COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION 2023 Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report
Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | ||
Forward-looking statements
This Report includes statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. The forward-looking statements in this Report and the materials or websites cross-referenced include, but are not limited to, express or implied forward-looking statements relating to our expectations regarding our vision, strategy, goals, initiatives, commitments, risks and opportunities, including with respect to our Synapse initiative and other skilling efforts; Shakti and other diversity and inclusion efforts; climate strategy and other climate change goals, including efforts to change the climate behaviors of our suppliers and provision of solutions to help clients advance their sustainability goals; the effectiveness of our governance structures; our efforts to help clients harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in a flexible, secure, scalable and responsible way; data privacy and security; and the impact of our sustainability offerings and efforts on our business, our future financial results, our clients, our associates and our communities. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are based on the current and reasonable expectations of our management, but are inherently subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances and their potential effects and speak only as of the date hereof. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions, the competitive and rapidly changing nature of the markets we compete in, changes in the regulatory environment, including with respect to climate matters, immigration and taxes, legal, reputational and financial risks resulting from cyberattacks, the effectiveness of business continuity plans, energy prices, lack of technological innovations, climate-related conditions and weather events, and the other factors
discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Further, these statements may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing and on assumptions that are subject to change in the future. Forward-looking statements are also aspirational and not guarantees or promises that goals or targets will be met. Cognizant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law. The information included in, and any issues identified as material for purposes of, this document should not be construed as being material for SEC or financial reporting purposes. Website references and hyperlinks throughout this Report are provided for convenience only, and the content on the referenced websites is not incorporated by reference into this Report, nor does it constitute a part of this Report.
Basis of Presentation
Numerical figures included in this Report have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in various tables may not be arithmetic aggregations of the figures that precede them. In addition, we round certain percentages presented in this Report to the nearest whole number. As a result, figures expressed as percentages in the text may not total 100% or, as applicable, when aggregated may not be the arithmetic aggregation of the percentages that precede them. Unless specified otherwise, (i) amounts in this Report are presented in United States dollars and (ii) figures are provided as of December 31, 2023.
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |
Overview
Cognizant is one of the world's leading professional services companies with a vision to become the preeminent technology services partner to the Global 2000 C-Suite.
Snapshot of Cognizant | Four business segments | Three strategic pillars |
In January 2024, | Financial services | Accelerate growth |
we celebrated | ||
30 years | ||
of serving our clients | Health services | Become an |
employer of choice | ||
approximately | ||
347,700 | Products and resources | Simplify our operations |
employees | ||
133,600 | Communications, | |
women employees | ||
$19.4B | media and technology | |
revenue in 2023 | ||
Operations in nearly | ||
50 countries |
Cognizant celebrated 25 years as a public company by ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq in 2023
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer |
About this report
The information in this report covers Cognizant's Fiscal Year 2023 from January 1 to December 31 and our global sites, offices and associates, unless stated otherwise.
We have reported the information cited in this report with reference to the 2021 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, used the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board's (SASB) Software and IT Services standard and followed the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). See our content indices in this report.
As a global company and participant of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), our approach to sustainability supports a number of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), as detailed on page8.
Topics addressed and terms used in this report may be different from those terms as used in the context of our filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Issues and topics deemed relevant for the purpose of this Report or our referenced stakeholder assessment should not be construed as being material for purposes of SEC filings, financial statements or other financial reporting.
