From climate change to cyber security to employee diversity, corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability touches every aspect of Symantec’s business. We’ve defined our strategy and are continually working towards our goals to operate as a responsible global citizen. In addition to our dedicated global corporate responsibility team, every day Symantec employees across the world are helping us deliver on this, creating value for both our business and our stakeholders.
We are happy to bring you an ongoing feature – the Sustainability Spotlight - that will profile employees and their contribution to Symantec’s CR and sustainability efforts. Some are members of our CR team, others contribute through our Green Teams or volunteering, some have seen an opportunity and developed programs in their function or region -- all are making a difference.
Today we hear from Claudia van 't Hullenaar, Principal Marketing Specialist, Global Events, EMEA who spearheaded the integration of sustainability into Symantec’s corporate events.
According to 2012 KPMG report, Expect the Unexpected: Building Business Value in a Changing World, ten ‘megaforces’ will reshape the planet and will significantly affect corporate growth over the next 20 years. After taking a deep look at how the three pillars of sustainability – the economic, social and environmental aspects – relate to business and the social challenges we face, I realized the potential for addressing both simultaneously. So what can I do as an individual? In order to make a difference, I developed and promoted solutions to social and environmental challenges into my job. I realized how deep CR runs within the business and reflects the importance of environmental and social issues to Symantec’s short and long-term success. My personal passion in global citizenship and sustainability initiated my desire to incorporate a sustainable and holistic approach into events, while also tying it into Symantec’s business strategy and corporate responsibility program.
With this in mind, I did research around event sustainability and how that would work for Symantec. There are many guidelines on how to plan and run a sustainable event, such as technical actions like printing less paper or eliminating plastic bottled water. However, by taking a more holistic and process-based approach, I initiated the development of a systematic strategic program to sustainable events taking the ‘triple bottom line’ concept and balancing the event’s environmental, social and economic impacts against our business needs.
This structured sustainable event program integrates repeatable and standardized business practices into Symantec's corporate events and aligns Symantec’s CR goals with our event planning strategy. We designed Symantec’s guidelines from three international core standards recognized in the meetings industry and adapted them to Symantec’s needs: ISO202121, APEX /ASTM, and the GRI EOSS.
Our pioneering project for event sustainability with a comprehensive sustainability strategy was Symantec’s flagship conference Vision 2012 in Barcelona. Our approach and impacts are documented in our event sustainability report. This model has become a core component at our Vision conferences and has progressed steadily since then. We’ve applied the approach for event sustainability to the 2013 Vision in North America, and an evolved version in 2014 to Vision Las Vegas and four EMEA Vision conferences.
Incorporating sustainability enhances the quality of our events by creating value for our customers, employees and to visibly put into practice Symantec’s commitment to environmental and social sustainability, demonstrating the consistency of our vision across the company. It demonstrates how Symantec embraces the sustainability challenges as a business advantage. By hosting responsible events, Symantec has the opportunity to minimize the environmental impact, conserve resources, generate cost efficiencies, increase social responsibility, and improve the quality and customer experience of our events.
What steps do you take to make sustainability integration a success?
As part of the global corporate events team, I know that ironing out every detail of an event is crucial. It consists from strategic planning including setting objectives and KPIs in order to design the event, elaborating the customer experience, and developing event branding and signage concepts. All these are only some key elements which need to be thoughtfully implemented to design an impactful brand experience that educates, inspires and delights attendees and influences their behavior. Using sustainability as a filter to innovate, it runs into every action we undertake. In order to be able to influence performance and drive change it needs to be integrated early on in each planning cycle. Some key points for integrating sustainability into events successfully include:
• Measuring Impact: It is important to use a methodology for tracking and measuring the impact of integrating sustainability to ensure it has value, and make sure that there is consistency and alignment in our efforts to drive positive returns. We ensure that these actions are implemented through systemic processes, which is a fundamental component so that a continuous improvement can be achieved.
• Training and Mentoring Team Members: An integral part of the program is the training of team members to help develop skills and build capacity. By helping understand context and actions of event sustainability, we can inspire event managers to expand the effort to other events by considering sustainability at every step of the way. Tangible tools make it easier for them to integrate sustainable practices into their regular event plans. As we evolve we plan on providing teams with additional educational trainings and a global resource site, a tool kit with an event sustainability manual, checklists and other material.
• Sustainable Suppliers: Incorporating sustainability into our procurement practices and supply chain is the foundation to maximize sustainability benefits and results. Working hand-in-hand with procurement we recently achieved an important milestone by formalizing our commitment to Symantec’s CR leadership, and launched our Symantec Sustainable Events Policy Statement. Integrating sustainability into the initial project phase and by expressing upfront expectations to our suppliers, will give us more negotiation power. By working collaboratively with our suppliers, engaging and educating them, we will achieve long-term improvements and benefits.
Our journey is characterized by incremental progresses and cycles of continuous improvement. We will continue to evolve and moving forward our goal is taking our sustainable events initiative to the next level evolving from a single event sustainability project to a companywide approach to event sustainability.
What would you tell others who would like to take action?
We can each bring CR actions into our departments by looking closely at our roles. Sustainability is about commitment, collaboration, sharing of best practices, catalyzing action and creating long-term impact. Looking through the sustainability lense can potentially lead to new ideas and drive innovation in your area.
For departments that are just beginning the sustainability journey, our corporate commitments can provide solid support for a business case. The reasoning for sustainability varies by business unit. For example, the issues, impact and processes involved in product development or manufacturing are different than in event marketing. Seeking best practice examples can help to understand the kinds of systems that play a role in specific departments. Additionally, by expressing interest to your CR team, you can contribute on a grander level.
It gives me great satisfaction to work for a company strongly committed to CR and that encourages its employees to get involved in CR efforts. Models of recognition, incentive and reward structures encouraging action related to sustainability projects that are relevant to the company’s products, operations or processes, could catalyze further innovation.
I will continue to passionately champion and lead the charge of the sustainable events program with all its challenges in order to mainstream and drive sustainability thinking. Each small step forward brings us that much closer to a larger goal and continues building a company that creates value both for our business and for society. It is rewarding to see the success of our actions when we do what is possible to make a difference. I hope that our case study inspires other stakeholders to take the lead on CR behaviors in their organizations to drive future innovation and change.