ZENDESK
“ While our ESG initiatives are primarily value-driven and our commitment to climate leadership extends well beyond compliance and legal obligations , we believe the rising regulations play a major role in enhancing ESG transparency , comparability , and accountability ,” Su said . “ And at Zendesk , our goal is to continue to drive progress towards our voluntary climate targets , while also ensuring compliance best practices , to keep improving the rigour of our data and pinpoint opportunities for deeper integration of sustainability principles into our business dynamics .” Enhancing compliance is a dedicated working group , which brings together a variety of expertise from internal auditing and legal to enterprise risk management .
“ On an annual basis , we work with thirdparty auditors to independently verify our key environmental data and metrics , and we share our sustainability progress and learnings with our communities and all stakeholders through our Global Impact Report ,” says Su .
“ Most recently , as part of our climate leadership roadmap , we completed our inaugural climate risk assessment aligned with the TCFD and ISSB recommendations . Throughout this process , we engaged more than 12 cross-functional teams , and identified the climate-related risks and opportunities that are most relevant to our company .”
This shows the extent to which ESG is embedded throughout the organisation , but equally important , the collective efforts required to get the entire company on board . Furthermore , this process helped Su and the team to unlock critical opportunities to integrate climate risks into Zendesk ’ s business strategic planning , improve climate risk mitigation and adaptation capabilities , and enhance Zendesk ’ s resilience to the climate crisis .
“ We believe the rising regulations play a major role in enhancing ESG transparency , comparability , and accountability ”
SHENGYUAN SU SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR , ZENDESK
A future approach to ESG as a CX technology leader As a technology leader focusing on customer experience , Zendesk is committed to decarbonising its AI-powered solutions for customers , by working with partners to minimise the carbon footprint of its AI products and features , and transparently disclosing its AI ’ s environmental footprint .
“ AI has big potential to help combat climate change , and we are really at an inflection point to shape how we utilise this powerful tool in a manner that is both responsible and effective ,” Su says . “ Every part of the AI value chain , from utilities and data centre operators to machine learning engineers , has a role to play in reducing the environmental cost of AI . Zendesk ’ s AI engineering team has been implementing green engineering principles to help lower the carbon footprint of our AI models and we hope to partner with broader communities to truly harness the full potential of AI for the environment .” 204 May 2024