Purpose at Scale: ServiceNow’s Vision for a More Sustainable, Equitable Future

How are organizations integrating sustainability and social impact into their operations?

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At the Six Five Summit, host Melody Brue is joined by ServiceNow's Lyndsay Harris-Kyei, Vice President of Global Impact and Sustainability, for a conversation on how ServiceNow is leading the charge towards a more sustainable and equitable future by integrating sustainability and social impact into the core of their operations.

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Key takeaways include:

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🔹Sustainability & Social Impact for Modern Organizations: Explore the paramount significance of integrating sustainability and social impact into the DNA of today's organizations, beyond mere compliance.

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🔹Embedding Purpose into Technology Solutions: Delve into how ServiceNow is actively embedding purpose and impact into its core technology solutions, making sustainability an inherent part of their offerings.

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🔹Impact-Driven Partnerships for ESG Goals: Understand the critical role of strategic, impact-driven partnerships in achieving ambitious sustainability goals and fostering collective progress.

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🔹Empowering Customers for Tangible ESG Outcomes: Learn how ServiceNow empowers its customers to not only set, but also fulfill their ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) commitments effectively, transforming pledges into scalable, real-world results.

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Learn more at servicenow.com.

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Watch the full video at Six Five Media, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode.

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Or listen to the audio here: 

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Melody Brue: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Six Five Summit: AI Unleashed. I'm Melody Brue with Moor Insights & Strategy. For this sustainability spotlight I'm joined by Lyndsay Harris-Kyei, Vice President of Global Impact and Sustainability at ServiceNow, covering purpose at scale, the vision for a more sustainable equitable future. Hi Lindsay, thank you for joining us.

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: Thank you for having me today. I'm very excited about this conversation, it's an incredibly important topic in this moment of time.

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Melody Brue: It certainly is. So let's get started. The intersection of technology and social impact is a space that's seen dramatic change over the past decade. This has been shaped by everything from new regulations to shifting public expectations, and also rapid innovation. So reflecting on your path, what are some of the most unexpected shifts or breakthroughs that you've witnessed that's changed how technology can drive impact and sustainability?

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: So there are things that continue to inspire me, and then there are also things that naturally surprise me as well still. So throughout my career I have seen the intersection of technology and impact, and the potential to make a difference inspire me every single day. The innovation that we're seeing, and the scale of innovation that we are seeing, and its ability to help us adapt our habits to be more sustainable in an ever-changing world is incredible. And I think we are at this unique moment in time where we're truly going to get to create the world we envision and not the one we have, and technology will be at the intersection with impact in order to create that world. What I will say continues to surprise me is that, we still are leaving so many communities behind when we think about the intersection of technology and impact. We are naturally seeing this rapid revolution when you think about AI and the role technology will play. 

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At the same time, you're also seeing communities be left behind with sustainable infrastructure. Many communities don't have access to clean water, they don't have access to plugging in a smartphone. So how will they ever be a part of the digital economy? So it's fascinating to see, and it continues to surprise me that we're seeing this rapid innovation, at the same time some of the basic needs are not being met. And I think that's where technology can also play a role because we can help more communities be sustainable through technology and innovation, and to get access to the resources that they truly need in order to thrive. But it's always fascinating to see that we can come up with these brilliant ideas. We can capture carbon and turn it into rocks, but we're still leaving communities without water and electricity, and access to the vital resources that they need.

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Melody Brue: And those vital resources are actually so important to business strategy, yet many organizations still struggle to move beyond kind of these surface level commitments. So what would you say are the most critical ways that businesses need to adapt their strategies and operations now to lead that meaningful change, stay relevant? And then what are some of the pitfalls that you see companies that are kind of falling back to being able to get to that real progress?

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: So I think the world's problems are incredibly complex, I think we all agree with that, right? And I think naturally any of us in this space, it becomes very overwhelming in trying to determine where are you truly going to have an impact. And if you look across how your business can lean in, there are countless ways that you can have an impact. And naturally, I think we all fall a little bit into scope creep, which is where I think companies can really start to play a stronger role in being good at what they can be good at. Meaning, we all know the complexities of the problems, but really focusing in and starting to chisel away at a problem based on our business strategy is where you're going to start to see change happen at a much faster pace. I really do think we have to start thinking about aligning your business goals and objectives and holding true to your values, but really kind of leaning into where are you in the ecosystem, and how can you have an impact based on your business objectives, your business practices.

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So for example, ServiceNow, we are a technology company. We really think about how can our workflows help our customers make more efficient and better business decisions. So we have, for example, our ESGM content accelerator, which helps organizations select and install, maintain frameworks and metric definitions to help them stay aligned without the need for manual content creation or frequent updates. Because naturally we have a lot of these questionnaires coming, we need a central repository of guidance and data and citation. So really kind of bringing that together so that our customers, as well as ServiceNow can see the data in one location. We have also integrated ESGM with hardware asset management, which is our sustainable IT offering, which really helps organizations meet those regulatory requirements, but also make smarter business decisions. Because they're going to be able to see the energy use on their consumptions. 

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And by providing those insights, then they can make smarter business decisions around what assets are they using, and how are they using them. And then lastly, we've also been looking, because as a technology company, if you're in this space, you'll know that Scope 3 emissions, which is really who are you working with, it's our biggest impact. So we have created a dashboard, and a really powerful tool to help simplify and automate the way companies measure and report out on Scope 3, so that you can monitor your emissions and your supply chain, you can understand and customize your emissions data categories. So I think as a company, you really have to figure out where are you going to have an impact and dive in deep. For us, it's helped managing workflows, it's help managing data, making smarter more efficient decisions. But you have to go back to your business, we can't all be good at everything. And I think we really have to start focusing in on that.

