A strong corporate governance framework is vital to the way we conduct our business. It defines the roles and responsibilities of our board, ensures oversight of our strategies and operations and promotes ethical behavior—helping us make a positive impact on employees, shareholders and communities.
Our progress.
of our current board is independent, including an independent board chair1
assists the board with overseeing ESG strategies, goals and initiatives and regularly engages with senior management
Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) compared to US average TRIR2
operation of our Security Operations Center to monitor and address cyberthreats
1 As of June 2024.
2 The US average TRIR was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Average is for full year 2022 because 2023 data has not yet been released.
Prioritizing our ESG efforts.
Our Nominating, Environmental, Social and Governance Committee (NESG Committee)—chaired by Tammy Jones, a member of our board with a background in ESG—assists the board in overseeing our ESG priorities, goals and strategies. The NESG Committee receives quarterly updates from senior management regarding our ESG risks, opportunities, initiatives and progress toward goals.
Our approach to corporate governance.
Accountability and integrity are the foundation for our governance approach. We are committed to maintaining a strong corporate governance framework that defines the roles and responsibilities of our board, ensures oversight of our strategies and operations and promotes ethical behavior across our business.
On our board, we value new perspectives while also fostering an environment that retains institutional knowledge and expertise. A broad range of skills, experiences and viewpoints strengthens the board’s oversight capabilities and enhances its collective business acumen.
Here are some other ways we achieve strong corporate governance:
-
Mandatory director retirement age of 72 years
-
Directors elected annually by majority vote
-
One-share, one-vote standard, meaning that all stockholders have equal voting rights
- Separate CEO and independent board chair
-
Proxy access rights
-
Annual board and committee evaluations
- Stock ownership and retention guidelines
-
Regular board executive sessions
Leveraging a broad range of expertise.
The members of our board have an impressive mix of skills, backgrounds and experiences that enhance decision making and help us continually improve our business. Our board refreshment practices help ensure that our board represents balanced viewpoints, demographics and expertise—now and in the future.
P. Robert Bartolo
Board Chair
Cindy Christy
Director
Ari Q. Fitzgerald
Director
Jason Genrich
Director
Andrea J. Goldsmith
Director
Tammy K. Jones
Director
Kevin T. Kabat
Director
Katherine Motlagh
Director
Anthony J. Melone
Director
Bradley E. Singer
Director
Kevin A. Stephens
Director
Matthew Thornton, III
Director
Board snapshot.3
gender diversity
average age
ethnic diversity
years average tenure
independent
Highlights of experiences and skill sets across our board.3
public US company board experience
wireless, telecom and/or real estate (including REIT) industries
experience serving as a current or former CEO or senior executive of a significant business subsegment or unit
experience assessing and managing significant corporate transactions
financial experience
3 As of June 2024.
Operating with integrity.
We pride ourselves on our dedicated employees who share our company’s values. Over the years, we have carefully designed policies, guidelines and training to reinforce our ethical standards. Training on certain ethics topics is provided to all new employees as part of the orientation process, and all employees complete mandatory ethics refresher courses annually. As the landscape evolves, we evaluate these guidelines. We are dedicated to uncompromising integrity and maintaining high standards of business conduct and ethics in everything we do. Acting responsibly builds trust, minimizes risk and enhances our reputation. We encourage and empower our employees to ask questions and report ethical concerns or suspected violations through our third-party Ethics Alert Line and have established a mechanism for reporting conflicts of interest. We are committed to supporting human rights and dignity and equality in our relationships with all our stakeholders and within the communities we serve.
Creating a safe work environment.
One way we live our company’s values is by focusing on the safety of our employees, partners, customers and communities. Our enterprise-wide focus helps us coordinate safety standards across all our assets and operational initiatives. We carefully design safety policies, procedures and training courses in an effort to prevent injuries or damage. To do this, we focus on three areas:
- Safety reporting: Our employees are required to report safety incidents to their supervisors and complete an Accident Investigation Report. Data collected during investigations is then analyzed to identify causes and to inform solutions.
- Safety oversight: Our Safety Committee oversees the activities of dedicated safety and risk management teams—providing a high level of accountability across the organization.
- Safety training: Safety training is a critical part of our program and is assigned based on the potential risks associated with an individual’s role.
hours in 2023 dedicated to comprehensive safety training, underscoring our proactive approach to fostering a safe working environment.
Site Safety Observations in 2023 during which contractor work and procedures were inspected for compliance with our rigorous safety requirements.
Employee Safety Statistics4
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Number of OSHA Recordable Incidents | 20 | 15 | 17 | 23 | 18 |
| Total Number of Lost Time Incidents | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Lost Time Injury Rate | 0.06 | 0.11 | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.04 |
| Total OSHA Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) 5 | 0.29 | 0.26 | 0.31 | 0.39 | 0.37 |
| Fatalities6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2023 Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)5 well below average
4 Employee safety statistics encompass all Crown Castle employees across towers, small cell, and fiber operations. Separate disclosures for contractors and subcontractors are provided below.
5 Calculated as the number of US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Recordable Incidents per 200,000 hours / total hours worked.
