Adobe

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

Adobe has been an RE100 member since 2015 and accelerated its 100% renewable electricity target from 2035 to 2025. In FY2024, renewable electricity reached 74.4% of total consumption (up from 66% in FY2023), sourced through a mix of instruments: a virtual PPA for wind energy in Iowa (Green-e certified, since 2018), a physical PPA for solar and wind at Oregon's largest solar farm (Pachwáywit Fields, expected to deliver ~23,000 MWh annually to the Hillsboro data centre), direct-line solar PPAs for Adobe's Bangalore and Noida offices in India, retail green electricity contracts in Australia and the UK (GoOs/REGOs), I-RECs for Singapore, and rooftop solar installations at Lehi, Utah and Bangalore. Adobe invested ~$100,000 in incremental renewable procurement in FY2024, avoiding 5,072 tCO2e. The company states it is on track to meet its 100% renewable electricity goal in FY2025.

Adobe's SBTi-validated net-zero target (NZ1) commits to neutralise any residual emissions remaining after 90% absolute reduction across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by FY2050 with permanent carbon removals. Adobe intends to purchase and cancel carbon credits for neutralisation at the end of the target. No near-term removal investments are planned; the priority through 2030 is renewable electricity procurement and energy efficiency. No project-based carbon credits were retired in the FY2024 reporting year.

• Energy efficiency and electrification of Adobe-controlled offices and data centres

  Adobe is implementing annual energy efficiency plans across its largest sites with energy conservation measures. The company is shifting toward electrification in major US sites and working with landlords to eliminate natural gas from new construction — exemplified by its all-electric Founders Tower in San Jose (LEED Gold, opened 2023). Product development teams deploy low-energy chips, intelligent data tiering to minimise idle storage, and optimise processing workloads by selecting server locations and workload timing to minimise carbon load. 96% of global space is now LEED/green-certified.

• Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction through renewable energy procurement and refrigerant management

  Adobe's primary Scope 1+2 lever is renewable electricity sourcing (74.4% in FY2024 vs 66% in FY2023), with a target of 42% absolute reduction in market-based Scope 1+2 by FY2030 from FY2022 base. Scope 1 sources include natural gas heating (4,057 tCO2e), refrigerants (929 tCO2e) and diesel backup generators (385 tCO2e). Adobe is working to reduce refrigerant leakage and replace natural gas by selecting all-electric building designs. Combined Scope 1+2 market-based fell to 26,820 tCO2e in FY2024, a 21.66% reduction toward the 42% by 2030 target.

• Business travel reduction and sustainable travel policies

  Adobe has an SBTi-validated target to reduce business travel (Scope 3 Cat 6) by 30% by FY2025 from a FY2018 base of 84,401 tCO2e; the target was achieved (139% progress). The company displays carbon emissions in the booking process, promotes rail travel as an alternative to air in relevant markets, and offers electric vehicles within policy when renting cars. Travel is actively monitored and FY2024 business travel was 49,260 tCO2e (41.6% below FY2018 base), though the target is kept 'underway' pending stabilisation of travel volumes.

• Green-building certified offices

  Target of 80% of Adobe offices, by square footage, within LEED or equivalent green building-certified spaces, reducing operational emissions from real estate.

• Cloud workload placement and timing

  Optimizing processing workloads to consume the least amount of energy by considering server locations and workload timing so that they draw the smallest possible carbon load. Also prioritising minimal data storage/caching on physical infrastructure via efficient coding languages.

• AI architecture energy optimisation

  Adobe continued to optimize AI architecture to minimize energy usage. Product development teams utilize low-energy chips and storage devices with intelligent data tiering to minimize idle storage resources.

• Office and data center energy efficiency: LEED certification, LED retrofits, all-electric building design

  At end of FY2023, 87% by square foot of Adobe's worldwide buildings are LEED/Green-Certified. Adobe develops annual energy efficiency plans for its largest sites comprising site-specific energy conservation measures. The new Founders Tower (San Jose HQ) is 100% all-electric with no fossil fuels, achieving ~50% improvement in energy and water use per square foot vs. average offices. Adobe's IBIS (Intelligent Building Interface System) monitors carbon, energy, water, and renewable energy production. Electrification retrofits, LED swap-outs, and working with landlords on BiT certification are also in progress.

• Business travel reduction: carbon visibility in booking, rail promotion, electric vehicle rentals

  Adobe has an active SBTi-validated target to reduce Scope 3 business travel emissions 30% by FY2025 vs. FY2018 (base: 84,401 tCO2e). This target was achieved at 225.91% progress in FY2023, with business travel at 27,201 tCO2e. Initiatives include displaying carbon emissions in booking tools and post-travel for manager visibility, promoting rail travel over air in relevant markets, and offering electric vehicles within policy for car rentals. Adobe is tracking to keep travel below pre-pandemic norms.