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Melody Brue: Yeah. I think that's a good point that the technology is often positioned as this great enabler of resiliency and sustainability, but the reality is much more complex than that. And the last few years have shown that, that organizations are really vulnerable to climate, social economic disruptions. So how do you see technology both emerging and established, playing a role in helping companies build those resilient systems? And really for people, there's so much, right? I mean, where do you start? Where's the biggest impact? And where should people be making those investments?

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: So once again, it's very overwhelming, right? I won't say it's an easy decision, right? The complexities of the world, and you want to have an impact, you want to have an impact as quickly as possible. And unfortunately, a lot of these things do take time, and the world changes rapidly faster than some of our projects. So I think it always comes back to data, and that's where technology has this really unique opportunity because we can see insights at a rapid pace that we've never seen before, which will enable us to make these smarter decisions, and really think differently about access to supply chains and assessing our supply chains. We've been talking about circular sustainable economy as an industry for years, but all of a sudden we're going to be able to start to see data, and utilize the data basically to see different insights that'll help us make smarter decisions.

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And that's where I think you're going to see more cross industry collaboration as well, because we're going to start to see opportunities that maybe we just visually couldn't see before, and work with different companies to solve critical issues. And that's where I think that kind of cross intersection will really be powerful. I will say this all comes down to AI, and it would be remiss from me not to mention it being that we are putting AI to work for people. AI has this really unique opportunity to drive insights and help us understand where there are risks and potential disruptions to supply chains, whether that be predictive analytics, right? Of understanding where climate could have an impact? Or whether it be how are we actually utilizing our supply chain, and how do we make smarter decisions? I think you're going to start to see this rapid escalation when it comes to the use of data that we've all been collecting for many years, and now is the time to put it to work.

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Melody Brue: Yeah. I think that the use of AI has brought up a lot of different, interesting conversations around sustainability. One that actually could be somewhat less polarizing in some circles where now we're talking about AI and sustainability, and people and sustainability in a more interconnected way that's more about business outcomes. And I think there's kind of become this kind of growing recognition that social impact, sustainability all connected with AI, none of them can succeed without the other. But that's a challenge. I mean, as you keep saying, all of this is so complex. So looking at the overlap of social impact and sustainability, what practical steps can leaders take to help bridge these areas to drive progress now?

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: So the solution may be simple, but yet also complex, is it all starts with people. And I think too often do we try to come up with solutions that don't include the people impacted, or they're not a human-centric approach. The fact is a lot of these issues that we're facing, whether it be polluted waterways or air quality, humans created the problem. So we also have to be the ones to fix it. And it's that intersection of social impact and sustainability where we can actually start to solve the world's most complex problems if we start doing it in a very human centric way. And that's where it goes back to, how do we provide more people with critical resources? But from a technology perspective, and where we sit in this is, how do we start bringing people together?

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And I say this at every conference I'm at, every convening is, we have to reach across the table into different industries, into different companies and start collaborating. Because what you'll see in this space is we're all showing up in very similar locations, but we're not necessarily working together. So what I have to offer the world working for ServiceNow is different than another leader at another company. So we need to all come to the table, and really start to look at what do we have to offer the world? What are the key resources we have? And then where do we start filling in the gaps with others, and really starting to collaborate? And I think if we can do that in a very human-centric approach, then tech has the opportunity to help accelerate this digital transformation, and quite frankly, this kind of revolution that we're going through, but doing it together and helping people along the way. Because if we do that, then we will start to have solutions to problems that we haven't been able to fix in the past because maybe we haven't been taking a human-centric approach.

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Melody Brue: And that human-centric approach often really involves a lot of buy-in from leadership within the company, and within other companies that you're trying partner with and bring along for this journey. How do you help to connect the people with the mission so that you as a company kind of have this united front, and you're all on kind of driving for the same change under the same belief system?

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: So I think it's always connecting it back to your business, which is critically important. We all work for the same company, we're all driving towards the same outcomes, right? We know the strategy of the companies we work for. And it's really starting to align that impact narrative to the company, is where you're going to see the magic happen. And that's why I always say, if everyone can just stay in their lane to some extent and say, this is what we're going to be good at, this is what we're focused on, and this is what we're going to drive, and really stay focused. And it's hard, I'm not saying it's easy, especially in an ever-changing world, in a world that might be coming more polarized, right? It's really hard to stay on that straight and narrow. But if we can always stay focused to what's right for our business, and then lean across the table once again and collaborate, then we're all going to become really good at something, and it will enable our resources to go further.

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I can't tell you the amount of times that I'm in a community and we are making investments, and then I find out that an hour away, another company is making another investment in something else, but we're not doing it in the same community. So all of a sudden we're helping with one solution, they're helping with another, but we're not doing it in the same location. So are we really having as much impact? So if you start looking at how do we come together around different issues in the same community, and start stretching our resources, that's where I think you're really going to see the magic happen. And you're going to start to see unique ideas and philosophies come out, because we're all going to come with a different perspective and different backgrounds. And I think that's where you're going to start to see change happen more rapidly.

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Melody Brue: It sounds like a really nice combination of change, alignment, and belief all coming together for the greater good.

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Lyndsay Harris-Kyei: That's the goal.

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Melody Brue: Thank you so much for joining us for this sustainability spotlight at the Six Five Summit. For all of you watching, stay connected with us on social, and explore more conversations at sixfivemedia.com/summit. On behalf of Six Five Media, I'm Melody Brue, thanks for joining us. And stay tuned for more compelling content coming up soon.

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