15 mind-blowing stats about Adobe’s impact on environmental sustainability

American writer, environmental activist and cultural critic Wendell Berry once said, “The Earth is what we all have in common.” That same thinking is what fuels Adobe’s commitment to our employees, communities, investors, customers and the environment, to operate our business more sustainably. Sustainability is intertwined with the future of our climate and the health of our planet, and we all play a role in doing the right thing and helping those around us to have a positive impact and be trusted partners in this work together.

In this edition of “Mind-Blowing Stats,” we look at some of the ways Adobe has accelerated the move toward more sustainable business practices in recent years.

1. Through Adobe Sign, we have created 95 percent less environmental impact than a paper workflow.

2. Every 1 million transactions through Adobe Sign equates to emissions, taking over 2,300 cars off the road for a year. We have produced $7.2 million in cost savings with every 1 million transactions completed with Adobe Sign.

3. TSB Bank used Adobe Sign and Adobe XD to roll out 20 forms online when COVID-19 hit the United States back in March 2020, processing over 140,000 interactions digitally. This transformed about 15,000 potential in-branch visits into digital-only interactions, which not only kept customers safe during the health crisis, but also reduces paper waste, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

4. The Census Bureau used Adobe Experience Cloud solutions to bring the decennial U.S. Census online. According to the Bureau, a 1 percent increase in paper to digital fulfillment is estimated to save about $107 per survey.

5. By switching to Adobe Sign from paper-based processes, British banking and insurance holding company NatWest Group has saved 9 million sheets of paper, 960,000 gallons of water, and 336,000 pounds of wood with digital documents and workflows.

6. Financial institution Wintrust was able to fund $3.3 billion and approximately 11,000 loans as part of the Small Business Association’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a loan that helps businesses continue to pay their workforces during COVID-19. Wintrust used Adobe Experience Cloud solutions, minimizing the need for in-person interactions through digital means and thus reducing paper waste, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

7. Through the use of Adobe Creative Cloud, Ben & Jerry’s is leading the virtual photography and prototype revolution, eliminating travel, food stylist, materials, and location fees while also reducing environmental impact.

8. Through resource-free workflows, Adobe’s Document Cloud turns what would have been 30 billion paper documents in the U.S each year to digital workflows.

9. With the average employee at large organizations printing about 10,000 sheets of paper each year, companies that move to digital document processes (like the ones enabled by Adobe Document Cloud) could save $284 per employee, per year.

10. There are 100 billion pieces of junk mail annually in the US alone, and Adobe Experience Cloud can help eliminate this waste through personalized digital marketing offerings.

11. Adobe was one of the first companies to set ambitious Science-Based Targets for sustainability in 2015, and we raised our SBT targets to “well-below 1.5°C” — the most ambitious designation available through the Science-Based Target Initiative process.

12. We also committed to The Climate Group’s RE100 100 percent renewable energy goal, which Adobe plans to reach without the use of offsets by 2035.

13. North Tower, our new, all-electric building in San Jose will be the first of its kind in Silicon Valley, helping us to decarbonize our footprint and power our buildings using 100 percent renewable electricity.

14. In 2020, Adobe took 10 proactive climate action policy advocacy stances, advocating for recovering better from the pandemic through joining initiatives like Lead on Climate 2020 to invest in resilient infrastructure, transition to a net-zero emissions economy, and more.

15. Adobe has currently has almost 50 percent renewable electricity online and by the end of 2022 we will have 70 percent renewable electricity online through a mix of local and regional solar, wind, and green tariff strategies.