• Avoided emissions through digital product suite (Document Cloud, Creative Cloud, Experience Cloud)

  Adobe's cloud products enable customers to eliminate paper workflows (Document Cloud), replace physical prototyping and sampling (Creative Cloud 3D/VR), and remove inefficient physical processes (Experience Cloud). For every 1 million sheets of paper avoided, customers save ~23.4 million pounds of GHG emissions. Adobe publishes tools including the Resource Saver Calculator, Substance 3D Sustainability Calculator and Carbon Footprint Calculator. Document Cloud revenue was ~13.9% of total in FY2023. Adobe is developing a product sustainability roadmap to quantify and expand these benefits.

• Business travel reduction

  Adobe targets 30% reduction in business travel emissions by 2025 vs FY18 baseline (met in 2021 due to COVID; rebounded to 38,141 tCO2e in 2023). Levers include displaying/reporting carbon emissions in the booking process and post-travel for manager visibility, promoting rail over air in relevant markets, and offering EVs within car rental policy.

• Cloud / AI compute decarbonisation — ARM migration

  Adobe migrated Adobe AdCloud to ARM processors with its largest public cloud provider, achieving a 14% decrease in overall compute consumption and 41% reduction in carbon emissions in the pilot. FY24 target is to migrate 24% of eligible compute hours to ARM-based processors (which use 50-60% less power than X86), forecast 6-10% reduction in overall public cloud emissions. Product teams also use low-energy chips, intelligent data tiering, workload location/time optimisation, and efficient coding to reduce idle storage.

• Building electrification and LEED-certified workspaces

  87% of Adobe's owned and leased buildings are LEED or green-certified, housing 69% of employees. Founders Tower (2023) is the first all-electric building of its scale in Silicon Valley with the largest all-electric commercial kitchen in North America (induction cooking, electric pizza oven). Operating ~50% better than average office in energy and water use per square foot. 80% of Adobe offices by square footage target.

• Operational energy efficiency across owned and leased office portfolio

  Adobe develops annual site-specific energy conservation measure (ECM) roadmaps for its largest offices, encompassing lighting, HVAC, and BMS upgrades. In FY2022, 17 implemented initiatives saved 94.66 tCO2e and $24,840 with $45,000 investment. Over 10+ years, 200+ sustainability projects have saved millions of USD in OpEx. 85% by square foot of worldwide buildings are LEED/Green-Certified. Longer-term plans include all-electric building retrofits and removal of fossil-fuel equipment, aligned to SBT reduction commitments.

• Business travel reduction via virtual collaboration tools and travel policies

  Adobe targets a 30% reduction in Scope 3 Category 6 business travel emissions by FY2025 vs FY2018 baseline of 84,401 tCO2e. In FY2022 actual was 19,704 tCO2e (77% below baseline), reflecting both COVID-related suppression and a company policy encouraging travel reduction unless necessary. Adobe Creative Cloud enables virtual collaboration across geographies, structurally reducing the need for in-person travel. The company partners with travel providers to monitor progress.

• Business travel reduction

  Adobe achieved its 2025 business travel emission reduction target ahead of target year. Category 6 business travel emissions were 19,704 tCO2e in FY2022, still well below the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline against which the SBT was set.

• Energy efficiency and LEED-certified workspaces

  Adobe operates LEED- and green-certified offices, with 85% of buildings (owned and leased) LEED/green-certified in FY2022, up from 77% in 2020. 61% of employees are housed in LEED/green-certified workspaces. Energy efficiency projects delivered 95 tCO2e emissions reductions in FY2022.

• Data centre decarbonisation through managed colo renewable electricity procurement

  Adobe directly engages colocated data centre vendors (e.g. Equinix, NTT) to procure and bring new renewable electricity online. Managed CoLos account for 12,718 tCO2e location-based and 5,903 tCO2e market-based Scope 2 in FY2022. Adobe's owned Oregon data centre (OR1, 18,651 tCO2e location) is targeted for renewable supply via in-state solar projects. Adobe is a signatory to the Corporate Colocation & Cloud Buyers' Principles and active in the Clean Energy Buyers Association, using collective purchasing power to advance additive renewable projects.

• Energy efficiency in buildings via site-specific ECM roadmaps

  Adobe develops annual energy efficiency plans for its largest sites, comprising site-specific energy conservation measures (ECMs) ranging from LED upgrades and HVAC replacements to BMS controls refinements. These are formally aligned to SBT delivery. In FY2021, implemented ECMs delivered 416 tCO2e savings at a cost of ~$1.16M with annual savings of ~$92K. Site managers have KPIs tied to ~2% annual energy consumption reduction.

