Environmental, Social and Governance

We act as customer zero for our products to achieve workload carbon-efficiency gains. Through these efforts, we defined qualification criteria for carbon-efficient customers and enhanced power management features for energy-efficiency gains. 

Through May 2023, 56 partners have joined the VMware Zero Carbon Committed™ program.

As of FY23, we achieved 82 percent of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction target relative to the FY19 base year, 44 percent of our Scope 3 emissions reduction target for fuel-and-energy-related activities relative to the FY19 base year, and 50 percent of Scope 3 emissions reduction target for employee commuting relative to the FY19 base year. In addition, 52 percent of our suppliers (by spend) have at least committed to setting science-based targets. 

We continue to enhance manager preparedness through people manager resiliency plans and improve our emergency notification systems after applying lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and recent natural disasters.

In FY23, VMware began monitoring operating conditions relating to energy efficiency of our community microgrid to ensure that is can provide clean, reliable energy even as demand increases due to rising temperatures.

To avoid carbon emissions from e-waste, we expanded our preferred end-of-life vendor base, which enables increased asset disposition options across our global facilities. We also increased the resale of end-of-life equipment to extend the usefulness of hardware.

VMware has made two impact investments in the following areas: 1) geospatial data capture, processing, and analytics that enables enterprise customers to detect, prioritize, and monitor for environmental and social impacts, and 2) software focused on accelerating clean energy transition by enabling secure AI and data analytics across energy companies.

To reduce water consumption by 20 percent by 2025, we have installed water meters, low flow fixtures, aerators, and sensor-based taps in restrooms within many of our offices. In FY23, we reduced consumption by 12.5 percent as compared to the FY21 baseline year. 

In FY23, VMware advocated in favor of sustainability legislation, including the U.S. federal 2023 Appropriations Act that includes provisions on multi-cloud to reduce the energy consumption of IT infrastructure. VMware also joined the European Green Digital Coalition. 

In FY23, women represented 29.8 percent of our global employees, underrepresented minorities represented 13 percent of our U.S. workforce, 33.3 percent of our global hires self-identified as a woman, and 16.3 percent of U.S. hires self-identified as an underrepresented minority. To stay accountable, corporate DEI goals were tied to bonus compensation. 

In FY23, 92 percent of respondents to our employee survey agreed that VMware is delivering on its commitment to give employees choice and flexibility in where they work. To address the needs of a distributed workforce, VMware transformed 70 percent of our office portfolio to meet collaboration-first design principles. 

Our most recent pay analysis shows that women at VMware earn 99 percent of their male counterparts' salary globally, and racial and ethnic minority employees earn 100 percent of their white counterparts in the United States. 

VMware conducts and scores all products on their accessibility yearly and provides shift-left accessibility consulting, education and support by way of our support-ticketing system and by way of the Embedded Accessibility Strategist (EAS) program. In addition, we work to ensure that user guides and marketing materials for VMware’s products are accessible.

In FY23, we matured our data collection to better evaluate supplier diversity among third-party vendors, engaged top suppliers to do an assessment through EcoVadis, and began leveraging contractual language to require supplier action on sustainability, diversity and accessibility. Since FY21, we've invested a cumulative over $300 million with diverse suppliers.

In FY23, more than 33,000 VMware Citizen Philanthropists supported more than 15,000 nonprofits in 98 countries through programs such as Matching Gifts, Service Learning, Milestone Awards, a year-end global giving initiative, and other employee-directed donations. 

In FY23, VMware IT Academy upskilled more than 100,000 learners on VMware technology solutions, granted more than 1,500 IT Academy certifications and reached more than 15,000 learners through a learn-a-thon event in India.

We served 1,135 nonprofits in FY23 through VMware initiatives such as Good Gigs Projects and Nonprofit Pricing, as well as through our support of TechSoup’s Digital Assessment Tool for nonprofits. 

VMware continued to improve our comprehensive benefits program, designed to assist employees in taking care of themselves and achieving wellbeing. This includes our employee wellbeing allowance that offers employees funds for activities that align with one of four wellbeing pillars: physical, emotional, financial and community. 

In FY23, we added new customer resources in the VMware Cloud Trust Center to increase transparency, including datasheets that help explain how our service offerings help customers process personal data. 

In FY23, VMware created technological monitoring capabilities to identify high-risk transactions and launched the Ethics & Compliance Ambassadors program globally to increase awareness of fair and ethical practices.

VMware has implemented an ESG governance structure to ensure oversight and transparency. Our Governance Committee oversees our ESG progress our Audit Committee oversees cybersecurity and data privacy matters, and our Compensation Committee reviews ESG in the context of executive compensation. 

As customer zero and first adopters of VMware technology, we provide practical steps for our customers to deploy VMware products globally at scale. Our 2023 VMware IT Performance Annual Report helps customers build a resilient, future-ready organization inspired by VMware's own digital transformation journey. 

In FY23, we focused on curating content and driving employee consumption of technical, product, leadership and business skill training resources. On average, VMware employees received more than 25 hours of training annually, which equates to more than 900,000 hours of training in total for the year. 

The VMware PAC supports certain members of Congress solely based on their activism on ESG and DEI issues. It hosts impact public policy events for VMware employee resource group leaders to meet with their political representatives as well as employee resource group leaders from other corporations. 

We created ethical principles for AI to ensure we operate responsibly, leveraging best practices from the NIST, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the European Union’s high-level expert group on AI.

We expanded ESG and DEI disclosures in our FY23 Form 10-K and 2023 Proxy Statement filings in preparation for emerging regulations.

VMware continued our participation in Accounting for Sustainability, including the CFO Leadership Network, and further integrated sustainability into VMware’s financial processes by aligning our annual operating plan and resource allocation with our ESG strategy and priorities.