Sustainability priorities
Cognizant determined priority topics for sustainability reporting by conducting a stakeholder assessment in 2021 with the help of a qualified third party. We review the assessment regularly by examining stakeholder input and any relevant market shifts, risks and opportunities. In our most recent assessment of the stakeholder priorities, we defined our priorities as follows:
People and communities
- Diversity and inclusion
- Associate health, safety and wellbeing
- Talent and associate expectations on sustainability
Environment and climate action
- Energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate
- Opportunities in green IT
Corporate governance
- Integration of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) into business
- Systematic risk management
- Ethical business practice
- Responsible sourcing
- Responsible AI
- Data security and privacy
Assurance
To hold our sustainability reporting to high standards we:
- Utilize the COSO1 Framework to support our objective of delivering complete, accurate and reliable reporting for our stakeholders
- Conduct validation procedures for reported data, utilizing documented governance and control processes created in cooperation with our Finance team
- Perform an internal audit to evaluate effectiveness of management's controls over ESG reporting
- Commission an external third party to perform attestation procedures for certain of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption metrics
- The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) Framework is a globally recognized system businesses use to establish internal controls to promote data accuracy and completeness. COSO was developed to help companies ensure accurate public financial reporting.
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer |
Message from our Chief Executive Officer
In January 2024, Cognizant celebrated its 30th year in business. In the space of three decades, the company has evolved from an entrepreneurial start-up with one client and fewer than 200 associates to one of the world's leading professional services companies, serving thousands of clients and employing approximately 347,700 talented professionals.
From the start, we have strived to be aware of what is coming and focused on helping our clients and communities build for the long-term.
In my view, Cognizant is a people company first and a technology company second. Everything we do hinges on the quality, dedication and scale of our talent.
Therefore, Cognizant launched our Synapse initiative, through which we've committed to skilling one million people around the world in the next three years with cutting edge skills for the digital age and creating employment pathways that meet the needs of tomorrow's employers. To reach our goals, we are investing in growing our existing talent development programs and partnerships as well as looking to create new collaborations between governments, academic institutions and strategic partners to create career pathways to success that otherwise might be unreachable for many. In 2023 alone, nearly 78% of our own associates invested time in acquiring skills from training, upskilling and leadership development.
We also believe that the drive to innovate lives within all of us. In 2023, we launched an initiative called Bluebolt to serve as Cognizant's innovation engine. As of April 25, 2024, Bluebolt has yielded more than 130,000 ideas from our associates.
From day one, my commitment to our associates has been to cultivate a diverse organization that reflects the world we live and work in. In 2023, more than 41% of our new hires were women and the representation of women at the Senior Vice President level and higher rose from 11.1% in 2022 to 19.4%. We are committed to building on this progress to promote opportunity across the business.
As one of the largest U.S. employers in India, women comprise nearly 40% of our workforce as compared to the IT industry gender diversity average of 36%. To maintain our momentum, in December 2023, Cognizant partnered with NASSCOM to unveil Project Shakti, a unified framework of women-centric programs and policies to accelerate careers and boost female leadership in technology.
Cognizant's philanthropic and outreach efforts allow us to contribute to the betterment of the communities where we operate. Through Cognizant's Synapse outreach program, associates volunteer their expertise to teach business, software and technology skills. In 2023, approximately 50,500 volunteers devoted 162,000 hours to this type of volunteering.
Delivering value to our diverse stakeholders also requires addressing the global challenge of climate change. Cognizant has a net zero goal to reduce total emissions by 50% by 2030 and 90% by 2040. We are on track to meet our milestones: our 2023 emissions footprint was 47% lower than our 2019 net zero baseline. Our suppliers, associates and clients all have a role to play in this progress. In 2023, we focused on engaging our suppliers on the need for emissions reduction, 39% of our top suppliers have now set
science-based reduction commitments. We are also continuing to develop solutions that help our clients advance their sustainability goals.
We do this not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because it is necessary for the long-term stability of our business.
We are intent on helping our clients harness the tremendous power of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) in a flexible, secure, scalable and responsible way. We believe that gen AI, in sharp contrast to prior waves of advanced technology, could significantly boost social mobility by bridging the longstanding digital divide between those who have access to modern IT and those who do not.
In this report, you will find the details of our sustainability commitments and activities as well as the ways they align with our business strategy of growing responsibly, serving our clients and responding to the emerging needs of our communities and world.
