Sustainability Reporting
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BLOOMBERG SUSTAINABILITY: GOOD FOR BUSINESS, GOOD FOR THE PLANET ... Bloomberg-Sustainability-Report-2012

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

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BLOOMBERG SUSTAINABILITY: GOOD FOR BUSINESS, GOOD FOR THE PLANET

Today, Bloomberg released our third annual sustainability report, reflecting our desire to create meaningful change and our opportunity to integrate sustainability into how we think about our products, our planet and our people.

Our broad reach across the world’s financial sector affords Bloomberg the opportunity to provide greater insight and transparency into global sustainability efforts and the opportunities they create. That’s why we launched our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) product in 2009, which captures data on how sustainability impacts business and financial decisions.

Since launching ESG, usage of the product by our clients has increased 47% annually. Other Bloomberg products – including BNEF’s clean energy analysis, BBNA’s environmental reporting and the dedicated sustainability page on Bloomberg.com – continue to offer improved insight into the intersection of business, commerce and sustainability.

In addition to bringing greater insight into sustainability practices to our clients, we’re also committed to reducing our own environmental impact. Since we launched our sustainability program in 2007, we have completed more than 350 sustainability projects worldwide, resulting in $43 million in net savings. Along the way we have improved our emissions intensity by 30% and halved our carbon footprint. From a programmatic perspective, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards are in our offices globally, and all of our magazines are published on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper.

This year’s sustainability report also highlights our approach to philanthropy in areas such as the arts, education, health and medical research, the environment, and human services. These efforts are amplified through the active engagement of our employees. For example, through an employee matching program and an initiative to promote volunteering called Dollars For Your Hours, we contributed more than $2.5 million of donations on behalf of our employees in 2012. Our volunteer program encompasses everything from one-off service projects to multi-year initiatives that take place on our employees’ personal time. In 2012 alone, more than 5,000 employees from 83 cities donated 32,000 hours of volunteer service and we partnered with more than 185 charities globally.

As we bring our first generation efforts (2007-2013) to a close, we will continue to work with our partners to chart a course for an expanded and aggressive “phase two” effort that will span the next six years (2014-2020). In this year’s report we have outlined a framework for what is next and we will share specific 2020 targets next year.

We believe that corporations have a responsibility to affect meaningful change. And as our outcomes prove to date, sustainable practices can be both good for business and good for our planet.

Curtis Ravenel is the Global Head of Sustainability at Bloomberg