sustainability practices adopted at adobe are discussed here

1. SUSTAINABILITY
PRACTICES
@

2. 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 areas
Energy conservation
Green building
Waste reduction

3. 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%

4. 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)

5. 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

6. WASTE REDUCTION
By 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 overall
PACKAGING - 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

7. 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 through
1. 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

8. Unlike Adobe India, there are many sustainability practises in San Jose, California
The 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. Comparison with peers
According to CSRHUB site
It ranks 59 @ 2013 in software and internet industry
in the world

13. 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

14. THANK YOU