Privacy | We do not serve consumers and as such do not collect any such personal information. With respect to our business customer base, we have made a deliberate choice to minimize the amount of personal information we collect about the employees of our customers to business contact information. We describe to our customers the types of information we collect, what we do with it and their rights in our Data Privacy Notice. |
| TC-TL-220a.2 | Number of Customers whose information is used for secondary purposes | Cogent does not sell, rent or lease customer information for any secondary purpose. Our Data Privacy Notice describes the customer information we collect and how we use it. | |
| TC-TL-220a.3 | Total amount of monetary losses as a result of legal proceedings associated with customer privacy | Cogent discloses all material legal proceedings in our SEC reporting. We did not report any legal proceedings associated with customer privacy in 2022. | |
| TC-TL-220.4 | (1) Number of law enforcement requests for customer information, (2) number of customers whose information was requested, (3) percentage resulting in disclosure |
Cogent does not provide services to consumers. Cogent does not calculate or report a metric based on this standard | |
| Data Security | TC-TL-230a.1 | (1) Number of data breaches, (2) percentage involving personally identifiable information (PII), (3) number of customers affected |
Except as required by law, Cogent does not disclose this information as it is proprietary and confidential. |
| TC-TL-230a.2 | Description of approach to identifying and addressing data security risks, including use of third-party cybersecurity standards | As we only serve business customers, we do not collect or maintain any consumer information. We have deliberately minimized the amount of personal data we collect. The information we may collect about the employees of our customers is limited to business contact information, and we store and transmit this information in accordance with applicable regulations. We do not sell or transfer the business contact information we have collected to any third parties for commercial purposes unrelated to the provision of our services. | |
| Product End-of-life Management | TC-TL-440a.1 | (1) Materials recovered through take back programs, percentage of recovered materials that were (2) reused, (3) recycled, and (4) landfilled | Cogent does not provide products to its customers. Cogent participates in take back programs with its equipment vendor, but does not track the information described in this standard. |
| Competitive Behavior & Open Internet |
TC-TL-520a.1 | Total amount of monetary losses as a result of legal proceedings associated with anti-competitive behavior regulations | Cogent discloses all material legal proceedings in our SEC reporting. We did not report any legal proceedings associated with anti-competitive behavior regulations in 2022. |
| TC-TL-520a.2 | Average actual sustained download speed of (1)owned and comercially-associated content and (2) non-associated content | Cogent does not generate any owned and commerically-associated content. Cogent does not favor certain websites or internet applications by blocking or throttling lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, user or use of nonharmful devices. More information about our network management practices can be found here. | |
| TC-TL-520a.3 | Description of risks and opportunities associated with net neutrality, paid peering, zero rating, and related practices | Please see Cogent's SEC reports for a discussion of the risk and opportunities associated with net neutrality and peering. Cogent's position on net neutrality and Open Internet can be found here. | |
| Managing Systemic Risks from Technology Disruptions |
TC-TL-550a.1 | (1) System average interruption frequency and (2) customer average interruption duration |
Cogent does not calculate and report a metric based on this standard. More information regarding the metrics we use to monitor our network performance can be found here. |
| TC-TL-550a.2 | Discussion of systems to provide unimpeded service during service interruptions | Cogent has built its network to be resilient. More information about our network resiliency can be found here. | |