Highlights include responsible event planning, staff volunteer days, and significant migration to smart hosting for SaaS product offerings
Toronto, ON, September 6, 2023 – Cority, a leading global enterprise EHS (Environment, Health, and Safety) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) software provider that equips organizations to track and accurately report on their EHS and ESG practices, has released its second annual sustainability report. The report is enabled by Cority’s Sustainability Cloud, an industry-leading, human-centered SaaS-based comprehensive software solution.
The 2023 Sustainability Report, which highlights Cority’s ESG performance in 2022, reflects Cority’s interest in comparing the impact of its primarily remote workforce in 2021 to a post-Covid period in 2022, which saw an uptick of in-office presence. Importantly, Cority also experienced 124 percent employee growth in 2022, an increase from 447 employees the previous year to 541 who now work out of six countries.
“For over 35 years, Cority has thrived on a culture of innovation, expertise, and unwavering commitment to integrity,” said Mark Wallace, Cority CEO in the report. “This collective spirit has driven us to create a human-centered and secure SaaS platform that enables higher levels of operational and sustainable performance helping people and businesses thrive around the world. We believe that our commitment to sustainability, as one of our core values, and leading by example will help drive the success of our customers and partners.”
In conducting the study, Cority followed two well-established global sustainability frameworks – GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) and SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) – and used its own Sustainability Performance Management Solution to collect and analyze data against those recognized standards.
The 18-page report spotlights Cority’s core values, fundraising efforts, water consumption, waste management, greenhouse gas emissions, risk management, employee diversity, and advancement opportunities. An employee-led Sustainability Committee met throughout the year to review progress and compile the report.
Highlights of Cority’s 2023 Sustainability Report include:
- Addition of 2 volunteer days per employee to support causes of their choosing
- 124 percent employee growth that saw 53% female movements and promotions along with 28% visible minority movements and promotions
- Zero data breaches and only two days of down time for customers
- Transition to sustainable event management including digital first strategies, sustainable sourcing of event vendors, and reduction of motorized event transportation needs
- Product hosting services migrated to more efficient and renewable sources
As expected with post-Covid return to offices, the addition of new international offices, and significant employee growth, Cority’s overall electricity consumption increased from 2021, adding 30 percent to the organization’s CO2 equivalent totals from 2021. This included the addition of an office in Paris, France, which supported a higher percentage of in-office (versus remote) work activities than the majority-remote offices in North America. Similarly, water consumption increased by 11 percent, though data for this KPI was limited to Cority’s Toronto office. Importantly, in the water usage reporting no water consumption came from areas of water stress.
Cority’s largest source of energy consumption comes from the servers it uses to host its industry-leading cloud-hosted products. In response, Cority this year initiated a full migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting since AWS locations are highly efficient and anticipated to be 100 percent powered by renewable energy by 2025. The move will allow Cority to not only reduce consumption but will also enable the organization to measure specific usage for a more exact footprint. Cority intends to account for this consumption in future reporting.
“We are using these metrics as a baseline and taking measures to empower our growing Cority workforce as well as our customers to create and achieve more robust sustainability agendas,” said Krystal Traux, Director of Product Management and Sustainability Chair at Cority. “Our entire team is passionate about walking the same path as our customers, so we believe this shared reporting experience is absolutely critical to mutual success.”
As part of Cority’s continued commitment to minimize its environmental impact and maximize its potential for social good, the organization is also prioritizing sustainable practices at its annual conference, Cority Connect. Efforts include donations to local nonprofits in the host city; priority given to sustainable vendors; and reduction of single-use packaging, including environmentally conscious swag bags.
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