AcumatiCares
April 22, 2022, marks the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, which was established in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson to prompt a “nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy, and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda.” He succeeded, and, over the past half century, his message has reached millions of people, who have joined the sustainability cause.
At Acumatica, we’re passionate about protecting the natural environment and making the world a better, more inclusive place for the people with whom we share it. This led us to establish the AcumatiCares program—a broad nerve center through which we will drive and manage our sustainability efforts moving forward.
Our progress with AcumatiCares is already being recognized. In April 2022, Acumatica received a Silver Medal from EcoVadis—“the world’s largest and most trusted supplier of business sustainability ratings.” EcoVadis, much like AcumatiCares, envisions “a global marketplace where sustainability intelligence influences every business decision—improving economies, people’s lives, and the planet we all depend on.” The EcoVadis methodology evaluates how well a company has integrated sustainability and corporate social responsibility into its operations. It assigns scores for Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Sustainable Procurement, and Ethics measures. Our overall score placed us in the top 9% of companies in our industry.
 |
Transparency and Accountability: Making a Difference Every Day
In 2020, after assessing our environmental impacts company-wide, Acumatica established a transparent, accountable sustainability plan designed to reduce our—and our customers’—greenhouse emissions.
This plan centers on three areas: our product, our operational footprint, and our annual Acumatica Summit.
Our Product
Acumatica was born in the cloud. By transitioning from energy-dependent, on-premises solutions to our cloud system, Acumatica customers have reduced their carbon emissions by an average of 72%. These transitions have also resulted in a 5.5x reduction in the emissions produced by Acumatica itself.
Operational Footprint
At the operational level, Acumatica has offset emissions that are not easily eliminated. We’re promoting recycling and reuse programs and have taken steps to significantly reduce our electricity consumption (achieving a 44% reduction in 2021). We’ve also embraced a partly remote workforce, which decreased our 2021 operational emissions by 50+% and our air travel emissions by 88%.
Acumatica Summit
Summit—where thousands of customers, partners, developers, and employees gather in person—is the polestar for the Acumatica community.
Making Summit an environmentally sustainable event has been possible through our partnership with Wynn Las Vegas and through the sustainability initiatives we began in 2021. As I noted in “Continuing Our Commitment to Sustainability at Acumatica Summit 2022,” these measures include:
- Providing the option to attend keynotes virtually.
- Optimizing recycling and composting at the venue.
- Ensuring sustainable attendee gifting.
- Eliminating single use, catered bottled water.
- Donating recovered event materials.
- Donating unserved event food.
- Reducing, reusing, and rethinking printed collateral and signage.
- Leveraging renewable/solar energy.
- Supplying digital (instead of print) information.
Far from being a one-time deal, our Summit sustainability efforts are our standard operating procedures.
Broader Initiatives: Making a Difference for All
As we celebrate Earth Day 2022, we are laser-focused on broadening our sustainability initiatives beyond purely environmental causes.
We are passionate about investing in diversity, and we prioritize hiring talented women. Each year at Summit, we host the Women in Tech Luncheon to empower women from Acumatica and across our customer and partner ecosystem. In 2022 and beyond, we will evolve our Women in Tech program across a number of initiatives—foregrounding equity and building a vibrant, innovative, progressive community of women leaders in the tech and cloud ERP space.
We have also prioritized accessibility and giving back to our local and global communities.
The Acumatica website is designed to be accessible to the widest possible audience. While using our site, you can fine tune our accessibility profiles to best suit your individual needs. (Try out the settings here.)
Acumatica’s success has been built by our people. To give back to the communities in which we live and work, we donate to the following organizations.
- The International Rescue Committee, which responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
- Wellspring Family Services, which is a Seattle-based nonprofit on a mission to end homelessness.
- The Boys and Girls Clubs of King County, which work to help young people reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
- World Central Kitchen, which provides meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
The AcumatiCares program also aligns with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developed in September 2015 by all 193 UN Member States, these SDGs are an urgent call for action, asking the world to abolish poverty and hunger, promote good health and well-being, ensure inclusive and equitable education, achieve gender equality, and much more.
Some of these goals are industry dependent, and those that are most applicable to Acumatica are:
- Gender equality (SDG 5).
- Industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9).
- Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).
- Climate action (SDG 13).
Partnership and Support: Making a Difference Together
Our sustainability efforts are fueled by a heartfelt mission, rooted in the desire to make a difference in people’s lives. We have made positive strides, but this commitment is unceasing.
As the world continues to navigate unprecedented events, including the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, we will keep supporting our communities, reducing our environmental impact, and making the world a better place for future generations. We invite other businesses to join us, and we recommend visiting EARTHDAY.ORG, the world’s largest recruiter for the environmental movement, to find ways to get involved.
EARTHDAY.ORG notes, “For Earth Day 2022, we need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably). It’s going to take all of us. All in. Businesses, governments, and citizens—everyone accounted for, and everyone accountable. A partnership for the planet.”
Many Acumatica customers understand the importance of acting boldly (like Cornell Cooperative Extension, as it adapts to the changing needs of people across New York state), innovating broadly (like The Learning Lab, as it teaches over 12,000 students to think beyond the classroom walls), and implementing equitably (like Dukathole Group, as it works to alleviate the homelessness crisis in South Africa). We’re proud to be partnering with them on their journeys. To learn more about Acumatica and how we can help you with your own journey, contact our team today.
Together, we can make a difference.
