Approach
Our Stakeholders
Equinix’s leaders, employees and key internal and external stakeholders share a collective commitment to sustainability and have made it an important component of our overall growth strategy.
Stakeholder engagement is critical to the success of our sustainability efforts. We maintain open and flexible, multidimensional communication channels with our 10,000+ customers and our employees, investors and industry analysts. We also prioritize collaboration and partnerships with advocacy organizations and industry groups.
The table below summarizes some of the ways we actively engage with these key stakeholders.
| Who | When | How | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board of Directors and Executive Officers |
Quarterly as needed | In-person and virtual executive, board and on-on-one meetings | The Nominating and Governance Committee of the Equinix Board of Directors is responsible for ESG oversight and reviews strategies, policies, practices, performance and reporting related to corporate ESG matters. The Sustainability Program Office (SPO) works with the Board and Executives on ESG strategies, goals, progress, risks and opportunities. |
| Sustainability Executive Steering Committee |
Quarterly or as needed | In-person and virtual executive, board and one-on-one meetings | The SPO presents focused metrics to the Steering Committee regularly. The Steering Committee ensures management support through commitment of resources, processes, systems and tools and review and oversight of key ESG issues. |
| Sustainability VP Steering Committee |
Quarterly or as needed | In-person and virtual VP steering committee meetings | The VP Steering Committee provides direct support to working teams to drive the implementation of projects and achievement of sustainability goals. |
| Sustainability Working Team | Monthly meetings as needed and ad hoc communications | In-person and virtual meetings, conference calls and emails | The Sustainability Working Team comprises functional leads representing ESG pillars, as well as 30+ functional area leaders across all three regions. The team sets goals, completes specific deliverables and activities, collects metrics and communicates progress to the SPO. It also manages risks and opportunities and identifies ideas to advance ESG at Equinix. Global team members work with designated regional leads to disseminate information and conduct work. |
| Sustainability Marketing Council (SMC) |
Monthly meetings as well as function-specific meetings as needed and ad hoc communications | In-person and virtual meetings, conference calls and emails, cross-functional and regional support of marketing and communications implementation | The SMC is comprises regional, cross-functional representation across the marketing, product and sales organizations. Its function is to develop and drive annual marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) that increase awareness of sustainability efforts globally with our internal and external stakeholders. |
| Employees | Quarterly employee surveys, with sustainability surveys of specific subsets of employees (e.g., sales) conducted annually
Internal “HUB” articles monthly or more frequently |
Third-party administered Pulse Survey platform and management relationships, including performance reviews, company meetings, exit interviews, and other internal articles and activities. Ad hoc sustainability surveys conducted via email or online survey tools | Activities such as the quarterly Pulse Survey and departing employee exit interviews provide quantifiable information about Equinix’s success as an employer. Informal communications provide ongoing feedback and add richness to these conversations. Understanding the sustainability priorities of Equinix’s employees, including its sales and marketing teams, is important to the development of our ESG program. Voice of the Employee Surveys that incorporated ESG topics in 2021 included well-being, belonging and other important organizational surveys. Educational trainings are provided as part of our new-hire onboarding and throughout the year to key Equinix groups about our sustainability strategies and progress. Sustainability is also a core pillar within our WeAreEquinix employee activation and engagement strategy to develop country-specific approach to culture. |
| Customers | Ad hoc, monthly and annual global customer surveys and audits | In-person and virtual meetings, emails with account management teams, global customer NPS surveys and annual Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meetings | Delivering a high-quality, high-value customer experience is a top Equinix priority. Sustainability strategies, programs and data hold an increasingly important place in the customer journey. Our Customer Experience Team provides our customers with several official channels for sharing feedback and making sustainability requests. Inputs vary from open-ended comment forms, in-depth surveys with scored questions, and participation in face-to-face meetings. We aim to reach 100% of our customers through our ongoing Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey and continuous listening and learning across all our customer relationships. |
| Suppliers and Service Providers |
Ad hoc | Account management and supplier selection process | Equinix suppliers have strong business relationships with the groups they serve. Equinix has always required suppliers to meet the highest standards. We continue to execute against our 5-year Supply Chain ESG strategy to identify and mitigate risk alignment to our Science-based Target climate goals, and human rights and diversity targets. |
| Investors, Analysts and Third-Party Rating Groups | Quarterly, annually and ad hoc | Conference calls, in-person and virtual annual meetings, Analyst Days, voluntary disclosure in surveys, executive-led coalitions such as A4S and CECP | Our Investor Relations team regularly communicates with investors and equity research analysts. Equinix responds to information requests from investors and other third-party rating organizations. |
| Advocacy and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) | Ad hoc | Conference calls, in-person and virtual conferences, and signatures on white papers and letters | Equinix participates in a variety of industry and NGO advocacy opportunities, initiatives and activities. Some key organizations include:
|
| Community/Social Impact Partners | Ad hoc | In-person and virtual meetings, conference calls and emails | To facilitate positive social impact, we have forged partnerships with organizations that share our vision for a more sustainable and equitable future. Together our potential to effect change is much greater than what we could accomplish on our own. Some of our long-term community partnerships include:
|
| Government and Regulatory Bodies |
Ad hoc | Conference calls, conferences, signatures on white papers, public comments and letters, and in-person advocacy at country, state and local levels | Equinix seeks opportunities to provide regular input into government reviews, including those for utility planning processes and energy efficiency regulatory policies. Groups and initiatives that we have collaborated with include:
|
Our Partners
Equinix participates in a variety of industry and NGO advocacy
opportunities, initiatives and activities.
