Innovation + Responsibility

Sun's Inaugural Employee Eco Summit
Today Sun hosted our first ever Employee Eco Summit in Santa Clara.  By all accounts, the event was a great success! Most of the credit for the day's event goes to our super eco marketing guru, Krista Van Tassel.  Krista pulled together an event that attracted about 550 Sun employees - about 400 of who were participating, in typical Sun fashion, remotely by watching online or in Second Life.

There were some interesting speakers who shared compelling information about some of the challenges we face as a planet and, most importantly, some steps each of us can take toward creating a more sustainable world, both at home and at work.

The two speakers who stood out for me were Andrew Winston, author of "Green to Gold," and Adam Werbach, founder of Act Now and best known for having been the youngest ever President of the Sierra Club (he took that position at age 23) and more recently for his work as Wal Mart's sustainability consultant.

While all the speakers provided useful information and interesting perspectives, these two were most engaging because they talked specifically about the role we as individuals could play in helping move the needle on climate change. Their optimism was uplifting - we are so accustomed to hearing what's wrong, how dire it all is.  But what people need to hear is that if we pitch in, we will be able to effect positive change. These two speakers got that message across by making us laugh while also making us think.

Power of Sun  Results
The timing of this employee summit was perfect because this week we received the results of the most recent Power of Sun survey.  Why am I telling you this? Because year over year we saw huge gains in the area of corporate responsibility. 

If you read Sun's 2007 CSR report (and, given the data, my guess is most of you haven't!), you know that in late 2006 we began measuring employee perception of Sun as a socially and environmentally responsible company.   Specifically we asked employees the following agree/disagree questions:

*It is important to me that Sun act as a socially and environmentally responsible company.
and
*Sun acts as a socially and environmentally responsible company.

The first time we asked these questions, the employee response was remarkable - 92 percent of employees agreed or strongly agreed with the first statement, with some variation based on geography (higher in Europe) and job level (higher for more senior employees).  The response to this question confirmed what we thought we already knew - people want to work for a company that shares their personal values. 

On the second question the response was still great, but significantly different.  "Only" 84 percent of employees agreed or strongly agreed that Sun acts as a socially and environmentally responsible company. That's an average 8 point gap, and an even wider gap when you dig into the details of geography (lower in Europe) and job level (higher for more senior employees, significantly lower for more junior employees).

In the 2007 CSR report, Sun stated as one of our employee engagement goals that we would seek to close the gap between employees' desire that we act as a socially and environmentally responsible company (92%) and the number of employees who think we do (84%).  Well, I am proud to report that we have, in just one year, made great strides toward closing that gap.

The latest results of the Power of Sun survey show that the percentage of survey respondents who believe that Sun acts as a socially and environmentally responsible company grew from an average of 84 percent to 89 percent.   Not only did this score improve 5 percent on the whole, it went up in every category across the board. What does that mean, exactly? Well, here is a slice of some of the data:

As you can see, the numbers went up across staff level, region and even across different business units within Sun (though I don't actually show that data here...I have to save something for the 2008 CSR report!).  The one exception is within Greater China - the overall number stayed the same but the percentage of employees who "strongly agree" dropped by six points, while the percentage who "agree" went up by the same amount.  I'm not sure what that's about but as I dig into the numbers, I hope to get a better idea.

The reason this is good news is not just that our message is getting out to our employees, although that's definitely good news! But the real good news here is that more employees believe Sun is the kind of company they want their employer to be. And maybe this means they will roll up their sleeves and pitch in as we strive to achieve more and more of our social and environmental goals. And if they pitch in - no matter their job level, job function or job location - we are more likely to meet the goals we set for ourselves - goals around product innovation, emissions reductions, global inclusion, supply chain management, community involvement, etc.