SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES

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What they do

• As the business continues to grow and evolve, they remain committed to responsibly managing the impact of operations

• Striving to exceed industry certification standards and maximise efficiency with leading edge technology – while fostering a culture of environmental sustainability

• So, they focused on the following 3 areasEnergy conservationGreen buildingWaste reduction

ENERGY CONSERVATION AND MEASUREMENT

Ultimate goal : Being an increasingly energy intensive business, produce or offset as much energy as they consume, resulting in Net Zero energy usage

• Measure and manage energy use :1. A monitoring system that captures energy and critical operations data

based on thousands of data points, from electricity, water, and natural gas usage to the power usage effectiveness (PUE)

2. Measure and report Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 carbon emissions and reported to Sustainable Silicon Valley, Carbon Disclosure Project, EIRIS , Quantum and Truscott

• Reduce energy demand : In 9 facilities, completed 160 projects which reduced electricity usage by 50%, natural gas usage by 30%, domestic water usage by 79%, irrigation water usage by 71%

Contd…

• Generate power on site : 2009 – Installed 20 Wind spire wind turbines , San Jose 2010 – Bloom energy server fuel cells (natural biogas into

electricity) at San Jose and San Francisco Accounts for 30% and 50% power supply respectively

• Purchase renewable energy credits & verifiable emission reductions:

To support wind farm and landfill biogas plant project Hoping to gradually reduce the purchase of offsets (As they

are able to use clean, alternative energy)

GREEN BUILDING AND MEASUREMENTS

• One of the first companies to adopt U.S Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Standards

• Helps in operating with great efficiency, reducing the company’s impact on planet and stabilising their costs over time

• GOAL : To achieve Net Zero status at each of their owned facilities in North America by 2015

• 23 facilities have LEED certifications, 17 of them are certified at LEED Platinum level, ranking them among most environmentally sound buildings in the world

WASTE REDUCTIONBy promoting “Digital download option” and by offering access to products on “Adobe’s creative cloud”, they eliminate the need for product packaging and reduce their environmental footprint overallPACKAGING - In 2012, 73% of the licensed product delivered through Digital download, reducing the need for packaging

MANUFACTURING – Effective inventory management system reduces waste. Overall product scrap rate < 1% of total packaged product revenue, well below the industry average

FACILITIES – Waste reduction programs are deployed where possible at facilities worldwide.E.g. 2100 employees at San Jose, California Campus engage in recycling and composting programs, that divert over 99% of solid waste from the landfill

ADOBE INDIA• As about 50% of the employees in Adobe Systems are from San Jose,

California, they have many of the sustainability programs over there• Adobe India, though it doesn’t involve in greening their supply chain, it

involves in community affairs through1. Adobe community development : Engages with communities for Social

development programs – Inspires 12k students to think creatively, commitment to hunger, homeliness, protecting environment, preserving art and culture, planting trees and donations

2. Adobe youth voices : 3 guiding principles – Engage, enhance, exhibit engaging. Invested $10mn for 5 years to equip the youth in Bengaluru and Noida

3. Emergency relief and aid : Funded Tsunami relief program, Bihar flood relief, Payroll donation

4. Adobe in action : Underprivileged children to campus, conducting events for them

Unlike Adobe India, there are many sustainability practises in San Jose, CaliforniaThe table shows sustainability efforts in their corporate head quarters

COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS

• POSITIONING in the minds of stakeholders and the public through energy conservation, green building, etc. is itself a communication strategy

• PRINT MEDIA – ( Adobe’s journal and on-product environmental label guide)

• ONLINE – Sustainability section in the website• MEETINGS AND EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS – Internal

How Rating agencies perceive ADOBE

• It has been repeatedly featuring in ETHISPHERE list of ethical companies from 2010 to 2014

• Newsweek(factors like transparency; objectivity; public data; comparability; engagement; and stakeholders) ranks Adobe as the world’s greenest IT company which means it is second greenest company in US and third in the world

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability metrics site CSRHUB has rated Adobe as 58 out of 278 software and internet usage companies.

• Adobe office buildings have got 17 out of 20 got LEED platinum rating for their buildings and three basic LEED ratings

How media is perceiving Adobe

• Media is taking the efforts positively for their initiative like energy conservation, green building and waste reduction concepts.

• According to 3BL media– Adobe is one such company that leads from the front in terms of

making a meaningful social impact and bringing positive change through creativity and innovation

– In the area of education, the company invested $8.8 million in 2013 in its Adobe Youth Voices (AVY) program, providing digital media skills to over 33,000 youth across the globe.

– Girl Who Code, initiative taken to achieve the gender diversity.

Contd..

• According to Newsweek– #1 Greenest Technology Company, #2 Greenest American Company

and #3 Greenest International Company

• Adobe Youth Voices is the Adobe Foundation’s global initiative to ignite young people’s creativity through the power of storytelling with digital media , which is a great success

Comparison with peers

According to CSRHUB siteIt ranks 59 @ 2013 in software and internet industry in the world

Comparison with Microsoft• Conserving, reusing, and recycling: When it is feasible, Microsoft

conserves natural resources by using recycled materials and supplies

• Reducing and disposing of waste: Microsoft reduces and where possible eliminates waste through source reduction and recycling at company facilities

• Microsoft has signed two long term power purchase agreements (PPAs) for wind energy, the Keechi Wind Project (110MW) and the Pilot Hill Wind Project (175 MW)

• CityNext (Merge IT and cloud computing), Carbon neutrality commitment

THANK YOU