Better Health for All

Adobe provides comprehensive mental health care for its employees and their families, including 12 free therapy sessions, mental wellbeing exercises, work-life resources, and company-wide days off.

The company also offers HIPAA-Ready Services and Health Data-Ready Services to assist healthcare organizations in complying with HIPAA, safeguarding protected health information, and handling health-related data responsibly. While Adobe's principal software products for multimedia and creativity have a neutral direct health impact, its Experience Cloud for Healthcare enables healthcare enterprises to deliver personalized and secure digital experiences, enhancing patient engagement and care. The company's products do not have direct safety implications or addiction potential. There is no evidence of revenue from products with negative health outcomes, nor specific programs addressing health disparities or public health education. No quantifiable data was provided regarding R&D investment in health innovation.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

Adobe Systems Incorporated is a software company, and its core business does not involve lending, insuring, moving, or storing money for consumers, which is the focus of the 'Fair Money & Economic Opportunity' value. Consequently, all KPIs related to financial products and services are not applicable. While an FTC lawsuit alleges deceptive practices regarding software subscription fees and cancellation terms, these do not pertain to financial products or lending.

Adobe's philanthropic efforts, support for nonprofits, and internal employee financial wellness programs, while positive, do not align with the rubric's definitions for consumer-facing financial services or community finance initiatives.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

Adobe's CEO-to-median employee pay ratio was 250:1 for the fiscal year ending 2024.

The company has achieved global gender pay parity for five consecutive years as of March 2023, ensuring fair pay regardless of gender or ethnicity for employees in the same job and location through annual reviews and adjustments. Employee engagement is 86%. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Adobe alleging violations of California labor laws, including failure to pay minimum wages, overtime, and provide required meal and rest breaks. Additionally, Adobe settled kickback allegations for $3 million in April 2023.

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

No specific quantitative data was found in the provided articles for any of the KPIs related to Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing. Information regarding fair-trade certification share, audit frequency, number of forced or child labor incidents, traceability coverage, remediation speed, ethical clause coverage in contracts, share of spend on high-risk materials, or percentage of procurement budget directed to diverse suppliers was not explicitly stated with the required numerical values or percentages. Statements about achieving a percentage of a goal

or an increase in spend with diverse suppliers do not provide the necessary percentage of the total procurement budget.

Honest & Fair Business

Adobe paid a $3 million settlement in April 2023 for alleged prohibited payments under its Solution Partner program, which resulted in false claims to federal agencies

. The company is currently facing a lawsuit from the DOJ and FTC, filed in June 2024, alleging deceptive subscription practices, hidden fees, and a challenging cancellation process . Additionally, a class action lawsuit was filed in December 2023, claiming violations of California labor laws, including unpaid wages and failure to provide meal breaks . In June 2024, Adobe updated its terms of service to prohibit AI training with customer data, reinforcing data privacy and ethical AI usage . The company also expanded its bug bounty program in May 2024, rewarding security researchers for finding vulnerabilities in its AI tools . Adobe leads the Content Authenticity Initiative, which has over 2,000 members, demonstrating a commitment to transparency in digital content .

Kind to Animals

In August 2020, Adobe partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme and The Ocean Agency to launch the Ocean League campaign.

This global awareness initiative aimed to rally support for ocean conservation and stronger climate action. The campaign sought to gather over a million pledges to influence policymaking at major climate events in 2021.

No War, No Weapons

Adobe has not divested from defense-related activities, with evidence of ongoing and new contracts. This includes a $120 million contract with the Department of the Air Force in 2024

, a $40.5 million contract with the Department of Defense in 2014 , a $93 million contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency in 2011 , and a $9.5 million contract with the U.S. Marine Corps in 2009 . The U.S. Marine Corps also implemented an eLearning platform using Adobe solutions in 2022 . The company's core business is computer software, and its contracts with military entities are for software licenses and services, such as Adobe Acrobat Professional, Creative Cloud, and Adobe Connect , . There is no evidence of exposure to controversial or banned weapons.

Planet-Friendly Business

As of 2023, 66% of Adobe's operational electricity demand is met with renewable energy sources

. The company has set science-based targets to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42% and Scope 3 emissions by 52% by 2030, using a 2022 baseline . Over 80% of Adobe's global office spaces are LEED-certified . Additionally, Adobe maintains a 90% global waste diversion rate .

Respect for Cultures & Communities

Adobe has established 12 formal partnerships with Indigenous or local community groups.

This includes 11 nonprofit organizations through its Equity and Advancement Initiative (EAI), which received a total investment of $30 million from the Adobe Foundation by 2023. Additionally, Adobe partnered with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) to increase Indigenous representation in STEM fields. The company collaborates with Indigenous artists to create authentic visual content for Adobe Stock, aiming to challenge stereotypes and promote respectful representation. Adobe also launched an Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan in Australia to increase First Nations workforce participation and enhance supplier diversity. Its Indigenous/First Nations at Adobe (IFNA) employee network had over 800 members worldwide by 2022.

Safe & Smart Tech

Adobe maintains a comprehensive AI Ethics program, established by March 2022, which includes an AI Ethics Committee and Review Board, overseeing rigorous assessments to mitigate biases in AI-powered features.

The company explicitly updated its terms of service in June 2024, stating it will not use customer data to train its AI models , a policy reinforced by contractual prohibitions with partners like Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service for its Acrobat AI Assistant. This assistant also encrypts user content in transit and at rest and provides user controls for chat history. Adobe leads the Content Authenticity Initiative, a global coalition established in 2019 , and co-founded the C2PA to develop open technical standards for content authenticity, providing transparency on AI use in content creation. In May 2024, Adobe expanded its bug bounty program to include AI tools. The Adobe Experience Platform has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and offers HIPAA-Ready Services.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

Adobe has achieved a 92% global waste diversion rate across its facilities.

The company has also effectively eliminated packaging for over 98% of its licensed products by delivering them digitally, which significantly reduces the packaging-to-product ratio. Adobe implements various waste reduction initiatives, including cloud-based software delivery, paperless workflows, virtual collaboration, and a partnership with Green Standards that achieved a 99.5% landfill diversion rate for office furniture and equipment across North America, diverting over 1,167 tons. The Document Cloud also saves 1.5 million pounds of waste daily for every 1 million pages signed. Adobe aims for a 90% global waste diversion rate annually. The company provides customer education through carbon footprint calculators for Document Cloud and Substance 3D, which estimate environmental savings from using digital workflows.