What it Means to Be a Trusted Partner
As I reflect on last year’s assessment of Adobe’s social impact, I’m proud to report that the company did what it set out to do: increase its commitments to protect natural resources, work together to keep our societies moving forward, and foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
Today, we published our 2017 Sustainability and Social Impact Report. Beyond detailing our progress and performance in sustainability, governance, employee growth and development, and community investment, what stood out is the increased connection between our business and society.
To reflect Adobe’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, we invested $4 million in education and talent pipeline programs designed to expand access to technology careers – including our own. The pilot year of our innovative program, Adobe Digital Academy, proved successful in diversifying our workforce by training and hiring non-traditional candidates within 12 months.
In addition, we continued to help advance the next generation of creatives through our newest initiative, Project 1324. Our aim is to bring together the creative industry and our non-profit partners to inspire, develop and amplify the work of up-and-coming artists who create to spark positive change in our world.
Being involved in our communities is a core value at Adobe. We hit our highest level of employee involvement in 2017 with 63% engaged in our local communities around the world in various ways, including the contribution of $2.86M in pro bono projects. Together, we invested $36.4M – cash and in-kind – around the world in 2017.
These efforts earned us being one of just 15 companies on The Civic 50 every year since its inception and a spot among the 100 Best Corporate Citizens for the third year in a row.
This year brought us closer to operating our sites with 100% renewable power by 2035. Adobe implemented Science Based Targets and became one of the first US tech companies to sign an open access solar power purchase agreement in Bangalore, India. We continued to be recognized for our commitment to sustainability, achieving the A List on CDP and again placing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (World).
Equal to Adobe’s performance outlined in this year’s report is our commitment to transparency. In addition to delivering business growth and innovation over the past 35 years, being transparent is also required to be a trusted partner to our customers, investors, employees and communities. And today, trust is more important than ever.