By PRESS RELEASE on Oct 1, 2013

Firm Focuses on Honoring Its Heritage While Building a Shared Future

October 1, 2013, NEW YORK, NY — Edelman launched today its FY13 Global Citizenship Report: Honoring Our Heritage, Building a Shared Future. Celebrating the legacy created by the late Dan Edelman, the report highlights the firm’s renewed focus on building a shared future with its stakeholders. The report features global and local citizenship initiatives that highlight Edelman’s integration and operationalization of citizenship through environmental sustainability efforts, a comprehensive employee citizenship dashboard, comprehensive employee training and increased involvement in the communities in which we operate.
"In this year's report, we honor the heritage of my father's values-based leadership while looking to building a shared future by operationalizing citizenship in our culture and business practices,” said John Edelman, managing director, global engagement and corporate responsibility. “We are proud to introduce our global citizenship dashboard, empowering our local offices to better report and track their own citizenship performance and progress."
The focus on operationalizing the firm’s global citizenship goals in FY13 resulted in the growth of several other programs, including:
  • The introduction of the Edelman Citizenship Dashboard, which includes 10 global citizenship indicators that allow each of our 60+ global offices to more consistently assess their progress on social and environmental activities and achieve citizenship goals.
  • The continued management of the firm’s carbon footprint. Although absolute carbon emissions increased 9 percent to 17,000 co2 in FY12, there was a 3 percent decrease in carbon intensity per FTE from the FY11 baseline, at 3.9 tCO2e/FTE.
  • The completion of 64,000 hours of training in the newly renamed Edelman Learning Institute, which highlights a new focus on independent learning through online training modules.
  • The introduction of an Ethics Committee, which meets quarterly to address emerging issues and provide specific guidance to employees, and the Global Privacy Initiative, which involves a comprehensive risk assessment and a review of data management practices to ensure that evolving privacy demands are being met.
  • The completion of over 30,483 volunteerism hours and a total contribution of nearly $4 million in professional and general volunteerism as well as cash and in-kind donations.
  • The establishment of five global policies targeting office participation in defaulting to double-sided copying and printing on office printers, the use of 50 percent recycled paper, increased lighting efficiency, a 10 percent use of video conference technology to minimize non-client servicing air travel and the collection of e-waste.

While Edelman is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in each of its offices worldwide, the firm is also aware that its hub offices have the greatest impact on overall carbon emissions. Expanding the GreenAdvance initiative introduced in FY12 to include San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Edelman’s hub offices collaborate to identify target areas and create reduction plans around business air travel emissions and electricity and paper consumption on a global and local scale.

In celebration of the firm’s 60th anniversary, the FY13 global citizenship approach featured the 603 Summer of Service campaign through which Edelman employees from the firm’s 60+ offices provided more than $1 million in professional volunteerism, general volunteerism, and cash and in-kind contributions over 60 days to more than 70 global organizations. Additionally, the firm continued its Community Investment Grant program, providing $144,000 to a record 110 organizations throughout the world.

To read the FY13 Global Citizenship report in its entirety and view the accompanying video, visit: http://www.edelman.com/fy13-citizenship-report . 

About Edelman:

Edelman is the world’s largest public relations firm, with 67 offices and more than 4,800 employees worldwide, as well as affiliates in more than 30 cities. Edelman was named Advertising Age’s top-ranked PR firm of the decade in 2009 and one of its “A-List Agencies” in both 2010 and 2011; Adweek’s “2011 PR Agency of the Year;” PRWeek’s “2011 Large PR Agency of the Year;” and The Holmes Report’s “2011 Global Agency of the Year” and its 2012 “Digital Agency of the Year.” Edelman was named one of the “Best Places to Work” by Advertising Age in 2010 and 2012 and among Glassdoor’s top ten “Best Places to Work” in 2011 and 2012. Edelman owns specialty firms Edelman Berland (research), Blue (advertising), BioScience Communications (medical communications), and agencies Edelman Significa (Brazil), and Pegasus (China). Visit http://www.edelman.com for more information.

About Global Citizenship:

Some call it corporate social responsibility. Others call it sustainability. For Edelman, global citizenship resonates most as a term describing the larger responsibility business has to society. The firm recognizes its place in the world as global citizens, local offices and individuals. As the world’s largest public relations firm, Edelman has seized the opportunity to help place the communities where it operates and sustainable practices at the top of the agenda, both through client work and the firm’s own conduct. This is a key concept behind Edelman’s global citizenship strategy where engage in four key areas: Our World, Our Clients, Our Communities and Our People.
 
Contact:
Michael Bush
212-729-2181
 
 
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