Salesforce Highlights Climate Opportunities, Risks in Inaugural TCFD Report

Editor’s Note: Today, Salesforce released its first Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures report, which highlights the company’s governance, risk management, strategy and progress towards goals in the context of climate risks and opportunities. The following is a copy of the report’s introductory letter to investors, written by Amy Weaver, President and Chief Financial Officer.

During the last 18 months, we have all experienced unprecedented change, uncertainty and upheaval, primarily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health crisis, coupled with the racial justice crisis and the climate crisis, create both risks and opportunities that companies, governments and society must address to succeed in this changing world. We have been reminded that we are all connected, and that taking care of our stakeholders, including our planet, has never been more important.

At Salesforce, we navigate uncertainty by staying true to our core values of trust, customer success, innovation and equality. This focus on our core values has allowed us to uncover opportunities as we build beyond the pandemic and demonstrate that the business of business is to make the world a better place for all of our stakeholders, including our stockholders, customers, employees, partners, the planet and the communities in which we work and live. To this end, we are pleased to release our inaugural Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) report.  

This TCFD report is an important component of our stockholder outreach program that highlights our governance, risk management, strategy and progress towards our goals in the context of climate risks and opportunities. It supplements our annual Stakeholder Impact Report, which contains our key ESG programs, metrics and indicators. 

The report is an important part of our longstanding Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) efforts, which also include: 

• Direct engagement with, and oversight by, the Board of Directors (“Board”) on ESG topics
• The performance of an internal materiality assessment and the development of internal structures to facilitate more effective ESG reporting 
• The release of an annual Stakeholder Impact Report, which includes a section dedicated to Metrics and Indicators
• Obtaining an independent third-party review of specific environmental and social metrics
• The creation of a Sustainability Bond Framework, and the issuance of a $1 billion sustainability bond in fiscal 2022, which was the first sustainability bond issued by a software company
• Responding to the SEC’s request for public input as part of their process to evaluate climate disclosure rules 
• Publishing our Climate Action Plan to provide a blueprint for organizations that want to drive climate action
• Developing Salesforce Sustainability Cloud to enable our customers to accelerate their own journeys to Net-Zero emissions

As always, none of this impact and progress would be possible without you. On behalf of all of us at Salesforce, thank you for placing your trust in us as your partner, and for your commitment to putting our shared values into action.

Together, we truly believe that we can build a safer, more equal and sustainable future for us all.

Sincerely,

Amy Weaver, President and Chief Financial Officer, Salesforce.com, Inc.

More information:

• Read the full TCFD report here. 
• Read Marc Benioff’s April letter to stakeholders here. 
• See how Salesforce reached Net Zero across its entire value chain here. 
• Learn more about Salesforce’s nature-based sustainability efforts in the feature story: Beyond Net Zero: How Nature-Based Solutions Help Tackle the Climate Crisis
• Find data on the intersection of climate and business: The Climate Crisis: 77% Say Businesses Aren’t Doing Enough
• Read Amy Weaver and Mark Hawkins’ perspective on the role of ESG and the CFO here.

Editor’s Note: This article references Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, which is now known as Net Zero Cloud. For the latest on Salesforce’e sustainability solutions, check out this product page. For the latest news on Salesforce’s sustainability efforts, check out this page.