AcumatiCares
As a certified climate-neutral company, Acumatica prioritizes investing in green business and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives because championing sustainability enhances our local and global communities, protects the natural environment, and creates a more welcoming, inclusive world. This passion for sustainability defines all our daily operations and naturally extends to our events—like our annual Acumatica Summit.
With Summit 2024 almost here, we’re excited to once again bring our diverse Community together to learn, connect, and grow their businesses. It’s here that our ongoing sustainability efforts—which focus on the environment, technology, people, and our Community—will be on full display.
Environment: Sustainability Management
Connecting in person is a major part of growing and supporting the diverse Acumatica Community. That’s why we make it a priority to invite our customers, partners, and creators to attend Summit. It’s the time and place to set aside daily tasks, focus on increasing cloud ERP knowledge, and nurture old and new relationships.
This level of connection is one of the great benefits of any industry event. However, travel and individual activities can leave a large environmental footprint. So, we’ve taken huge steps—with the help of Wynn Las Vegas—to implement proven sustainability management measures for Summit. These include buying carbon offset credits for all attendee travel, offering virtual attendance options, and recovering and donating unused event food. By doing so, we’ve saved 376,420 kg of CO2e and donated over 1,400 pounds of food to those in need.
Our commitment to and passion for implementing sustainable business practices have not gone unnoticed. In 2022 and 2023, we were awarded the EcoVadis silver medal, which recognized our dedication to supporting the environment, labor and human rights, sustainable procurement, and ethics. In 2023, MeetGreen, a sustainable event management agency, recognized Summit as an eco-friendly event by giving us a “Visionary” rating.
“The company’s efforts to create a community-focused event for attendees while maintaining critical eco-friendly practices often overlooked at corporate events earned the well-deserved recognition,” says Eric Wallinger, director of sustainability at MeetGreen. “We’re confident that this is only the beginning of Acumatica’s sustainability initiatives, and we look forward to its continued and enhanced environmental strategies for Summit 2024.”
Summit 2024 is prepped and ready for sustainability success. We will be:
- Providing event water stations and aluminum/glass beverage container alternatives to eliminate single-use plastic bottles.
- Using 100% reusable service ware for conference meals. In 2023, this saved an estimated 9,429 pounds of waste, kept 22,029 pounds of waste out of landfills, and saved 33,112 kg CO2e.
- Implementing recycling, composting, and donation plans to keep event materials out of landfills. Between 2020 and 2022, Acumatica and Wynn successfully diverted 39,498 pounds of Summit materials away from landfills.
- Accounting for our general contractor’s move-in and move-out waste disposal.
- Using TerraCycle Zero Waste™ boxes to collect hard-to-recycle event materials, like badges and lanyards.
- Collecting water and energy consumption data from Wynn to analyze how we can further reduce usage in the future.
- Owning/renting and storing for reuse 100% of Summit assets, furniture, and décor.
- Seeking local labor for Summit move-in and move-out.
- Supplying Made in USA attendee gifts.
Technology: Building Sustainable Solutions at Hackathon
In addition to these sustainability efforts protecting the natural environment, we also strive to make the world a better, more inclusive place for the people with whom we share it. This commitment comes to life at Summit in our annual Hackathon event. This year, the teams in the competition will align their projects to one of four United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
- Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.
- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Participants will be collaborating, creating, and ideating to develop solutions that help advance these objectives. And, to further the cause, Acumatica will be donating cash awards to the winning teams’ favorite sustainable charities.
People: Women in Tech Events at Summit 2024
One of the UN SDGs (“achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”) drives another of our hallmark Summit events: our annual Women in Tech Luncheon.
2024 marks the seventh year we’ve hosted this female-centered, consistently sold-out event, where women in the tech industry can connect with their peers, share their expertise, and learn from tech industry career experts. It’s also the second year we’ve offered the Women in Technology Networking Reception, which provides attendees with a more informal, relaxed space to continue networking and gaining unique insights that can help them grow their careers.
These two Summit events, combined with our online Women in Tech (WiT) Community, WiT Webinar Program, are all examples of Acumatica’s dedication to sustainability through fair, equitable business practices. We couldn’t be prouder that, of the more than 140 employees we hired in 2022, 46% were female, and 37% of all Acumatica employees worldwide are women.
Community: Leading By Example, Holding Ourselves Accountable
We pride ourselves on being a leader in the industry—not only in the quality of our product but also in the way we support our customers and the values we represent. Through our actions and our results, we hope that Acumatica’s sustainability management initiatives will encourage other businesses to follow our lead. Together, we can positively impact our world—both its environment and the people who live in it— today and in the future.
“We’re dedicated to reducing our environmental impact and promoting more sustainable ways of doing business for our customers,” said Acumatica CEO John Case in the press release announcing our EcoVadis sustainability rating. “We will continue to hold ourselves accountable to measurable outcomes and partner with our community of customers, partners, and peers to make meaningful progress on this vital issue.”
We can’t wait to help our Community achieve sustainable, equitable success in today’s digital economy with our award-winning cloud ERP solution. And don’t forget to check out our AcumatiCares program for a more in-depth look at our sustainability achievements and goals.
For any Summit or sustainability-related questions, contact the event team at support@acumaticaevents.com. Any questions about Acumatica’s cloud ERP software can be directed to our experts.
