Our World: Taking action for environment and community

Doing our part to address broader environmental and social challenges includes stewarding sustainable manufacturing practices and supporting communities where we work. Environmental action and community investment make up our world, a portion of our sustainability strategy and framework which underlines how we contribute to a healthier, cleaner planet and give back to the surrounding locales that enable us to thrive.

From growing climate action efforts to advancing more circular product lifecycles to employee volunteerism, we shine a light on a handful of initiatives that bring our commitments to emissions, waste and water reduction and community to life.

Our journey to net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040

Our focus on emissions reduction is backed by climate science and presents opportunities to reduce energy costs, mitigate risks and deepen our partnerships with customers and suppliers.

As members of the Science Based Targets initiative, we are working to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and have a commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2040. Our energy management and emissions reduction strategy focuses on reducing energy consumption, improving the efficiency of systems and facilities and leveraging renewable energy resources. Through our carbon offset program, we invest in sustainable projects all around the world including a hydropower facility, a biomass power plant, a diversion barrage, a waste-to-energy project and a gas-turbine combined-cycle power plant.

Key stats

As of 2021, we have:

Reduced scope 1 and 2 emissions by 14% from our 2019 baseline.
Avoided more than 19K metric tonnes of scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions through our energy management programs.
Consumed energy from renewable energy providers at 20% of our EMEA facilities.

A circular approach to waste reduction and management

Our approach to waste management is to eliminate the production of waste where possible. When unavoidable, we ensure responsible disposal while prioritizing compliance with site-specific regulations. We are committed to finding innovative ways to reduce waste within our operations, continually implementing waste reduction initiatives in our own offices and certifying 50% of our manufacturing and logistics sites as zero waste by 2025.

In 2021, we diverted 94% of our campus-generated waste from the landfill.

Underpinning our waste management program is a circular approach. Our circular economy solutions include a broad range of services: parts harvesting and recycling, product refurbishment, and repair, CO2 reporting and analytics, among others. Our goal is to help customers minimize environmental impact and maximize financial value with our circular economy solutions. We recognize the importance of measurement for data-driven decision making and long-term accountability. Through intelligent reporting capabilities, like Flex ECO2TM, our circular economy impact calculator, and second life value measurement tools, we help customers determine the best circular economy solutions to adopt.

Commitment to water conversation and reduction

While the core of Flex operations is not especially water-intensive, water remains necessary for parts of the manufacturing process, so that we can cool equipment, cool our offices and provide employees with clean, safe drinking water. The strategy behind our water conservation and reduction efforts is to evaluate the impact of water usage at each of our facilities and prioritize mitigation operations in water-scarce locations. We use our industry expertise to implement technologies that help evaluate the impact of our water consumption, identify areas for improvement and implement solutions like water recycling, collection systems, irrigation systems, and more.

In 2021 and for the second year in a row, we received an A score from CDP for water security.

Improving the quality of life in the global communities we serve

Driving positive change and community building whether for an environmental or social cause is led in large part by our 170,000 team members across the world. We are committed to driving meaningful impact in the communities we serve by engaging our employees to give back and invest in projects globally through the Flex Foundation.

The Flex Foundation makes strategic investments in alignment with four UN Sustainable Development Goals:

#3 good health and well-being
#8 decent work and economic growth
#12 responsible consumption and production
#13 climate action

This includes investing in organizations that support community building, the environment, global public health, human rights, educational programs for underserved communities, and more.

Our employees better their communities by providing donations and thousands of volunteer hours to various important causes.