Read the report here
This week Acronis released its second Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, highlighting the company’s progress in creating a sustainable future, strengthening communities where we operate, and continuing to foster an inclusive work environment. At Acronis, we understand the importance of dealing with sustainable vendors, creating a positive corporate culture, and looking after our communities. While there may be different corporate motivations in pursuing ESG policies, as I described in my earlier post, it’s about a long-term commitment to our partners and building a healthy organization that can meet the increasing demands of the digital world most sustainably. This helps us better understand threats and opportunities and make informed decisions that ultimately lead to sustainable economic growth.
With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework, our efforts were focused on Acronis’ areas of influence, such as reviewing data center power efficiency, supplier sustainability, diversity, and inclusion. Our employees and partners are also actively engaged in community development and humanitarian aid projects in response to world events.
There are three specific programs I’d like to highlight from the 2022 ESG report.
Data center efficiency
When using Acronis cyber protection, partners and customers can choose where to store their data – locally or in the cloud. When choosing Acronis cloud, the data is stored in one of our data centers in their country or the nearest available. This helps our customers meet regulatory compliance requirements and utilise local connectivity.
Acronis Cyber Cloud data centers are the backbone of our operations. Last year we added 13 new data centers, bringing the total to over 50. As you can imagine, maintaining a global network of data centers is a complex task. Even though most of our data centers are collocated (housed in a third-party provider’s facility), it’s our responsibility to ensure that our providers are energy-efficient and climate-friendly.
With that in mind, we reviewed our data center vendors about their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratings and relevant ISO certifications. I am pleased to report that we haven’t identified any risk vendors, and with all new contacts, our vendors satisfied our energy efficiency requirements.
Why is it important? Building an environmentally friendly data center network allows us to scale and commit to long-term partnerships with our service providers. This is our investment for a sustainable future which supports our partners to be sustainable as these benefits are delivered to customers.
While there are limitations to measuring power consumption alone to determine data center efficiency, this approach helps us to understand where we stand and set appropriate targets for the future.
Humanitarian aid and giving back to the community
As we witness the tragic conflict in Ukraine and its far-reaching impact on those directly affected and the world, I continue to be impressed by the generosity of our Acronis team and the willingness to volunteer their time and resources. We connected with UNICEF, Red Cross Bulgaria, and various in-country organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to families fleeing Ukraine, with many of our team members opening their homes to refugees.
In Poland, our team provided laptops to children evacuated from a Ukrainian orphanage to help with education. In Bulgaria, Acronis volunteers ran art therapy classes for displaced children. We also organized multiple fundraising campaigns and sent basic goods to Ukraine. I’d like to personally thank our team members for opening their hearts and offering practical support to those in crisis.
Many of these efforts were managed by the Acronis Cyber Foundation Program, which also continued its long-established education initiatives. We built school classrooms in developing countries and ran cybersecurity and IT classes. Our programs helped migrants in Switzerland to learn new computer skills and assisted citizens exiting correctional services in Singapore to reintegrate into society. For us, cyber protection is not limited by software. We view education as a key to a safer cyber future.
Why is it important? Volunteering and giving back to the community is not only our social responsibility – it helps to attract, retain and engage our workforce. These programs enrich our workforce culture, empower employees, and help them gain new skills.
We are planning to expand our humanitarian projects and volunteering program. Sadly, with the tragic earthquake in Turkey and Syria, our work for 2023 has already began.
Safe and inclusive work environment
With 2000+ team members across 45+ different locations, Acronis is a truly multinational and diverse company. We embrace our differences because, in our difference, we find our strength. This strength comes in the form of diverse skill sets that we can access through hiring talent worldwide and our ability to understand customer needs much deeper.
Acronis values a diverse and inclusive workplace that enables team members to learn from one another. We subsequently implemented a number of strategies to attract diverse talent, provided a safe and nurturing work environment, and facilitated diversity groups within the company.
During the 2022 Acronis #CyberFit Summit, for the first time in our company’s history, we held a Women-in-Tech (WiT) session on the event’s main stage. Five successful women discussed the importance of diversity and how a woman’s role in cybersecurity can improve an organization’s productivity, increase innovation and generate higher revenue.
To further support professional growth, we launched a WiT Mentorship program for women at Acronis and relaunched the #CyberWomen initiative, setting up regional chapters in ten different countries and reaching hundreds of men and women of Acronis through events and webinars.
Why is it important? Diversity and Inclusion improve the health of our organization by providing team members with a safe and supportive workplace with opportunities to grow. Moreover, we see our employees’ diversity as one of the most significant factors in delivering customer-focused products and services.
Coming up in 2023, we’ll expand our diversity initiatives and create new resource groups to facilitate dialogue between employees from all walks of life.
I invite you to read our report and join us on our journey to becoming a more sustainable, responsible, diverse, and inclusive corporate citizen.