Best regards,
Ravi Kumar
Chief Executive Officer
June 27, 2024
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer |
Table of contents
Forward-looking statements Overview
Message from our Chief Executive Officer Table of contents
Awards and recognition Alignment with the UN SDGs Our commitments and actions
- Corporate governance
- Our governance structure
- Policies and guidelines
- Sustainability governance
- Ethics and compliance
- Supply chain
- Workplace health and safety
- Responsible AI
34
35
37
38
39
40
40
41
Our people and communities
11
Data security and privacy
Our content indices
42
43
Synapse: Skilling for the future Diversity and inclusion
12
15
About our reported information
43
Wellbeing of our people Community engagement: improving
18
GRI index SASB index
44
52
everyday life
Environment and climate action
Our strategy Our net zero goal Climate risk Nature impacts
Client sustainability solutions
20 TCFD index
GHG methodologies and verification
24
25
26
29
32
33
55
56
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer |
Awards and recognition
Cognizant is proud of the recognitions we have received as we advance our sustainability programs and aim to be the employer of choice. For information on all our awards and recognitions, visit our website, www.cognizant.com.
Recognized as having a Top 10 CEO by Sustainability Magazine
Awarded Sustainable Initiative of the Year by UBS Forums
Named one of America's Greatest Workplaces by Newsweek
Awarded the Equality 100 Award by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation
Named on the Top 25 Most Innovative Boards by Fortune
Awarded America's Most Innovative Companies by Fortune
Awarded I&D Team of the Year by World 50 I&D
Recognized as a Gold Employer by the India Workplace Equality Index
Named a Top Employer in Canada and Portugal by LinkedIn
Organizations of Good Award (Large Enterprise), National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre
Shameka Young, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, winning World 50's Inclusion & Diversity 'Leader of the 'Year'
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer |
Alignment with the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals
UN SDGs | Cognizant alignment | Page |
We provide STEM education and fill the technology skills gap by investing in training for talented individuals from | Page 23 | |
underserved and underrepresented communities. | ||
Our diversity and inclusion efforts targeting gender equality extend from our associates to our suppliers and aim at better | Page 15 | |
understanding how we can support the various needs of our associates. | ||
Our climate approach seeks to reduce our emissions by aligning our actions to our net zero goal and related targets, while | Page 26 | |
helping our clients and suppliers reduce their emissions through lower-carbon technology and skilling. | ||
We leverage our strategic technology partnerships to achieve positive social impacts. For example, we work with Amazon | Page 21 | |
Web Services to equip youth with cloud-based technology skills and mentor them in building solutions to help their | ||
communities. | ||
We employ approximately 347,700 people around the globe, and we develop our programs for training and development, | Page 14 | |
diversity and inclusion and well-being to become an employer of choice. Providing strong economic growth for the | ||
communities in the regions where we operate is a byproduct of our business strategy. | ||
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer |
Our commitments and actions
Progress on our commitments
Our commitments align with our business strategy of growing responsibly and serving the needs of our clients, associates and the communities where we conduct business. Throughout 2023, we continued to progress towards our goals and targets.
