George D. Schindler
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Julie Godin
Co-Chair of the Board,
Executive Vice-President,
Strategic Planning and Corporate Development
As a professional services firm, we take great pride in helping our clients navigate a broad spectrum of opportunities and challenges they face. 2023 has been no exception, as clients experienced rapidly evolving geopolitical and economic conditions.
Through our end-to-end services, we help them harness the responsible use of technology to positively benefit the customers and citizens in their care. We use these same services to continuously advance our own Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices, which we believe are key to achieving long-term business value for each of our stakeholders, including:
- Serving as a partner and expert of choice for our clients
- Providing an empowering environment for our consultants and professionals — whom we now call CGI Partners as 85% are shareholders
- Being an investment of choice for our shareholders, and
- Engaging as an ethical and responsible corporate citizen
Our ESG commitment is rooted through our core Values, through projects delivered in collaboration with clients, and through operating practices, supply chain management, and community services projects.
For the second consecutive year, CGI achieved a Platinum rating from EcoVadis for our Sustainability Performance, placing us in the top 1% of companies within the EcoVadis network. We were pleased once again to earn EcoVadis’ highest rating in recognition of the evidence-based results achieved through our sustainable business practices.
Here are highlights of our performance from the year, which are summarized in greater detail throughout this report.
Environmental
In line with our climate strategy and commitment to achieving net-zero, we continued our progress in reducing GHG emissions. From 2019 to 2023, we reduced Scope 1, 2, and 3 (business travel) emissions by 38% and reduced carbon intensity per employee by 48%, despite the growth of our workforce.
We announced our commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Underpinned by science, we will set absolute reduction targets for all emissions, including through our supply chain. We will set our near-term targets, and we will define our new roadmap with net reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C objective.
In a milestone this year, we reached our target of 100% of Scope 2 data centers powered by renewable electricity. This important progress is possible due to the strong commitment of our teams around the world. We are actively transitioning more offices to renewable energy and integrating climate impacts into all of our real estate decisions.
Social
As a global consulting company whose people are our greatest asset, we actively support a culture that focuses on their well-being and development. Once again, we increased our investment in the training of our people, particularly in areas of innovation such as the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Guided by our core Value of Respect, our Management Foundation (which aligns our operations through common principles, processes, and frameworks), and our global and local responsibilities, we continue to grow our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) engagements and commitments. Through the combination of our DE&I strategy and the diversity of our people and geographies, we continually progress toward our quantified DE&I targets. In addition to championing digital inclusion for all, we remain committed to engaging with underrepresented groups through education initiatives to help individuals find promising careers in IT.
To continue to empower our people to make an impact in the communities where they live and work, we completed the global rollout of our CGI for Good community collaboration tool. As a result, all our consultants and professionals can more easily identify and engage in pro bono or volunteer projects.
Governance
As an industry leader operating in many geographies, we embrace our responsibility to engage in ethical business practices and comply with all applicable laws and regulations. We are committed to a high level of standards and to deploying our digital services and solutions responsibly. This includes adherence to best practices in AI, cybersecurity, data privacy, and data protection.
As a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), we align our ESG best practices with UNGC Principles, particularly regarding respect for human rights throughout our operations and supply chain. This year, we published our first global statement on modern slavery to reiterate our commitment to tackling forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking. We pledge to strengthen our supplier risk mitigation process, and to transparently communicate our progress.
This 2023 report illustrates and transparently demonstrates a year of ongoing progress to meet the commitments of each ESG pillar. We would like to thank our clients, consultants and professionals, shareholders, and community partners for working together in pursuit of our ESG goals. We recognize their contributions to benefit the economic, social, and environmental well-being of our shared communities.
