Environmental Program
Strategic growth through innovative sustainability practices
A sustainable future requires developing solutions grounded in science and data to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Reducing environmental impacts and ensuring the continued availability of natural resources is a shared responsibility that starts with intentional and ambitious goals and actions.
To implement sustainable business strategies and develop smarter operational models, leading organizations have relied on SAS’ renowned analytic expertise and powerful software solutions. As an unwavering supporter of the Paris Climate Accord, SAS not only has a long-standing reputation advocating for clean energy but also uses its own analytics to support environmental initiatives across its operations. 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, biodiversity protection, green building and other programs. From streaming data to improve operations through its smart campus project to powering office buildings with clean energy from its solar farms, the company uses SAS® Visual Analytics to collect, manage, calculate and report its environmental performance.
Our interactive visual analytics dashboard gives you a closer look at how SAS is committed to strategic growth through innovative sustainability practices.
Social Impact & Responsibility
World-changing innovation to drive positive change
Whether protecting the environment, improving patient treatments and outcomes, or educating the next generation of data scientists, SAS believes in the power of data and AI to improve the human condition. Knowing that trustworthy technology can help drive better decisions and create a more sustainable future, SAS strives to help its communities and customers with their environmental, social and governance initiatives. As a business leader focused on corporate social responsibility, SAS sees it as its duty to be innovative and lead by example.
By continuing to ask bold questions, remaining resilient and prioritizing data-driven decisions, SAS is creating innovative opportunities to spur positive change. Building upon its renowned supportive workplace culture and employee philosophy, SAS prioritizes how it can inspire progress and positively affect social issues and communities through many company efforts – from responsible innovation practices and projects to social innovation through corporate philanthropy and education initiatives.
SAS Donation Request Process
As an integral part of our culture, SAS strives to help our community through charitable donations and philanthropic activities. SAS’ corporate philanthropy supports strategic initiatives that: 1) increase interest in SAS, data and AI to create a diverse STEM workforce or 2) solve business and social issues in our priority industries that also showcase SAS technology. Please see our donation application page if you would like to submit a request for consideration.
Governance & Management
Integrity, ethics and compliance
As a good corporate citizen, SAS knows its success depends on upholding high ethical standards in dealings with colleagues, customers, suppliers and competitors. This moral compass also steers SAS’ workplace culture, which attracts and retains like-minded employees who perpetuate these high standards.
Guided by its Code of Ethics, SAS is committed to maintaining its reputation as a company that conducts all aspects of the business with the utmost integrity. SAS compliance programs use training, policies, processes and audits to ensure compliance in areas such as anti-corruption, information security, international trade and privacy. SAS expects its business partners to represent SAS with the same commitment to integrity, ethics and compliance and outlines those expectations in its Business Partner Code of Conduct.
These practices have earned SAS its exceptional reputation as an ethical and responsible employer and business partner. As a result, SAS is known as a great place to work, a great company to do business with and a valued community member. SAS' reputation is hard-earned and invaluable, so protecting it with constant diligence remains a top company priority.
CSR from SAS Ireland
Our approach to corporate social responsibility reflects the type of organisation SAS is and what we believe in. For decades, we have developed software that is used to solve economic, social, health and environmental challenges. Our commitment to being socially responsible continues to evolve and grow as we see the power of using data to make important decisions. This page gives an overview of the actions and policies we are actively developing in SAS UK and Ireland, building on the global initiatives from SAS HQ to improve the world in which we all work. Roderick Crawford, Regional Vice President, Northern Europe
Local environmental efforts
SAS Ireland carefully chose its serviced office partner and location as we understand climate change impacts us all.
SAS and Iconic Offices are committed to minimizing energy use and emissions and to develop more approaches for sustainable working.
Joint initiatives in Dublin include:
- Close to public transport hubs
- Bicycle facilities
- Waste reduction, reuse and recycling
- Biophilic designed offices to connect with the natural environment around us
- Locally sourced, environmentally friendly office resources and stationery
- Smart metered office spaces to cut energy, save costs and measure carbon emissions
- Local litter picking events in partnership with other Iconic Offices tenants.
