For analytics leader SAS, good corporate citizenship equals good business

SAS’ corporate responsibility recognized by Business Roundtable Report

Since day one, corporate responsibility has been fundamental to SAS’ business approach. With more than four decades of growth, the analytics leader continues to prove it’s on the road to success. From creating a sustainable workplace to improving lives and the world by using data for good, SAS’ commitment to environmental, social and economic efforts is paying off.

SAS was recognized in the 10th annual Business Roundtable report Create, Grow, Sustain: Delivering Shared Success as a leader in environmental stewardship and sustainable business practices. The report details how companies have developed and promoted sustainable practices in their operations in the US and around the world.

“Corporate social responsibility has always been a part of SAS’ foundation,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. “For more than 40 years, caring for our people – and our planet – has been paramount to SAS, influencing many decisions we make as a global company.”

Environmental leadership

The 2016 SAS corporate responsibility site makes it easy to see SAS’ environmental performance measures in areas such as energy, emissions, water and waste. Some of SAS’ top 2016 achievements to shrink its environmental footprint include:

• Minimized energy consumption and emissions: Energy consumption decreased by .1 percent despite adding more than 190,000 square feet of office space globally (a 4.4 percent increase). SAS data centers decreased consumption by 3.9 percent despite adding almost 2,000 additional servers.
• Solar investment: In 2016 alone, SAS generated 3.8 million kilowatt hours of clean, renewably sourced energy from rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems. Since 2008, when SAS broke the solar energy one megawatt barrier for the Southeast, the solar capacity in North Carolina has grown to rank No. 2 nationally.
• Waste reduction: SAS diverted 62.6 percent of operational and construction waste from landfills globally.
• Green building practices: Initiated LEED^® certification for SAS’ largest office building and data center.

SAS’ most recent environmental stewardship investment includes pioneering “smart campus” technology at its Cary, NC, headquarters. Through SAS’ advanced, real-time analytics, the smart campus project will improve energy usage while proactively monitoring equipment performance to boost operational longevity. Building on its’ partnership with Envision America/Envision Charlotte and the Smart Cities Council, the first-hand insight from the SAS smart campus will provide additional value to customers using SAS products for smart city-related initiatives – which target boosting operational efficiency while improving stewardship of limited resources.

Better business by doing good

In addition to participating in community engagement events such as #GivingTuesday and food bank donations, SAS helps others by actively making a difference in people’s lives. For example, SAS continued to ramp up its efforts in Data for Good projects where information and analytics tackle humanitarian needs, from helping fight cancer to preventing child abuse or saving endangered species.

With the need for knowledge and technology proficiency evolving, education continues to be SAS’ primary philanthropic focus. SAS supports an extensive network of training opportunities that include free and low-cost options. Studies show support must start with younger learners: Those who cannot read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school. In 2016, Curriculum Pathways^® – free pre-kindergarten -12 digital learning resources – was used by more than 2 million teachers and students to help these early readers. For higher education and adult learners, downloads and registrations of SAS University Edition and SAS OnDemand for Academics grew 74 percent in 2016 to approximately 907,000, and more than 55,000 people registered for free e-learning courses in statistics and programming.

Visit the SAS Corporate Social Responsibility site and learn what makes SAS a corporate sustainability leader.