Why the Acronis ESG report is here to stay

I recently read the Economist's special report on corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG), which explores the current lack of standardization in the measurement of results, and questions some corporate motivations in pursuing ESG policies.

It is easy to be cynical when viewing the concept of ESG, and it is evident that streamlining and standardizing reporting would help provide benchmarks for companies, investors, employees and other stakeholders, to help them better understand the results shown. For now though, I firmly believe that companies need to stick to their guns in setting goals, implementing programs and measuring the results of their ESG policies – it's a case of evolution, not revolution. Of course, measurement criteria and methods may change over time, and companies will need to adapt according to global environmental targets, and it's important to remember that ESG requires long-term investment.

We published our first ESG report in February this year and received an overwhelmingly positive response from our clients, stakeholders, and investors. It's easy to assume that everyone knows what is going on in the company they work for, but after receiving comments from our people such as, 'I had no idea Acronis was doing so much', it is clear that we need to share our ESG progress, and I encourage our people and partners to get involved and make a difference to the communities we operate in, and help sustain the environment.

As it's now six months since our first ESG report, it's a good time to update you on what we've achieved so far. We'll be updating on progress across all three ESG pillars in our 2022 report, but here are a few highlights to illustrate the real results we are achieving:

Environmental.

In addition to working on our day-to-day business, we need to make time and take responsibility to create a more sustainable world. Starting with our buildings, most of these have either BREEM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) or LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certificates for green buildings, and we're working hard to improve those buildings that aren't there yet. BREEM and LEED are globally accepted programs that indicate a building was designed and constructed to a certain level of environmental responsibility, covering for example energy savings, water efficiency, reduced CO2 emissions, and use of recycled materials.

We also work with more than 40 Data Centers around the world and these are naturally energy-hungry, which leads to CO2 emissions. We're therefore working with our Data Center providers to review their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to assess the efficiency and define improvements.

We believe it is important to work with partners that have similar attitudes to reducing CO2 emissions and achieving a more sustainable world, so in June we began reviewing our suppliers for their ESG policies and practices, focusing on the top 40 vendors ranked by spend. A total of 30 vendors have been checked so far, and 50% of them have been given an official report or policies with ESG scope. Far from seeing this process as an encumbrance, vendors such as Myriad and Salesforce have welcomed this implementation of our ESG policy. This is all hot off the press, with more work in progress, so further details of the process and results will be shared in our 2022 ESG report, to show how improvements have been achieved year on year.

Social

We believe knowledge should be available for all, and one of the projects completed this year which embodies this principle, is a new learning establishment in Los Maranitos, in the Dominican Republic, which opened in June. This first-class learning center was established by our Acronis Cyber Foundation together with our partner RNT Rausch.  It's not a school in the traditional sense, but a supplementary educational institution to the public schools in the region. It will benefit 150 children and the whole community by offering coed programs and access to classes, with a curriculum covering academic courses and environmental education.

The whole community was involved in the project; they helped with the learning centre construction and then took part in the grand opening ceremony. The farmland surrounding the school is used to grow coffee beans, bananas and other fruits and vegetables, which are then sold to the community, with funds generated, used to support the school.

Environmental sustainability was built into the project, for example our construction partner built the school using organic materials from the surrounding areas.

These are just a few examples of the real benefits of the Acronis ESG program, and comprehensive data and evidence of our work across multiple areas, such as gender equality, support for women in tech, diversity and inclusion, refugee IT skills training, and our code of conduct and compliance, will be revealed in our 2022 ESG report – a document which is central to our operations and here to stay.