Corporate Responsibility

Environmental Sustainability

We believe that doing the right thing for the environment drives our growth.

Read the FY22 report

We believe in human rights, sustainable business practices and responsible sourcing. We promote corporate sustainability not only within our own operations, but also with our partners and supply chain.

Veritas committed to supporting SDGs

To further our work towards promoting and implementing environmental sustainability initiatives within our operations and throughout our supply chain, we support the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data is collected each fiscal year (FY). The company’s baseline year is FY2019, and Veritas measures Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

In FY2021, the company’s reduction goals were submitted and approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). The targets covering GHG emissions from Veritas operations (Scopes 1 and 2) are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5°C, which is what the latest

climate science has indicated is needed to prevent the most damaging effects of climate change. The Veritas target for the emissions from its value chain (Scope 3) meet the SBTi’s criteria for ambitious value chain goals, meaning they are in line with the current best practice.

In the technology industry, Scope 3 emissions are typically much higher than Scope 1 and 2 emissions due to product manufacture and use. 

Progress in Action

Veritas greenhouse gas emissions went down 27% in FY2021 from FY2020 for the company’s entire value chain (Scope 1, 2, and 3) driven by the procurement of Renewable Energy Certificates by the company’s largest colo data center provider. Veritas also transferred its in-house data

center in India to a colo data center that offers greater energy efficiency. The company decreased emissions from purchased goods and services and capital goods categories due to a reduction in consumption of upstream goods and services. 

Veritas’ science-based target commitment

To reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 25% by FY2025 from a FY2019 base year. Veritas commits to reducing absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel 19% by FY2025 from a FY2019 base year. The company also commits to reducing scope 3 GHG emissions from use of sold products 17% per appliance sold by FY2025 from a FY2019 base year, and commits that 50% of its suppliers by spend, covering purchased goods and services and capital goods, will have science-based targets by FY2025.

Sustainability at Veritas Empowered

Our SAVE (Sustainability at Veritas Empowered) ERG is an employee-led sustainability program that supports Veritas' commitment to the environment. Our SAVE Teams are located at various Veritas sites around the world and support local initiatives to increase environmental awareness and engagement among Veritas employees.

Read the Veritas Environmental Policy Statement

Supply Chain Sustainability Program 

Veritas promotes responsible operation not only in our own operations but also throughout our supply chain. Veritas’ global supply chain, which includes activities related to the manufacturing and transportation of Veritas’ physical products, contains six Tier 1 suppliers. Our oversight includes the sourcing of raw materials as well as the selection and management of suppliers that assemble and ship our packaged products.

We are committed to manufacturing and fulfilling products that meet the demand of our customers and partners with a strong focus on quality, corporate social responsibility and operational efficiencies.

 

The Supply Chain Sustainability Program is built on four key areas:

  • RBA code of conduct compliance: compliance with RBA code of conduct and membership requirements.  Learn more
  • Key issues in the electronics supply chain: most important issue areas in the technology industry.  Learn more
  • Creation of sustainable products: source, design and create products that are environmentally friendly.  Learn more
  • Suppliers sustainability engagement: partner with suppliers to monitor and improve their social and environmental performance.  Learn more

Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)

In 2016 Veritas joined the RBA. Veritas has voluntarily adopted the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct and subsequently applied the code to our supply chain and some of our Tier 1 suppliers. In 2018, Veritas qualified as a Regular Member of the RBA.

The RBA Code of Conduct is a set of standards on social, environmental and ethical issues in the electronics industry supply chain. The standards set out in the Code of Conduct reference international norms and standards including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO International Labour Standards, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, ISO and SA standards, and many more.

The RBA code outlines Veritas' expectations regarding labour conditions and the protection of labour rights, prohibits child labour and forced or compulsory labour, and promotes environmental and ethical practices by our suppliers.

Key Issues in the Electronics Supply Chain

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Veritas greenhouse gas emissions went down 27% in FY2021 from FY2020 for the company's entire value chain (Scope 1, 2, and 3).

  • Product use (appliances)‒related emissions decreased by 2% in FY2021 from FY2020 levels
  • Purchased Goods & Services emissions fell by 38% in FY2021 from FY2020 levels
  • 26% of top suppliers by spend set science-based targets in FY2021
  • Emissions related to our appliance's deliveries were reduced by 16% per shipment and 25% in KM's travelled per shipment

Forced Labour & Human Trafficking

At Veritas, we work to preserve and uphold human rights throughout our company and our supply chain. We have a zero-tolerance policy for forced labour, slavery, child labour and human trafficking, as outlined in our Human Rights Policy, the RBA Code of Conduct and the United Nations Global Compact.

On 26 March 2015, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 was passed into law in the United Kingdom. This law requires companies to publish a formal statement of how they are preventing human trafficking and slavery in their supply chains.

  • Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2022 can be found here
  • Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2021 can be found here
  • Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2020 can be found here
  • Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2019 can be found here
  • Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2018 can be found here
  • Veritas Amended UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2017 can be found here
  • Veritas U.K. Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2016 can be found here

Veritas also complies with the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 which requires retail sellers and manufacturers with annual worldwide gross receipts over $100 million doing business in the state of California to publicly disclose their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their direct supply chains. Veritas statement for the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act can be found here: Veritas Statement California Transparency Supply Chain Act.

Veritas has a zero-tolerance policy and expects all employees and contractors to be aware of the implications of violating any aspect of human-trafficking related activities. Employees and contractors can report potential violations of this policy to Veritas EthicsLine.

Conflict minerals

The US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") adopted a rule under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires companies to disclose whether the products they manufacture or contract to manufacture contain conflict minerals that originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or other Covered Countries. We support the aims and objectives of the US legislation on the supply of conflict minerals as stated in our Veritas Conflict Minerals Policy.

