By Lyndsay Harris Kyei ,Head of Social Impact at ServiceNow
Mombasa County Governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir and members of the local community enjoying access to clean, safe drinking water at the opening of the new Solar Water Farm Max in Mshomoroni, Kenya in 2023.
As the world continues to feel the impact of climate change, people are our greatest opportunity and our greatest challenge. We often view climate solutions and problems from a sustainability lens; however, the onus is on us to make the necessary changes and create a world where both nature and people can thrive.
We know it can be done. We’ve seen it before. Following the outbreak of pandemics and natural disasters, we often see the world transition on a dime and take the necessary precautions to change.
At ServiceNow, one of our leading investment philosophies is looking at climate investments from the human perspective and the intersection of the “E” and the “S” in Environmental, Social and Governance. We’ve found that people have the ability to build resiliency in a fast-changing climate while also taking an innovative approach to finding new climate solutions.
Dual-approach
Individuals least likely to contribute to climate change are some of the hardest impacted by our ever-changing world. This means that it is more important than ever to invest in critical infrastructure by working with local leaders and understanding the need on the ground.
It is a dual approach to impact, supporting resilience and sustainability infrastructure in communities while responding to disasters impacting our communities. If we can look at communities holistically and understand their similarities and differences, we can create a micro to macro approach to impact. This model, while unique to each community, can be replicated and scaled.
Leveraging partnerships
Corporations cannot go at it alone. It takes the incredible community and nonprofit partners – they have the knowledge to help drive a more sustainable world and are the true drivers of change.
Through nonprofit partnerships, ServiceNow has been able to focus our investments and help scale impact. We have had the privilege of working with several organizations who are using the power of solar energy to drive catalytic opportunities for impact in communities.
Through the partnership with GivePower, 1 million Kenyans will have access to clean water through desalination solar water farms with a focus in a select number of counties in Kenya. By providing clean water to these communities, there can be a catalytic opportunity for impact which ultimately can lead to greater economic mobility through a micro economy and ensure that the communities are resilient to climate impact.
ServiceNow’s Lyndsay Harris Kyei visiting one of the solar water farms in Kenya.
In India, ServiceNow is working with Nirmaan to help economically develop 14 rural villages with efforts to expand and support solar energy. By providing community lights, we have seen a decrease in snake bites in the community and greater engagement in the evening.
Across the globe, in partnership with ChangeX we have been setting up community funds to support local sustainability projects such as reforestation efforts, plastic recycling programs, and solar energy for schools to further uplift the communities in which we live and operate. A true grass roots approach to impact by ensuring that the local funds are selected, maintained, and engaged with the local employee population.
Lastly, we are putting to test our methodology in collaboration with the Elba Hope Foundation through a joint partnership to help bring clean energy and water to a remote island off the coast of Sierra Leonne, Sherbro Island.
Collaboration
Collaboration is critical to ensuring that we are utilizing our resources and working together cross functionally, across different industries. In order to drive true impact, we must come together to ensure that we can move faster and more agile as we do not have the luxury of time.
Let us seize this opportunity together and show the world what it truly means to be defining: to make the world work better for everyone.
About ServiceNow
ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) puts AI to work for people. Their innovation helps their customers transform organizations across every industry while upholding a human centered approach to deploying products and services at scale. ServiceNow is the AI platform for business transformation that connects people, processes, data, and devices to increase productivity and maximize business outcomes.
ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform providing mission-critical workflow, cybersecurity, and data management support to 80 per cent of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 270 US state and local governments. ServiceNow is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with approximately 23,000 employees globally. ServiceNow’s purpose is to make the world work better for everyone. They digitize and unify organizations so that they can find smarter, faster, better ways to make work flow.
About Lyndsay Harris Kyei
Lyndsay Harris Kyei has spent her career designing, developing, and expanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social investment programs at global technology companies. Her approach to driving impact is highly collaborative and employee-centric, knowing that collective action has a multiplier effect. In her current role as Head of Social Impact at ServiceNow, Lyndsay aligns the company’s global social investments to its market-defining business strategy.
At ServiceNow, some of her key accomplishments have been designing the company’s measurable impact goals, increasing employee volunteerism by 75 per cent in one year, and completing the first total social impact assessment resulting in a new goal to reach 20 million people by 2030. Most recently, Lyndsay helped launch ServiceNow.org, helping nonprofits put technology to use as they drive greater impact for their employees, volunteers, and communities.
Lyndsay has a master's degree in international Affairs with a focus on human rights and governance from The New School.