SAS’ corporate social responsibility recognized by Business Roundtable Report and others
SAS commitment to corporate citizenship and social innovation has been foundational to the company’s business strategy. Creating a brighter future is not only part of the company’s vision for its customers through innovative solutions but also for SAS as a company.
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A longstanding advocate for clean energy, analytics leader SAS strives to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to make the world a better place by continuing to expand its environmental goals and social good initiatives to humanitarian issues. Business Roundtable, the association of CEOs of leading US companies, recently commended SAS CEO Jim Goodnight for its environmental stewardship and sustainable business practices in their Sustainability Spotlight series. SAS has also received numerous awards for its innovative social good initiative, which uses artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing to combat deforestation in the Amazon.
“Igniting curiosity and creativity to drive innovation and empower change has been the cornerstone of SAS since our beginning,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. “At SAS, we have seen firsthand how the power of technology can transform lives and drive better decisions to help our environment and our community – moving our world forward.”
Consistency in environmental leadership
As a supporter of the Paris Climate Accord, SAS’ green strategy has been demonstrated for decades through the company’s continually evolving environmental initiatives and sustainable business model. SAS brings both its renowned analytic expertise and powerful software solutions to develop smarter and more efficient operations while passing those insights and tools to its customer for their business strategies. As a corporate sustainability leader and advocate, SAS works closely with employees, suppliers and customers to reduce its environmental footprint with programs focused on energy conservation, emissions management, pollution mitigation, water conservation, green building and other initiatives.
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In 2021, SAS’ top environmental achievements included:
- Achieved Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validation of its 2025 (25%) and 2030 (50%) emission reduction targets.
- Submitted 2050 net-zero emission reduction target to SBTi for validation.
- Committed to an immediate 50% emissions reduction target for business travel.
- SAS emissions across all scopes were 53.6% lower than the SBTi 2018 base year submission.
- Global emissions across all scopes decreased 16% in 2021.
- Achieved 40% by 2025 energy use intensity target for office buildings – a 43% base year improvement.
- Achieved 50% by 2025 carbon use intensity target for office buildings – a 66% base year improvement.
- Diverted 64% of operational and construction waste from landfills globally.
- Developed employee analytics dashboard to help raise awareness about emissions from air travel.
- Achieved EnergyStar certifications for 11 buildings.
- Generated 3.5 million kWh of clean, renewably sourced energy from rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems.
Dedication to making positive impacts through data literacy and social good
SAS’ vision of creating a brighter future extends beyond just helping customers through innovative solutions but also tackles creatively addressing society’s biggest challenges. With plans to be ready for an initial public offering by 2024, the company will continue to prioritize environmental, social, and governance initiatives which have been vital to SAS’ successful business strategy for many decades.
Recognized by several awards honoring social good, the projects that are part of SAS’ social innovation initiative are committed to accelerating global progress and a more sustainable future for the planet. Through these Data for Good programs, SAS strives to support the UN SDGs by using analytics and ethical artificial intelligence (AI) to address society’s biggest challenges around poverty, health, human rights, education and the environment. In fact, the company recently launched the SAS Data Ethics Practice, a cross-functional team that guides a globally coordinated effort to help employees and customers deploy data-driven systems that promote human well-being, agency and equity. In addition to SAS’ partnerships with customers, industry groups, nonprofits, governments and global organizations, the success of these social impact programs depend upon the passion and talent of SAS employees who care about contributing to building a better world.
Dedicated and compassionate employees who are driven by meaningful work is just one of the outcomes of SAS’ award-winning workplace culture. This renowned, integral culture of treating employees like they make a difference and focusing on their well-being is the foundation to the company’s success. SAS’ supportive and inclusive reputation has been recognized for decades through numerous accolades and awards.
SAS looks beyond just caring for its employees to also investing in the larger global community through its philanthropic philosophy of supporting data literacy and education initiatives for all. This can be seen by SAS’ commitment to developing relevant resources for data literacy. In 2021, it launched Data Literacy Essentials, a free course designed to equip students, teachers, leaders and individuals with necessary data literacy skills – which has helped more than 6,100 learners in more than 100 countries. SAS also joined Data Science 4 Everyone, a coalition supporting data science education and committed to equipping every K-12 student with needed data literacy skills. In addition, SAS also released DataFly, a free tool for educators and students to improve data literacy. For higher education and adult learners, the company debuted SAS Skill Builder for Students, providing university students around the globe with a free online portal where they can access everything they need to launch their analytics careers. More than 223,000 educators and learners took advantage of free SAS software offerings in 2021.
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