• Renewable electricity procurement for offices and data centers

  Adobe's primary decarbonisation lever is switching electricity supply to renewables. The company operates managed data centers (OR1 in Oregon, multiple CoLos) and global offices, and procures renewable electricity through PPAs, green tariffs, and RECs. The Northern California switch to direct access renewables and addition of GBR2 on 100% renewable supply drove 2,621 tCO2e reduction in FY2021. Adobe targets over 1/3 of its Oregon OR1 data center on renewables by end of FY22.

• Business travel reduction and virtual collaboration

  Adobe holds an SBTi-approved target to reduce Scope 3 Category 6 business travel emissions 30% by FY2025 vs FY2018 baseline of 84,401 tCO2e. COVID drove extraordinary over-achievement (FY2021: 1,187 tCO2e, >328% of target achieved). Adobe uses Creative Cloud tools to enable virtual creative team collaboration and reduce travel need structurally. A Business Travel & Aviation working group is tasked with managing resumption of travel sustainably.

• Elimination of natural gas fuel cells and building electrification

  Adobe has been removing fossil-fuel combustion sources from its building portfolio. The company broke ground in 2019 on an all-electric (no fossil fuels) 18-story tower in San Jose — the first in the city ahead of new REACH codes. FY2021 was the first full year without natural gas fuel cells, a major contributor to Scope 1 reductions from 12,119 tCO2e (FY2018 baseline) to 4,923 tCO2e in FY2021. The company pursues electrification retrofits to existing buildings as an ongoing strategy.

• Supplier engagement to drive SBTi adoption across the value chain

  Adobe's largest Scope 3 category is purchased goods and services (Cat 1: 409,284 tCO2e in FY2024). Adobe's Global Procurement team engages suppliers to set Science Based Targets at four milestones: RFx process, vendor onboarding, supplier business reviews and contract renewal. The goal is to have 55% of spend with SBTi-committed vendors; as of end FY2024, 24% of suppliers by spend had an approved SBT. Suppliers are required to accept Adobe's Business Partner Code of Conduct, which encourages SBT-setting. Adobe also collaborates with its public cloud provider through a customer roundtable to obtain actual emissions and water footprint data to improve Scope 3 Cat 1 calculations.

• Cloud infrastructure and data centre decarbonisation through partner selection

  Adobe partners with and prioritises cloud providers with strong climate commitments including energy efficiency, renewable energy sourcing, water conservation and waste reduction. Adobe is a member of its public cloud provider's customer roundtable and engages directly to provide feedback on climate and water strategy. Output includes improved emissions and water footprint data enabling better Scope 3 Cat 1 calculations and decision-making on server location and workload timing to reduce energy consumption and carbon load.

• Customer decarbonisation via digital document workflows replacing paper-based processes

  Adobe classifies its Document Cloud products (PDF and e-signature solutions) as low-carbon products generating avoided emissions. For every 1 million sheets of paper not used per year, customers can save an estimated 41 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. Adobe developed the Resource Saver Calculator (with the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Paper Network) to quantify benefits of digital vs paper workflows. These products contributed ~15% of total revenue in FY2024. Adobe also positions its 3D design tools as replacing physical sampling (e.g., Mizuno case study), helping customers reduce their own carbon footprints.

• Cloud infrastructure decarbonisation via ARM processor migration (41% emissions reduction in pilot)

  Adobe partnered with its largest public cloud provider to migrate Adobe AdCloud to ARM-based processors. The pilot resulted in a 14% decrease in overall compute consumption and a 41% reduction in associated carbon emissions. Adobe is scaling this migration further, with a FY2024 target to migrate 24% of eligible compute running hours to ARM processors, which on average consume 50-60% less power than x86 processors. Product teams also utilise low-energy chips, optimise processing workloads, and minimise data storage and caching.

• Customer-enabled emissions reductions via Substance 3D

  Adobe Substance 3D Collection enables customers (e.g., Mizuno) to design virtual product samples instead of physical ones, eliminating waste and reducing carbon footprint in customer supply chains. Positioned as a Scope 4 / avoided emissions lever via product use.

• Supplier engagement: encouraging SBT adoption across supply chain (target: 55% by spend by 2025)

  Adobe's Global Procurement team engages Tier 1 suppliers to set SBTs at four milestones: RFx process, vendor onboarding, supplier business reviews, and contract renewal. The Business Partner Code of Conduct requires suppliers to acknowledge climate commitments. By end FY2023, 28% of suppliers by spend were SBTi participants (approved or committed), up from a 12% base in FY2018. Adobe covers 51-75% of Tier 1 supplier spend and associated Scope 3 emissions through this engagement. 39% of suppliers by spend were compliant with the SBT requirement.