6 Represents the number of employee fatalities, if any, associated with work performed at a Crown Castle site.
7 The US average TRIR and the lessors of other real estate property (NAICS Code 531190) industry average TRIR were obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Averages are for full year 2022, because 2023 data has not yet been released.
Contractor health and safety.
We partner with a trusted network of contractors and subcontractors to build and maintain our infrastructure assets and meet the varying needs of our customers and communities. We look to partner with companies who share our commitment to safety, integrity and operational excellence. We contractually require contractors to follow certain safety rules and standards and utilize both internal and external systems to track their qualifications, insurance and safety performance.
Tower Contractor and Subcontractor Safety Statistics8
| 2023 | |
|---|---|
| Total OSHA Recordable Incidents9 | 1.1 |
| Ratio of Total OSHA Recordable Incidents to Aggregate Services10 | 0.00004 |
| Fatalities11 | 0 |
8 Data reflects incidents related to our tower sites which (1) are disclosed to Crown Castle by our third-party contractor management system or are otherwise disclosed to Crown Castle and (2) meet the criteria detailed in the footnotes below.
9 Calculated as the number of OSHA Recordable Incidents for contractors and subcontractors performing work at Crown Castle tower sites.
10 Calculated as the number of OSHA Recordable Incidents for contractors and subcontractors performing work at Crown Castle tower sites divided by the number of aggregate services performed at Crown Castle tower sites during 2023.
11 Represents the number of contractor and subcontractor fatalities, if any, associated with work performed at a Crown Castle tower site.
Building durable networks.
All our solutions are designed to operate reliably so they can continue meeting the needs and expectations of our customers and communities. The measures we take include:
- Resilient design: Our infrastructure is designed to withstand many different extreme weather conditions.
- Disaster management: We participate in government programs to ensure continuity in the event of a disaster.
- Inspections: We proactively perform site inspections to ensure the safety and structural integrity of our assets, as well as to validate compliance with relevant standards.
- Simulations: Every six months we conduct weather and disaster simulations.
- 24/7 support: Our US-based Network Operations Center (NOC) continually monitors our assets, and we have many locally based teams to respond quickly if needed.
Spotlight: Hurricane Ian response.
Our engineering practices consider the specific climate risks at our sites and contribute significantly to the resilience of Crown Castle’s assets. Only 0.01% of our $29 billion in property and equipment is spent annually on repairs and maintenance stemming from extreme weather events, underlining the reliability of our assets.
For example, immediately after Hurricane Ian made landfall in South Florida in late 2022, our teams assessed over 500 route miles of fiber and 677 tower sites. Within six days, we helped restore fiber and wireless connectivity in Florida’s hardest hit areas, reconnecting these communities with an essential resource. Our locally based employees were also a top priority, and we provided $142,000 in relief to 78 families through our Emergency Assistance Program and Disaster Relief Fund. We remain actively engaged in partnering with local jurisdictions, agencies, and our customers in engineering planning and design initiatives to support the rebuilding of fiber connections supporting the Sanibel Island and barrier islands region.
Battling wildfire risks.
Through our Wildfire Risk Mitigation Program, we take proactive steps to address and raise awareness of wildfire risks.
For our tower site locations that present elevated potential risks for wildfires, we take additional precautions to increase safety and minimize risk for us and the environment. Our dedicated teams monitor daily weather conditions and determine which sites require elevated safety protocols throughout the project. Additionally, we created a no-weld structural modification solution which helps mitigate risk from on-site hot work.
of contractors performing hot work on sites with an elevated wildfire risk complete a pre-construction check-in where fire prevention procedures are reviewed and observed live
of contractors performing hot work on tower sites are required to achieve a specialized qualification, comprising training on wildfire risks and prevention and pledging to adhere to Crown Castle hot work standards, which include having a dedicated fire watch during and after the hot work
Advocating for communities.
We advocate for public policies, procedural efficiencies and deployment methodologies that accelerate the build out of communications infrastructure and expand broadband services in communities. Crown Castle generally does not make political contributions or maintain a political action committee. However, we regularly engage with policymakers on these topics to help facilitate change.
Safeguarding our corporate network and data.
In today’s digital world, it’s essential to safeguard our corporate network and the data it stores. We maintain a comprehensive Information Security Program geared towards raising awareness of cybersecurity threats and encouraging vigilance among our end-users. Cybersecurity awareness training is provided to all new employees as part of the orientation process, and all employees complete mandatory cybersecurity refresher courses annually. We maintain monitoring and reporting policies and procedures and have a robust incident response plan to handle issues that arise. Additionally, we subject key elements of our Information Security Program, such as insider threat detection, vulnerability management and incident response capabilities, to independent external audits.
Our Information Security Policy reinforces our commitment to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our data. We also conduct regular table-top exercises and have created playbooks for specific cyber and physical security scenarios to position us for a coordinated, strategic response in the event of an actual security incident.
Our Security Operations Center operates 24/7/365 to monitor and address cyberthreats. Our Enterprise Security Committee, comprised of senior leaders across the company, provides guidance and oversight for implementing organization-wide security and data protection compliance programs. Our internal audit team regularly evaluates the effectiveness of our Information Security Program so we can adjust as the digital landscape evolves.
cybersecurity training modules completed12
test phishing emails sent12
12 As of December 31, 2023.