The Dublin-based team has actively supported P-TECH Ireland for a number of years. Students from local schools and colleges undertake a five-week, data science placement to gain data practitioner skills and experience working in a fast-moving, digital environment.
Having undertaken data visualisation software training, the students access, augment and analyse data to investigate real-world issues. Presenting their findings and recommendations contributes to their Leaving Certificate final examination at secondary school level.
SAS partially funds P-TECH Ireland in partnership with the Department of Education, Business in the Community Ireland, A & L Goodbody, Cisco, Deloitte, IBM, Irish Life, Irish Rail, Irish Water, Salesforce and Virgin Media.
Local staff charity fund-raising activities are donated to P-TECH Ireland and Business in the Community Ireland. You can also donate at https://gofund.me/60846fba
Local governance and accreditation information available soon.
Letter from the CEO — 2023–2024 CSR Report
Amid rapid change, one thing remains constant: SAS is committed to supporting our customers, helping them adapt and thrive using data and AI. The environment for decision making has become more complicated – with a fluctuating economy, changes in customer behavior, and an ever-evolving data and technology landscape. While addressing these changes and challenges, we are prioritizing our desire to improve the world and environment.
We are applying the same problem-solving mindset required to be resilient during radical changes in business that affect the well-being of people around the world. As a leader in social responsibility, we seek opportunities to help our communities and customers with their efforts to implement environmental, social and governance initiatives. We know that the power of trustworthy data can inspire more accurate decisions and create a more sustainable and responsible future.
At SAS, we understand how our technology can change the world and our communities for the better. We believe in the power of using data for good and have spent decades on socially responsible innovation projects such as protecting the environment, improving health outcomes and addressing unfair biases that may harm vulnerable groups. SAS remains dedicated to applying our expertise and technology in support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
We are embracing the power of AI and exploring how we can capitalize on technological advances to create positive outcomes for humanity. We will support our customers in using that same technology in their own responsible innovation efforts. As the world changes around us, SAS is prepared to help our customers safely navigate AI to reach new levels of productivity and innovation.
We’ve expanded our Data Ethics Practice to bring trustworthy AI to customers and pursue new data-for-good initiatives, collaborating with groups like EqualAI and the Business Roundtable to help shape the responsible use of AI. SAS is also participating in a national initiative to support the development and deployment of trustworthy and safe AI. Established by the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, the US Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium will bring together AI creators and users, academics, government and industry researchers, and civil society organizations to meet this mission.
Genuinely believing in and treating people like they matter has always been at the core of SAS’ philosophy. This can be seen through our inclusive and supportive workplace culture, which encourages our employees to be authentic every day. Whether they are working remotely or on-site at our award-winning offices, our culture and workplace atmosphere is recognized year after year by organizations such as Fast Company, Forbes, the American Association of People With Disabilities, and Disability:IN.
The health and happiness of our employees is only part of our sustainability commitment. Our evolving sustainability and conservation efforts at SAS headquarters and our global offices include a 2050 net-zero carbon emissions goal and validated, science-based emission reduction targets. With sustainable initiatives ranging from energy conservation, beehives and solar projects to our green buildings and smart campus technology, we also use our expertise and software to help customers develop smarter operations and green business strategies.
As we look to the future, we remain committed to fostering the next generation of technology leaders. As an analytics leader with roots in academia, SAS continues to expand programs to build the next generation of data experts, preparing them to be advocates for sustainable and inclusive workspaces.
We take our role as a good corporate citizen seriously, knowing we have a responsibility to our employees and their communities. We saw promising progress with our environmental, social and economic impacts in 2023, building on our renowned reputation of service and innovation. As a pioneer and leader in the AI space, I believe we can use our technology and talent responsibly to improve the world and contribute to a more promising future.
Jim Goodnight | CEO of SAS