• Supplier engagement — 55% spend with SBT suppliers by 2025

  Adobe targets directing 55% of supplier spend to those with science-based targets by 2025. The firm encourages suppliers to set SBTs and improve disclosure transparency through onboarding, Business Partner Code of Conduct review, and ongoing risk evaluation. Scope 3 Category 1 (purchased goods & services) is the dominant emissions source at 511,376 tCO2e in 2023 (84% of Scope 3).

• Customer enablement via Substance 3D virtual prototyping

  Adobe Substance 3D enables customers to replace physical prototyping and photoshoots. Internal LCA of five consumer products showed GHG reductions of 83-90% per product using virtual prototyping; Substance 3D sustainability calculator estimates ~98% carbon footprint reduction vs traditional photoshoots. Customers cited include HUGO BOSS and Mizuno (carbon-neutral by 2050 goal).

• Supplier SBT engagement to decarbonise purchased goods & services (Cat 1)

  Adobe's SBTi-approved supplier engagement target requires 55% of suppliers by spend to set SBTs by FY2025 (2018 baseline: 12%; FY2022 progress: 33.73%). The Global Procurement team embeds SBT encouragement at four vendor relationship milestones (RFx, onboarding, business reviews, contract renewal) targeting strategic suppliers with contracts >$500k. The Business Partner Code of Conduct requires suppliers to track Scope 1 & 2 emissions and consider SBTs and 100% renewable energy goals. This target covers 66% of supplier-related Scope 3 emissions (Cat 1 + 2).

• Supplier engagement on science-based targets

  Adobe is collaborating across its value chain, encouraging suppliers to set their own science-based climate targets and improve transparency/accuracy of disclosures. Purchased goods & services (Cat 1) emissions are the dominant Scope 3 category at 405,645 tCO2e in FY2022.

• Avoided emissions via paper-to-digital workflows

  Adobe Document Cloud enables customers to replace paper-based processes, driving a 95% reduction in environmental impact vs paper. In the U.S. alone, Document Cloud transforms an estimated 30 billion paper documents into digital workflows per year, saving 2.7 billion pounds of greenhouse gas and 1.1 billion kWh of energy. Adobe also released the Substance 3D Sustainability Calculator and Resource Saver Calculator to quantify customer impact.

• Cloud and data center decarbonisation with hyperscale partners

  Adobe partnered with its two largest cloud providers to discuss joint action on climate targets and refine reporting methodology to help customers understand emissions associated with Adobe products and services. Adobe operates one owned data center in Hillsboro, OR, plus colocated facilities; market-based emissions from the Hillsboro DC fell from 17,059 to 10,920 tCO2e between 2020 and 2022.

• Customer-facing avoided emissions via digital cloud products

  Adobe's Document Cloud, Creative Cloud, and Experience Cloud help customers eliminate physical workflows, reducing paper consumption, travel, and materials-intensive processes. Per the Adobe Resource Saver Calculator, every 1M pages signed digitally via Adobe Sign avoids ~23.4M pounds of CO2e. Adobe Substance 3D tools replace physical photoshoots with virtual prototyping. Document Cloud revenue represented ~13.5% of total revenue in FY2022. Adobe's Global Field Impact Program trains sales staff to communicate these sustainability benefits directly to customers.

• Data center resilience investment and cloud migration to reduce climate risk

  Adobe invested ~$52M in a 4th data hall (DH4) expansion at its Oregon data center (OR1) to reduce climate-related business interruption risk from California wildfires and extreme heat. OR1 has N+1 power and cooling redundancy. This also supports workload migration away from climate-exposed California facilities. Adobe additionally works with AWS, Azure, and CoLo providers under the Corporate Colocation & Cloud Buyers' Principles to procure renewable energy for cloud operations.

• Supplier engagement to drive SBT adoption across the supply chain

  Adobe's largest Scope 3 category is purchased goods and services (Cat 1: 396,221 tCO2e in FY2021). Adobe targets 55% of suppliers by spend having SBTi-approved targets by FY2025. Strategic sourcing professionals engage suppliers at four milestones: RFx, onboarding, business reviews, and contract renewal. Adobe's Business Partner Code of Conduct requires suppliers to track Scope 1+2 emissions and consider SBTs and 100% renewable energy goals. As of FY2021, 30% of suppliers by spend are SBTi participants. Digital CoLo suppliers are specifically engaged to procure renewable energy.