Keysight CSR: Accelerating Innovation to Shape the Future – Responsibly
The speed of this transformation means that we need to shape our future responsibly. At Keysight, we take that responsibility seriously. Over the past year, we have continued to use our technology to help people and organizations globally to solve problems by accelerating innovation, and in turn to have a positive impact on society through our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.
The importance of CSR to communities, individuals and corporations alike was brought home to us in October 2017, during the devastating wildfires in Santa Rosa, California where we are headquartered. Supported by our CEO, Ron Nersesian, executive staff, and existing CSR programs, we were able to quickly offer affected employees emotional support through our employee assistance program, enable and support site emergency responses, and provide direct funding to displaced employees and those who lost their homes in the fires, to help in their personal recovery. We set up a relief center to distribute donations of clothing, necessities and funds from our global employee community both to Keysight employees and their families, and to all in the local community that needed assistance.
Supporting our employees and the wider community through this life-changing experience shows the true value of CSR, and its central importance to the future of our business. In fact, it’s been a core part of the company’s DNA since Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP in 1939. Bill and Dave introduced and nurtured a strong culture, “The HP Way”, which included sponsored philanthropic, educational, community and sustainability programs. We are continuing that philosophy today as we execute our CSR programs.
Our CSR strategy
Our commitment to CSR has two core purposes. First, to help achieve our goals of growth in revenue, profit and total shareholder return. Second, we want to help build a better planet through innovations to connect and secure the world, and through operations that adhere to high ethical, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility standards.
In line with this latter objective, during 2017 we worked to clarify what it means to build a better planet through CSR, and developed four key impact goals to achieve by the end of 2020. These four goals involve our place in the community; the education of the next generation; our environmental impact; and the governance of business operations worldwide.
- For communities, we have pledged to commit more than $1.0 billion in value to strengthen them through a mixture of philanthropic giving, employee volunteerism, community sponsorships, donations and discounts, and university research and engagement.
- In terms of educating the next generation of engineers, we plan to engage upwards of 570,000 students and future engineers, through tools such as the Keysight After School education program and community education events, and our donated and discounted solutions at universities.
- In order to have a positive impact on the environment, we aim to recognize $2 million in cost avoidance, 10% energy conservation, and 15% water conservation per our fiscal year 2015 baseline. Our efforts focus on natural resource conservation and efficiency.
- Finally, on the governance side, it is vital that we ensure no material negative impacts to profit and loss or to institutional investment levels. For us, CSR must go hand in hand with running a profitable and innovative business, to ensure that our activities benefit our shareholders, customers, employees, community, and our planet.
Making strong progress
These are certainly ambitious targets – and our new 2017 CSR Report highlights the rapid progress we are making towards achieving them. We are delighted to say that we have already committed $685 million in value to community strengthening efforts – meaning that we are more than halfway to that $1.0 billion goal.
We have engaged upwards of 275,000 students through a mixture of education strategies, including Keysight employee volunteers engaging with primary and secondary schools through to universities. Once again, we are nearly halfway to that 570,000 goal.
In terms of the environment, we have recognized 4.69% and 12.44% respectively in energy and water conservation, which has resulted in $850,000 in cost avoidance. Crucially, all of this has been achieved with no material negative impacts. We have successfully aligned ethical operations and business commitments, through close governance of how we conduct business and our environmental, health, and safety programs.
The steps Keysight is taking in its CSR programs are building upon our strong foundation to grow and create value, while meeting our sustainability goals and reinforcing our commitment to global social responsibility. Find out more about our CSR progress by downloading our 2017 CSR Report.