Adobe tackling climate change and named to CDP ‘A List’
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Adobe’s longstanding commitment to sustainability and climate action started in our built environment and office spaces and now extends across our business operations, product development, and advocacy efforts to help meet stakeholder expectations, strengthen customer relationships, and support the environment.
On the heels of our 40th anniversary, we’re proud to share that Adobe has been recognized for leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change by global environmental non-profit CDP — securing a place on its annual ‘A List’ for the eighth year. Based on data reported through CDP’s 2022 Climate Change questionnaire, Adobe is one of approximately 2 percent of companies that achieved an ‘A’ — out of more than 15,000 companies scored.
Getting on the 'A List'
CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. In 2022, 680+ investors with more than US$130 trillion in assets and 280 major purchasers with US$6.4 trillion in procurement spend requested companies to disclose data on environmental impacts, risks and opportunities through CDP’s platform.
“As a Climate A List company, we are leaders in corporate transparency and action on climate change.”
Adobe was also recently named to the annual Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI): World & North America, based on S&P Global ESG Scores calculated via the results of its Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). Launched in 1999, the DJSI were the first global indices to track the financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide.
Since 2015, Adobe has focused on three approaches to achieve our goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are in line with the scientific community and industry best practices, including 1) Science Based Targets 2) Renewable Electricity (RE100) and 3) CDP Climate. Adobe was one of the first companies to set ambitious Science Based Targets (SBT) for sustainability in 2015, and we raised our SBT to “well-below 1.5°C.”
Committing to sustainability goals
Today, we have four commitments specific to emissions reduction and renewable electricity. Currently, Adobe is either ahead of, or on target, to achieve these goals:
- 100 percent renewable electricity by 2025
- 35 percent reduction in operations emissions by 2025
- 30 percent reduction in business travel emissions by 2025
- Suppliers representing 55 percent of spend will have their own validated science-based climate targets by 2025
By the end of 2022, approximately 70 percent of Adobe’s operational electricity demand will be met with renewable electricity, and more than 80 percent of our global workspaces by square feet are LEED or green building certified. In fact, Adobe’s upcoming office building at its headquarters in San Jose, California — opening in early 2023 — will mark Silicon Valley’s first all-electric building of its scale powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The building will also include 50,000 square feet of kitchen space complete with induction cooking technology — making it the largest all-electric commercial kitchen in North America when it opens.
Rendering of Adobe’s new office building at its headquarters.
Thinking bigger to drive change
We are also helping businesses across industries innovate, digitally transform and reduce their impact on the environment. Adobe’s solutions can help customers reimagine design, business workflows, and marketing to conserve natural resources — from enabling virtual collaboration and digital prototyping to reducing waste stemming from paper-based processes.
For example, through resource-free workflows, Adobe Document Cloud turns 30 billion paper documents in the U.S. each year into digital documents. And every 1 million pages transacted daily through Adobe Acrobat Sign — our e-signature solution — equates to saving more than 27 million gallons of water and avoiding the emissions from driving a car over 770,000 days. Check out Adobe’s Resource Saver Calculator and Substance 3D Sustainability Calculator to see estimated environmental savings by avoiding paper use and estimated reduced carbon emissions and resources by shifting to 3D design renderings.
And we’re not stopping there. Adobe is also collaborating with customers, industry peers, and partners — like the Business Round Table, Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, BSR’s Future of Internet Power, the U.S. Green Building Council, Ceres, and the World Resources Institute — to leverage the collective power of our brands to drive change through climate policy advocacy and thought leadership.
Adobe remains committed to driving positive environmental impact and sustainability at scale through broad collaboration and by developing digital products enabling our customers and communities to reduce their carbon footprints. Our core set of values — focused on people, purpose, and community — will continue to guide the company’s evolution and growth while helping make the world a better place.