Over the past several years, CA Technologies has accelerated its Corporate Sustainability program. The company has received significant recognition, including placing#5 on Newsweek’s 2012 Green Rankings, being named a Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index Leader, and being added to several prestigious lists, including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), the UN Global Compact 100 Stock Index and the FTSE4Good Index Series. The company’s CDP (formally Carbon Disclosure Project) score also continues to rise, currently at 90 out of 100. In addition, CA Technologies is providing more and more information to its stakeholders through its annual Sustainability Report.
These successes don’t come without strategic, focused effort. For years the company has been working across business units to solidify a global program that identifies and acts on opportunities to increase resource efficiency for both the company and its customers. This action has yielded a number of results; including setting a number of public goals, the most ambitious being to reduce its Scope 1 & 2 greenhouse gas emissions 35 percent below its 2006 numbers by 2020. The company has already achieved 75 percent of that target through data center efficiency improvements, proactive real estate considerations and the use of renewable energy. CA Technologies is also greening its solutions by requiring design teams to identify and implement improvements that would allow our customers to consume less natural resources when operating our products. And through the company’s Green Team program, employees around the world are giving their time to help make their offices run more efficiently.
But what do all these accolades and initiatives mean? After all, CA Technologies is a software company with no manufacturing operations. The company has data centers, which consume energy and require water for cooling, but the impact is minimal compared to other industries that create tangible products or extract resources from the earth. So what is Corporate Sustainability and why is it important to this software company?
Because it can help reduce the company’s bottom line and drive revenue upwards. Key stakeholders expect companies to be good green citizens of the planet and CA Technologies aims to meet those expectations.
New business can depend on answers to customer questions about a company’s environmental and social performance. These elements can be a critical part of the procurement decision and, in some cases, on par with traditional criteria like price, delivery and quality.
Here are additional facts on what CA Technologies and its customers are doing in this area:
61 of CA Technologies top 100 customers report their energy and related emission performance to CDP, representing nearly 1/3 of the company’s FY13 revenue. 80 percent of those have greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets.
Six of CA Technologies top 25 customers are listed on the DJSI.
On average, 80 percent of the customer questionnaires CA Technologies receives include questions on what the company is doing to manage the world’s natural resources more efficiently and how the company is helping its customers do the same.
20 percent of CA Technologies top 20 customers, representing 4 percent of the company’s total revenue, are members of CERES, an advocate for sustainability leadership.
Six CA Technologies customers contract CDP to survey the company on the amount of energy and greenhouse gas emissions embedded in the products and services they purchase.
Investors are another key stakeholder. Today, more than one out of every nine dollars spent under professional management in the United States is invested according to strategies of sustainable and responsible investing (SRI). SRI is an investment discipline that considers environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria to generate long-term competitive financial returns and positive societal impact. One way the investment community is coalescing around this is through the Principals of Responsible Investing (PRI) which aims to help investors integrate the ESG issues into their decision-making. The PRI has more than 1,000 signatories with assets totaling more than $30 trillion (a 22 percent increase from 2009), estimated to represent 20 percent of the total value of global capital market. Why is SRI important to CA Technologies? 31 percent of the analysts following CA Technologies are signatories to the PRI. Citigroup is the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Diversified Financial Industry Leader and JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are both members of CERES. Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase both employ analysts that follow our financial performance. Corporate Sustainability is important to CA Technologies investors. They are integrating it into their business and have made it a key criterion when making investment decisions.
Moving forward
Moving forward, the company is pursuing its sustainability initiatives with a focus on minimizing and maximizing: minimizing negative impacts while maximizing positive outcomes across every area of the company. CA Technologies is applying this approach to its customers too, as it helps them maximize ROI and minimize resource consumption.
Corporate Sustainability is a team sport that requires everyone working together toward the same goal. While the company’s progress in this area has been notable, there is much more work ahead.
Jennifer Dudgeon, principal, Corporate Social Responsibility, CA Technologies
editor@greentechlead.com