To underscore this commitment, we have also:

  • become members of Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI)
  • communicated our conflict minerals policy to our suppliers
  • required our suppliers to complete the CFSI’s Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT),
  • developed a comprehensive due diligence process that is in line with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.

For more information, please visit our Veritas Conflict Minerals Report.

Industry Engagement & Collaboration

Creation of Sustainable Products

We continually seek new ways to minimize the environmental impact of our products and services during their entire life cycle, by considering factors such as energy consumption, materials use and end-of-life treatment.

Product compliance

We consider compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations to be the baseline for our performance and we continually look for innovative ways to eliminate the use of environmentally sensitive materials in our products.

All our manufacturing partners and hardware suppliers are both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.

We comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate. Compliance areas include regulatory requirements, hazardous substances, WEEE, batteries, packaging, conflict minerals and logistics.

Learn more

e-Waste: Product Recycling Programs

By reusing and recycling electronic equipment, we extend its useful life and reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill.

Refurbishment and reuse are especially important for electronics and other e-waste because they often contain metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, gold and silver, which have multiple significant environmental impacts – from their initial mining to potential environmental contamination if they are not recycled or disposed of properly.

Veritas prioritizes opportunities to reuse spare parts and relocate old inventory to avoid the purchase of new equipment. Equipment that has reached the end of its useful life is sent to responsible vendors for proper recycling. These vendors offer services such as hardware retrieval, asset tag and identifier removal, sorting, and environmentally responsible data wiping, cleaning and destruction procedures. Veritas participates in a variety of take back for recycling programs for our appliances which vary depending on local regulations.

In FY21 Veritas retrieved hundreds of servers and storage units being removed from a multitude of sites. Many of these were returned and utilized internally for lab and test units, while a significant portion was sent for recycling, or for breakdown and resale. As a result, Veritas sent 57 tons of material to our vendor which after processing resold 61 percent of this material. The resale of these goods also eliminated the manufacture of new units and avoided:

  • 8 million Kgs of Co2 emissions
  • 4 billion litres of water
  • 52 million tons of earth not mined

For more information on collection and recycling in your area, visit the Veritas Product Recycling website.

Green Logistics

Green logistics consists of using more eco-friendly and sustainable processes in order to reduce the environmental impact of logistics. 

Delivering for global customers requires Veritas to rely on a variety of transportation solutions for long and short distances.

Veritas aims to reduce its hardware transport emissions 30 percent by 2030, which is why the company partners with a top industry-leading sustainability carrier that offers the opportunity to choose from environmentally conscious solutions to reduce transport emissions through several initiatives.

Decarbonization options:

1.       Switch from airplane to rail transport

An important initiative that came out of this new partnership was moving from air to rail for the Europe-China Lane which releases a high amount of GHG emissions. Veritas ships many tons of hardware equipment using a new road and rail network from its manufacturing supplier site in Ireland to China and then distributes it to customers in China.

This switch enables a 95 percent reduction in emissions.

2.       Switch from airplane to ocean transport

Veritas moves approximately 20 tons of material yearly through the ocean freight network into Singapore which would’ve previously gone through the airfreight network.

This switch enables a 94 percent reduction in emissions.

3.       Switch from airplane to truck transport

In the U.S., Veritas has reduced the emissions from the U.S.-Canada transportation lane by 90 percent after moving from air to truck transportation.

4.      Switch airline operators to reduce emissions

Veritas changed the operator used to book shipments to Singapore. The routing that this airline takes enables a 20 percent reduction in comparison to the previous route.

5.       Carbon-neutral shipments

Veritas’ customers can order carbon-neutral shipments as an accompanying service when ordering an appliance. The service SKU is called Go Green and allows customers to take delivery of hardware orders with a carbon-neutral impact.

The Go Green service has a carbon offsetting program included with Veritas’ carrier and is a WWF gold standard non-profit organization for carbon offsetting.

6.      Carbon-neutral flight lane

Utilize the carbon neutral flight from Frankfurt to Shanghai. While this is a more expensive route to the APJ market, it’s a carbon-neutral lane. Veritas’ freight company purchases Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and additional carbon offsets. SAF is the first real alternative to fossil aviation fuels. It’s produced from waste materials, such as those derived from used cooking and vegetable oils. The SAF lifecycle reduces 80 percent of the average CO2e WTW1 emissions of a standard flight with kerosene. The remaining 20 percent of emissions are offset through offsetting programs.

What does carbon neutrality mean?

The planet’s average surface temperature has risen by approximately 1.2°C since the late 19th century. One reason: increasing carbon dioxide emissions. To avoid a climate crisis, now is the time to act.

“Climate neutrality is no longer a question of choice; it is beyond doubt a necessity.” Charles Michel, European Council President, July 2020.

Companies, processes, and products become carbon-neutral when they calculate their carbon emissions and compensate for what they’ve produced via carbon offsetting projects. It is important to first focus on avoiding and reducing carbon emissions.

Suppliers Sustainability Engagement

We focus our supply chain responsibility program engagement on our Tier 1 suppliers or those with whom we have a direct contract in place to provide us with services or material inputs for our finished goods.

We require our suppliers to comply with the RBA Code of Conduct, Social and Environmental Responsibility requirements. We integrate the requirements into supplier contracts, by asking our suppliers to commit to complying with the expectations set out in Social and Environmental Responsibility and Conduct requirements.

These added requirements ask suppliers to confirm acknowledgement of the RBA Code of Conduct (including by implementing a compliance management system), to complete the RBA Self-Assessment Questionnaire (the results of which are reviewed by Veritas) and to participate in the RBA Validated Audit Process.

We check compliance by reviewing the results of each supplier's RBA Self-Assessment Questionnaire and through the RBA Validated Audit Process.