Sustainability is front and center at Clarivate, part of everything we do. You can see the scope and scale of our commitment in our first annual sustainability report published in early 2021.
Our commitment to sustainability is a strategic imperative, bringing environmental and societal issues to the forefront. Our goals are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a universal blueprint for collective actions we can take to address the most pressing issues we face as a global community.
Our commitment empowers our corporate leaders and colleagues to play a critical role in driving real change, not only for Clarivate but also for our customers.
Our first sustainability report set out our goals and reports on our progress in 2020. It reinforces this Clarivate commitment in specific areas such as becoming carbon neutral by 2024, being recognized as one of the top companies to work for and being listed on both the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good Index based on our 2023 performance.
“This year’s report was a first step in improving our internal efforts on sustainability and driving a benchmark stake into the ground that publicly spotlights our clear intent,” says Marko Damjanović, Clarivate Corporate Sustainability Coordinator and lead for producing the report. Based in Belgrade, Serbia, Marko worked with more than 50 colleagues worldwide to assess the state of sustainability at Clarivate in 2020 and to validate progress measured against key global sustainability standards.
The validation work helped the team identify areas to address for improvement. It also provided valuable insights for colleagues based on feedback from sustainability-related questionnaires completed by subject-matter experts.
“Such feedback was an essential part of our preparation work,” Marko says. “And we were able to share learnings and guidelines with our colleagues and other stakeholders.”
Global focus, local action
Marko brings a compelling interest in and passion for sustainability to his role at Clarivate.
“I’ve always been interested in sustainability,” he says. “The biggest influence was my desire to make a positive impact on people. Clarivate gives me an opportunity to drive our business towards more sustainable practices and reach more than 8,500 colleagues, more than 30,000 customers indirectly and numerous communities.”
He joined CPA Global (now part of Clarivate) in late 2019 as a marketing assistant – he was the company’s first colleague in Serbia – where he worked on building the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) Report, a major work covering environmental, social and governance issues aligned with the EcoVadis Supply Chain Sustainability monitoring process. Marko began his current role in the global sustainability team at Clarivate in January 2020.
In his current role, he reached out to colleagues worldwide seeking Sustainability Champions. These motivated and engaged colleagues play a key role in facilitating and fostering a culture of sustainability in their workplace and region, working together with all colleagues globally towards Clarivate corporate sustainability goals.
“Sustainability is a global initiative, but what’s important is how it works where colleagues and customers are.”
In the Belgrade Center of Excellence, the Sustainability Champions are key to stimulating local initiatives such as organizing clean-ups of trash and other waste from city parks. “We also work with local NGOs,” says Marko, “which gives colleagues opportunities to volunteer locally, engaging with managers and providing them with education on business skills so they can provide insights to their employees.”
Other initiatives the Belgrade team champions are to influence food vendors to change packaging to be more sustainable, and to educate building owners on LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building certification program used worldwide.“
“I’m proud that Belgrade is a model for other teams,” Marko notes. “The regional leads work with other local teams and help build our global approach.”
Marko and the global sustainability team are currently working on the 2021 sustainability report, expected to be published in early 2022.The 2021 report will build on the successes already achieved – and improvements identified – in 2020, globally and locally, and aims to achieve these measurable headline goals:
- Track and report on environmental metrics for more than 75% of our global office space
- Continue driving positive momentum to meet our goal to be carbon neutral by 2024
- Advance our connected workplace strategy to reduce the environmental and workforce impact of commuting
- Launch a Global Engagement Network which includes our six Colleague Resource Groups, Sustainability Teams and Well-Being Champions
- Meet or exceed e-waste industry standards for sustainable, responsible waste disposal while meeting all Clarivate data security, compliance and privacy standards
- Achieve ISO 27000 Cybersecurity Certification globally
Looking ahead to 2025
Looking out a further four years, how does Marko see the sustainability landscape in 2025?
“We are currently in the first stage of sustainability with a major focus on education about different initiatives,” he says, noting the current work in Serbia designed to influence multiple audiences. “We want to help ensure that every workplace is aligned with our global sustainability strategy .” The Belgrade Center of Excellence is setting an example, he adds, and is being used as a benchmark.
He appreciates the “huge support from Clarivate leadership” that helps drive the global goal to become a sustainable company.
He also has a clear wish list for 2025.
“I definitely want to see us listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index by then,” Marko says. “I would like to connect all our initiatives into a seamless whole. And of course, we will track all changes, address all challenges, adopt new teams and constantly improve! It’s a never-ending process.”
All this just one year after Clarivate becomes carbon neutral.
A tall order? Just clear signals for more sustainable development, Marko might say.
Follow our progress at clarivate.com/sustainability-at-clarivate/ to learn more.
