June 5, 2023. Cognizant released its third ESG Report on World Environment Day as a showcase of its commitment and progress across all three ESG pillars. In 2021, we worked with a third-party to gauge which ESG issues our stakeholders thought were most relevant to our business. In 2022, we built on this work and honed our focus on the topics most relevant to our impact and business.

“Our year-round focus is on meeting client, investor and talent expectations by creating meaningful change at scale,” said Sophia Mendelsohn, Cognizant’s Global Head of ESG and Chief Sustainability Officer.

Environmental progress

We believe a modern business is a sustainable one—one that understands that an environmental strategy is key to the health of its associates and entire business. Technology can be a tool that supports sustainability efforts, and we think that makes it a business opportunity.

• 2021 Commitment—Source 100% of electricity needs for offices and facilities from renewable sources by the end of 2026
• 2022 Progress—44% of electricity consumption came from renewable sources in 2022

Social progress

Our workforce of 355,000 talented associates enables us to be a global force for skilling, training and long-term workforce development. We focus on doing this at scale, especially for underrepresented talent and communities. Our 355,000 associates come from many walks of life and parts of the globe. Their diverse perspectives and creativity inform our ability to meet our diverse clients’ needs.

• 2021 Commitment—Increase associate diversity through inclusive hiring practices
• 2022 Progress—Implemented an Executive Committee compensation metric focused on gender diversity globally—increasing the number of women working at Cognizant by more than 11,000

Governance progress

Good governance includes strong oversight from our Board and its Committees, combined with robust ethics and compliance policies and programs. We pay particular attention to the ESG issues identified by our materiality assessments, stakeholder engagement and enterprise risk management (ERM) processes.

• 2021 Commitment—Launched our formal Supplier Diversity Program to increase diversity through engagement and spend targets
• 2022 Progress—Committed to reach $1 billion of annual spend in the US with diverse suppliers

This just scratches the surface of the rich information in the ESG report. The company has invested in a strong ESG platform because it understands that the climate crisis, and the deepening relationship between companies and society, has created a new business environment – one where clients and associates are asking about our ESG principles and progress.