What Are You Doing for Earth Day?
Originally published on LinkedIn
By David Kenny, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nielsen
I was in elementary school in 1970 when the very first Earth Day was organized in the U.S. An astonishing 20 million people came out that day to rally around protecting the environment.
That was the birth of the modern environmental movement and it led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and so much more in just the U.S. Over the decades, this movement has gone global, lifting environmental issues and climate justice onto the world stage.
Fast forward 53 years. Earth Day – which has been celebrated around the world since 1990 – has never been more important as life on our planet faces critical challenges such as climate change, water and waste pollution, biodiversity loss from deforestation and increased inequities across marginalized communities from these issues.
At Nielsen, we are marking Earth Day 2023 as we always do. Our employees will fan out across dozens of countries and volunteer for hundreds of hours at multiple events. They’ll do activities like plant garden beds at a home for people with disabilities in Germany, pick up trash at parks in Myanmar and Switzerland and participate in a virtual seminar to learn about the environmental impact of waste on chronically marginalized communities everywhere.
Beyond Earth Day
Our commitment to the planet extends beyond one day, of course. Year round, Nielsen’s Data for Good program shares, pro bono, Nielsen ratings and consumer insights data, solutions and talent with nonprofit organizations that are working to influence public attitudes and behavior for positive social outcomes, such as increased representation and inclusion.
One of our Data for Good collaborators, Potential Energy Coalition, is using our audience insights data to help identify people who might be receptive to new messaging around climate change. Please check out this short video clip where Nielsen’s Chief Diversity Officer Sandra Sims-Williams interviews Potential Energy’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Marshall (and another Nielsen collaborator Girl Rising’s Future Rising Fellow Tia Kennedy) about the role the media industry can play in driving awareness about climate change.
Nielsen’s sustainability
We know sustainability efforts should start at home. That’s why we established three 2024 environmental goals as part of our 2022 ESG report:
- Reduce our on-premises application server footprint to 10%.
- Reduce our business travel spend by 25% from our 2019 pre-COVID baseline, and implement a travel policy that will maintain the reduced travel emissions.
- Ensure that all of our e-waste managed through our field operations team is diverted from landfills and is recycled, refurbished or reused.
In addition, we maintain a fleet of about 1,700 cars, primarily in the U.S. and Europe, for our field representatives to interact with our TV panelists. We are working to bring in more electric and hybrid vehicles so our portfolio will consist of mostly lower-emission vehicles.
Every action on our part has an impact on Earth and our environment. What will your environmental impact be? If you're doing something innovative, I'd love to hear about it.
