Adobe is again named a most JUST company
At Adobe, it’s not just about what you do, but how you do it that matters. Our co-founders, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, started the company 40 years ago with a vision to create innovative products that change the world. Their goal was also to create a company where employees are the most important asset, empowered to be themselves, and great ideas are welcomed from anywhere within the organization. Adobe is uniquely positioned and motivated to make a difference by creating a more inclusive, inspiring and innovative future for all through some key areas: Adobe for All, Creativity for All, Technology to Transform and Sustainability at Scale.
Adobe is honored to again be recognized as a company that is doing well by doing good, ranked #25 overall and #4 in the software industry on the 2023 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies. This recognition echoes our belief that by harnessing the best of Adobe — our people, platform, creativity and innovation — we can continue to make lasting change inside and outside of our company.
Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion
As part of our Adobe for All commitments, we are advancing our goals of creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce, unleashing the full potential of every employee, and helping drive meaningful changes across both our industry and society at large. Through a combination of direct support to nonprofits, and employee-led programs, we make things better in the communities where our employees live and work.
One of the most important ways that we show our employees that we continue to value them is by creating a culture that fairly rewards and recognizes the contributions of all our employees across the globe. Thanks to my colleagues in Employee Experience team, we’re proud to say we achieved global pay parity between women and men in 2018 and 2020 and announced pay parity between U.S. underrepresented minorities (URM) and non-URM employees, which we affirmed we maintained in 2021, which we affirmed that we maintained in 2021.
Last year, we launched the Adobe Equity and Advancement Initiative, supporting 11 leading international and U.S. nonprofit organizations in their efforts to create access to education and economic opportunity. With the support of the Adobe Foundation, Adobe made an initial $20 million investment across these organizations, along with product, public policy and volunteering support. Through the cohort model, the Adobe Foundation and the company are positioned to make long-term, strategic commitments that provide meaningful partnership opportunities, learning experiences for employees, and new ways of leveraging the full force of the Adobe brand in support of issues that matter to our company and communities.
Giving everyone the opportunity to express and share creativity
We’ve continued our commitment to enabling ‘Creativity for All,’ to help empower our customers, community and people everywhere with the access to the tools, inspiration and support they need to create their stories and share it with the world.
Through our support with the students and teachers in our communities and around the world, we announced Adobe Express for Education, the leading all-in-one tool for creating flyers, flashcards, presentations, and videos, would be available for free to K-12 users. Express also crossed a major milestone and is now in the hands of over 43 million K-12 students and teachers globally.
The Adobe Foundation expanded partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) by donating an additional $1 million each to Bowie State University, San José State University and Winston-Salem State University. The program, which will evolve to support more BIPOC-serving institutions in the future, aims to expose students to careers in technology and equip them with necessary creativity and digital skills.
Through Adobe’s new partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the company offered HBCU Ignite Scholarships to provide up to $15,000 each to 50 eligible students attending HBCUs and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). This financial assistance for the 2022-2023 academic school year supports students attending a TMCF member-school to further their studies and cultivate creative and digital literacy skills.
We also continued our partnership with The Ocean Agency and UNESCO on #CreateWaves, a campaign that brings people from all over the world together through creativity, to rally support for ocean conservation and stronger climate action.
Delivering tech for good and building a sustainable future
Innovation is core to Adobe’s DNA and we design and develop technology that is inclusive, enables impact and positively contributes to society. We also focus on enabling sustainability at scale across industries through our commitment to achieving a zero-carbon operational footprint, developing digital products that enable our customers and communities to drive positive environmental impact, and working with our peers, partners and employees to foster a culture of sustainability.
On the heels of our 40th anniversary, Adobe was 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. Approximately 70 percent of Adobe’s operational electricity demand is met with renewable electricity, and more than 80 percent of our global workspaces by square feet are LEED or green building certified.
With Adobe Substance 3D, our suite of interoperable tools and services powering 3D design, designers can achieve sustainability goals by replacing traditional product photoshoots with photorealistic renderings. When the COVID-19 pandemic paused in-person photo shoots and other live creative projects, companies turned to 3D to create. For example, fashion brands used Substance 3D to help designers accelerate the production of marketing assets, save time and money, reduce their carbon footprint, and offer greater efficiency and flexibility while still delivering the visual impact expected from traditional product photography.
Adobe also debuted the Substance 3D Sustainability Calculator, which can show a virtual 3D photoshoot’s dramatic reductions in environmental impact, cost, and time compared with conventional product photography — with estimated savings ranging from nearly 50 percent of time to 90 percent of expenses, and almost 100 percent of carbon emissions. And with Adobe’s Carbon footprint & Resource saver calculators, users can estimate how to reduce their carbon footprint with e‑signatures versus paper agreements and quantify estimated environmental savings by avoiding paper use.
Given Adobe’s broad-reaching impact, we have a responsibility and the resources to make a unique impact in the world. This sense of purpose has guided our evolution and growth over the past four decades and inspires our employees around the world to invent the future and change the world for the better.
About JUST 100
The 2023 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies are led by the JUST 100, in collaboration with CNBC. The JUST 100 annual ranking reflects the performance of America’s largest publicly traded companies on the issues that matter most in defining just business behavior. The issues, and weighting in the scoring methodology, are determined by polling of the American public. This year, 951 companies were ranked based on their performance across stakeholders. Head here to learn more about the JUST 100 list.