Firm Focuses on ‘Showing Up Differently’ through Citizenship

October 22, 2014, NEW YORK — Edelman issued today its FY14 Citizenship Report: Show Up Differently, spotlighting the firm’s enhanced commitment to citizenship.

The report features global and local initiatives that demonstrate how the world’s largest public relations agency puts citizenship into operation. Among other initiatives, it employs a comprehensive citizenship dashboard of measurement tools, comprehensive employee training, environmental sustainability efforts and increased involvement in the communities where it operates.

"We highlight the progress we have made in our citizenship journey and reinforce our commitment to show up differently as responsible citizens in the communities where we operate,” said John Edelman, managing director, global engagement and corporate responsibility. “We continue to put citizenship into operation in our culture and business practices.”

Edelman noted that the report introduces the agency’s Citizenship Score (C-Score), a methodology evolved from last year’s citizenship dashboard “that generates greater local office accountability and empowers 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 the year ended June 30 resulted in the growth of several programs, including:

  • Employing the citizenship dashboard, which includes 12 global citizenship indicators that allow each of Edelman’s 60-plus global offices to assess more consistently their progress on social and environmental activities and to achieve citizenship goals.
  • Introducing the Citizenship Score (C-Score), a progression of the Citizenship Dashboard that will use uniform metrics to evaluate progress over time for the company as a whole and the individual offices. The C-Score will be in place fully in fiscal year 2015.
  • Launching a new pro bono and volunteerism policy that gives every Edelman employee eight hours of paid time off to participate in skills-based and general volunteerism projects in their communities.
  • Continuing the management of the firm’s carbon footprint. Although absolute carbon emissions increased 9 percent in fiscal 2013, carbon intensity per full-time employee decreased 7 percent from the fiscal 2011 baseline.
  • Completing 22,852 hours in professional and general volunteerism valued at nearly $2.2 million and contributing over $70,000 in cash and in-kind donations.
  • Expanding the Community Investment Grant program, which awarded 121 grants, the most ever in a year, to a wide variety of organizations in each of Edelman’s five global regions.

John Edelman noted that while the agency commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in each of its offices worldwide, the firm also is aware that its hub offices have the greatest impact on overall carbon emissions.

With goals of significantly reducing their carbon emissions by June 30, 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.

At June 30, 2013, half of the hub offices—New York, London and Silicon Valley—were on track to meet their reduction targets.

To read the FY14 Global Citizenship report and view the accompanying video, visit: http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2014-global-citizenship-report/.

CONTACT:

Michael Bush

212-729-2181

Michael.bush@edelman.com

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:

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 three key areas: Our People, Our Clients and Our Communities.

 

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