Innovation

Adobe’s environmentally conscious innovation is their commitment to not using plastic in their offices or in the packaging of their products. Our interviewee, Lisa, describes that Adobe has a significant commitment to recyclables: “We have transitioned all of our on-site paper goods to fully recyclable - we’ve had really significant commitment to recyclables within the company. We don’t bring in any plastic products to work; anything like that is banned. Everything is bamboo or fully recyclable. We do all our recycling with the cities but if there’s an issue, we just take it on ourselves. We’re really progressive with those kinds of things, so you can’t find a straw at any Adobe building; we’re very committed.”

In addition to the in-office plastic ban, Adobe makes a conscious effort to use little to no packaging for their products. Lisa explains that in the technology market, there is a lot of packaging that is harmful to the environment. She gives the example of the bleaching of Apple product boxes in order to make them white, which is not environmentally friendly. To prevent this, Adobe has been committed to selling software as a service; everything is downloaded over the cloud, which eliminates packaging altogether. Lisa says that if packaging was needed, Adobe would go through “a very scrutinizing process of making sure that it was environmentally friendly and didn't leave a big carbon footprint.” She additionally adds that this sets Adobe apart from a lot of other tech companies: “There’s no hardware or product that comes in a box. So, it’s pretty cool and clean from an environmental standpoint.” To give us a specific example, Lisa told us about a product called Slide that was briefly sold by Adobe: “The metals and plastics that they used went through a really rigorous process of making sure that those could be recycled, so there was a lot of commitment to the environment. Another thing that they were doing in cities where they couldn’t retrofit products or make the offices run more green was purchasing credits to offset their footprint in those cities. So, that’s pretty amazing too, because I think that’s a pretty high level of commitment to say ‘we can’t hit the certification level here that we want to, and we can’t entirely build a new building because sometimes that's just not realistic, so we need to find another alternative.’ We were able to offset some of our usage by buying credits through different organizations that offer those, to offset our own carbon footprint.” Adobe’s innovation of reducing and eliminating plastic from their offices and product packaging relates to Adobe’s mission, as a section of this states: “today, we’re revolutionizing the way people and businesses communicate, collaborate, and get work done,” which the innovation of downloadable software has certainly done.

Inspiration

“[Adobe] wanted to offset each of their locations with green energy.” Adobe was inspired to develop their environmentally conscious innovation due to their commitment to powering 100% of their operations with renewable energy by 2035. The company understands that the business of cloud-based software enables them to explore new ways of minimizing physical waste and emissions from transportation and shipping. In addition, they have already begun to witness how implementing green energy solutions positively impacts operational efficiency.

At the heart of Adobe’s culture is integrity. With this in mind, the company recognized their obligation in the current climate to practice sustainability in everything they do. Through the development of this innovation, they are also setting an example for other companies to be ambitious in how they operate and innovate.

Overall impact

Overall, Adobe has a positive impact on the environment because the company successfully promotes and maintains sustainability in various aspects, such as producing innovations that protect the environment, managing its operations with sustainability in mind, building partnerships with organizations who also focus on sustainability etc. Firstly, by being an example of promoting sustainability, Adobe makes other companies and our community pay closer attention to the importance of sustainability. Consequently, the number of people who follow sustainable practices increases and the issue of unsustainability decreases.

As a company, Adobe focuses on being fully committed to sustainability by keeping products that both help their customers to operate more effectively and reduce unsustainable development. Some of Adobe’s innovations that help to reduce unsustainability include virtual collaboration, paperless workflows and cloud-based software delivery. Also, Adobe successfully manages its operations with keeping sustainability in mind. The company works hard on setting a 100% renewable energy goal, establishing their science-based targets, building LEED-certified offices, etc. Finally, Adobe focuses on building partnerships with organizations who practice sustainability both within and outside their business.

Business benefit

Adobe’s innovation has not only had a positive impact on the environment, but it also has shown numerous benefits to its business around the world. As a result of their dedication to selling software as a service, Adobe has been able to almost entirely remove any and all costs related to packaging and shipping their products. Throughout the use of the cloud to deliver their products, customers from around the world have been able to access Adobe’s software which has greatly expanded the market and sell their products. This has not only created better business opportunities for them, but also allows them to easily roll out their products to new markets.

Social and environmental benefit

Adobe has made a commitment to sustainability that has both social and environmental benefits. It all starts with their products and innovations. Innovations such as paperless workflows help reduce physical waste and cut emissions. Through Adobe Sign, they have created 95% less environmental impact than a paper workflow. Through resource-free workflows, Adobe’s Document Cloud turns 30 billion paper documents each year into digital workflows greatly helping the environment. Another one of Adobe’s amazing innovations that has helped the planet is Adobe Experience Cloud which eliminates waste in junk mail through personalized digital marketing offerings. Adobe also helps the environment greatly by using 70 percent renewable electricity online through a mix of local and regional solar, wind and green tariff strategies. Adobe has committed to a 100% renewable energy goal to consistently reduce their impact on the planet while enhancing their bottom line. Their social benefits include providing people of all ages and backgrounds with products access and educational opportunities so they can tell their stories. Adobe takes care of their employees and their social impact can truly be felt. Adobe matches employee donations dollar for dollar, up to 10,000 dollars per employee annually which all Adobe employees worldwide can apply for a matching grant. Adobe has partnered with companies like Best Buy and Ben and Jerry's to have a great social impact by helping the youth and young children. Best Buy helps children pursue their dreams with technological needs. Ben and Jerry’s uses its creativities on its ice cream pints to help educate customers and connect them to important causes for awareness of their social mission.

Interview

Lisa Harrison, Former Senior Manager of Executive Communications