UN SDGs | Commitments and targets | Progress | 2023 actions | Page |
People and Communities
Diversity and inclusion
Continue our commitment to increasing associate diversity through inclusive hiring practices and a welcoming environment
Continue the use of a goal for directors and above to improve female representation in mid- and senior- level roles
ON-TRACK
• As of December 31, 2023, nearly 133,600 of our associates were women and 41.6% of our new hires were | Page 15 |
women globally, while 40.1% in India were women |
- In 2023, our gender diversity rate grew from 17.2% to 17.8% at the senior manager and above level, and from 11.1% to 19.4% at the senior vice president and above level
Talent management
New target: Train 1 million people over 3 years in digital skills with our Synapse Initiative Program through skill acceleration, technology partnerships, apprenticeships, community engagement and upskilling our existing workforce
ON-TRACK
• | 139K+ associates trained in at least one digital skill | Page 12, |
• | Supported 270K+ associates in acquiring at least one skill through our learning ecosystem | 14, 41 |
- Rolled out Google Cloud AI University in partnership with Google Cloud to train 70,000 Cognizant clients and associates to use Google Cloud AI
People development, outreach and philanthropy
Continue to address the skills gap between what people can do today and expectations for the jobs of tomorrow through internal associate training as well as by facilitating volunteer opportunities for our associates to provide technology skills training to others in underrepresented communities
ON-TRACK
- Approximately 50,500 Cognizant volunteers devoted more than 162,000 hours volunteering and supporting our communities
- Total corporate philanthropy reached nearly $70M in 2023 and benefited almost 100 leading global organizations and nonprofits helping individuals make successful career transitions into technology
- Launched Bluebolt innovation engine for associates to contribute innovative ideas for client solutions, develop their entrepreneurial skills and receive recognition
Page 20,
22
- Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
Forward-lookingstatements | Our people and communities | Environment and climate action | Corporate governance | Our content indices | |||||
Message from our Chief Executive Officer | |||||||||
UN SDGs | Commitments and targets | Progress | 2023 actions | Page |
Environment
and Climate
Action
Emissions reduction
Reduce our absolute emissions by 50% by 2030 and 90% by 2040 Source 100% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2026
Establish principles for ensuring that the offsets we purchase meet our requirements and align with credible global standards
Train 100,000 associates by 2024 on climate change
ON-TRACK
- Reduced our total emissions by 47% since our baseline year of 2019
- Sourced 52% of our electricity in India from renewable sources
- Established our carbon offsetting principles and engaged vendors on potential carbon offset projects that meet our criteria
- Trained nearly 29,000 associates on climate change
Page 26,
27, 28
Supplier climate engagement | ON-TRACK |
Engage our top 150 suppliers to help them set science-based emissions reduction targets2
• Engaged 39% of our top 150 suppliers to set science-based reduction targets | Page 28 |
- Included expectations on target setting and emissions data disclosure in all new contracts signed with suppliers
Corporate | Stakeholder engagement |
Governance | Continually engage our stakeholders on a wide range of ESG issues |
ON-TRACK
- Conducted our annual People Engagement Survey and received responses from 232,000+ associates
- Conducted a global survey of our associates regarding the impacts of extreme weather events and their expectations regarding company protections associated with such events
- Initiated our inaugural ethical culture associate survey to enable richer assessment of our ethics and compliance program and culture of integrity
Page 19,
30, 39
Achieve 100% timely completion of mandatory ethics and compliance training for all associates | ON-TRACK |
• Nearly 100% timely completion of mandatory ethics and compliance training for all tenured associates | Page 39 |
- All new associates required to complete our Code of Ethics course within 30 days of joining
Risk management
Put data to work improving risk management around ESG topics
ON-TRACK
• Our Global Business Resilience group consolidated its various risk assessment tools into a new Facilities All | Page 29 |
Hazards Risk Assessment process |
Supply chain
Expand tools and outreach to engage more suppliers in setting ESG standards and best practices
ON-TRACK
• | Formalized and operationalized global risk-based assessment criteria to identify suppliers that should be | Page 37 |
subject to our modern slavery due diligence process | ||
• | Operationalized annual modern slavery risk reassessments of qualified suppliers |
Data security and privacy
Continuously improve policies and practices to stay current with regulations and best practices
ON-TRACK
• Achieved successful accreditation of ISO/IEC 270001:2013 for cloud services | Page 42 |
- Updated training and guidance on data transfer management provided to key stakeholders across the organization
- Expanded our portfolio of training and guidance materials to include more role-based trainings for key stakeholders on topics like supplier risk management and security incidents
• Reviewed and continued to update existing privacy controls on topics like data privacy by design and AI
- As of December 31, 2023, Suppliers are their own entities and data are accurate as of Report publication.
10 Cognizant Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship Report 2023
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Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation published this content on 28 June 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 28 June 2024 13:04:17 UTC.