Industry Partnerships
Driving sustainability is a collaborative effort, so we work with key industry and business partners to maximize our impact and encourage change across our business and the industries that we touch.
AT&T Connected Climate Initiative
Equinix is partnering with AT&T to help its customers to reduce one gigaton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—1 billion metrics tons—by 2035. AT&T will work with a range of businesses who share their climate goals to develop a range of broadband-enabled climate solutions at global scale. Equinix and AT&T share a long history of delivering sustainable high-performance network services to our customers that reduce latency and scale seamless data exchange across secure digital infrastructures. Our combined services have helped digital leaders sustainably modernize their networks through greater network optimization and agility.
VMWare Zero Carbon Committed
As a VMware Zero Carbon Committed partner, we boost innovation, drive sustainable growth and improve our environment for future generations. Through our pledge to operate public cloud data centers that use 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, Equinix and VMware can help companies reach their sustainability and supply chain decarbonization goals.
NGO Partnerships
In close collaboration with the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) and other European cloud infrastructure and data center providers, Equinix spearheaded the development of the “Carbon Neutral Data Centre Operator Pact and Self-Regulatory Initiative,” launched in January 2021, putting sustainability front and center for the data center industry. The initiative commits all providers to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
Equinix is also proud to be a founding board member and training facilitator for the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance (CEBA), where we partner with over 200 companies and several NGOs to advocate for the procurement and scaling of clean and renewable energy globally.
“Equinix has gone beyond their own footprint to serve as true leaders in the clean energy buyer community, and their expertise is helping us move the needle to a cleaner, more affordable, zero-carbon energy future.”
Miranda Ballentine
CEO, REBA
Partnerships Include:
Materiality Assessment
Equinix conducted a Sustainability Materiality Assessment refresh in 2022. This work expanded on Equinix’s 2020 Materiality Assessment. To prioritize ESG topics and continue to align with industry trends and business value, we conduct assessments every two years. Assessment results are reviewed and signed off internally by the Sustainability Program Office and key functional leads representing ESG pillars. All the plotted topics included in the matrix below are considered significant to Equinix.
In our latest assessment, we evaluated the materiality of 16 sustainability topics. To create a prioritized list of topics that represents our biggest impact on the environment and society, and topics that can influence Equinix’s value, we analyzed 40+ universal list of topics from the Global Reporting Initiative Standards (inside-out), and topics from other 5 prioritized frameworks including SASB, DJSI, ISS, UNGC and Sustainalytics (outside-in).
The assessment found that diversity, equity and inclusion, human capital, resilience and adaptation, supplier ESG engagement, water conservation and waste management increased in importance, both in terms of internal and external stakeholder interest and business impact. Additionally, stakeholders recognize the importance of evolving nature-related risks and ranked biodiversity for the first time this year. Remaining topics such as energy, greenhouse gas emissions, health and safety, community engagement and governance, compliance and business ethics saw slightly reduced importance or minimal change. We are using these insights to facilitate conversations and further develop our Future First strategy, recognizing that the topics located at the top right of the graphic reflect areas where we have unique capabilities for impact.
An update to the Equinix Materiality Assessment is planned for the fall of 2024.
