Carbon
reduction plan
Commitment to achieving
Net Zero emissions
Introduction
Cognizant welcomes and supports the UK government’s
commitment to addressing climate change, including throughits world-leading efforts to reduce emissions through theprocurement of major UK government contracts. Cognizant
looks forward to delivering our Net Zero emissions goal in linewith the UK government’s targets as set out in the climatechange act 2008 (as amended in 2019) and the Procurement
Policy Note 06/21 (PPN).

Executive summary•

Is science-based

Net Zero commitment•

Cognizant has adopted a science-based approach to Net
Zero GHG emissions reduction target-setting. This means that
we are aligned with the need to ensure global temperature
increases do not exceed 1.5°C. Our Goal includes the following
key targets for GHG emissions reduction:

Is third-party validated by
the Science Based Targets
Initiative (SBTi)•

Uses the Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
Protocol accounting standards1•

Is based on GHG emissions limited
assured by our auditor of record•

Includes Kyoto protocol gases
reported in units of metric tons ofcarbon equivalent•

Is inclusive of the Scope 1, Scope
2 and select Scope 3 emission
categories required by thetechnical standard for completionof carbon reduction plans whichaccompanies the PPN (“TechnicalStandard”).

••

2030: A 50% reduction in gross emissions arising fromour global operations and supply chain.

Cognizant is committed to achieving
Net Zero emissions in the UK andglobally by 2040. Cognizant will dothis through our Net Zero Goal. In linewith best practice, our Net Zero Goal:

2040: A 90% reduction in gross emissions arising from ourglobal operations and supply chain.

We have adopted a philosophy of prioritising absoluteemissions reduction, relying on carbon offsets only whenfurther emissions reduction is physically or financiallyunachievable. From 2030, we will compensate for emissions
that we have been unable to avoid by purchasing high quality,
credibly certified carbon offsets.

Supplier Name: Cognizant Worldwide Limited
Publication Date: 30 June 2024

Baseline emissions footprint

Baseline year: 2019Baseline emissions are a record of thegreenhouse gases that have been producedin the past and were produced prior to theintroduction of any strategies to reduce
emissions. Baseline emissions are the reference
point against which emissions reduction can bemeasured. Cognizant has chosen to use 2019 as
the baseline year for its Net Zero Goal.

Additional details relating to the baseline
emissions calculations
Cognizant seeks to treat GHG emissions datawith rigorous governance. We undertake
business across the world and Cognizant’s
global 2023 GHG emissions data, which canbe accessed through our annual Global 2023
Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship Report2.
As required by the technical standard, thereported data for this carbon reduction plan
has been established by completing a carbon
footprint for Cognizant’s GHG emissions fromsources in the UK.

Cognizant’s 2023 GHG emissions reporting does not contain the following Scope 3 emissions
requested in the technical standard:

Scope 3emissions type
Downstream
transportation &distribution

Exclusion explanation

Future reporting

Cognizant is a services company anddoes not manufacture any physicalgoods. For this reason, Cognizant
does not calculate Scope 3 emissions
associated with downstream
transportation and distribution ofphysical goods.

As a services company,
we have no immediateplans to report on
downstream transportationand distribution in theimmediate future.

We will keep the Scope 3 emissions referenced above under review and where applicable theseemissions will be included for the reporting year 2024 and future reporting years.

2| Carbon reduction planBaseline year emissions
Reporting year: 2019

Emissions TOTAL (tCO2e)

Scope 1

27

Scope 2427 (market based)

Scope 3(included sources)

14,215Purchased goods and services
Capital goods
Fuel and energy related activities (FERA)Business travel
Employee commuting
Upstream leased assets
Upstream transportation and distribution
Waste generated in operations
Investments

Total emissions

14,669 (market based)

Current emissions reporting3

Reporting Year: 2023

Emissions TOTAL (tCO2e)

Scope 1

3

Scope 2275 (market based)

Scope 3(included sources)

8,583
Purchased goods and services
Capital goods
Fuel and energy related activities (FERA)Business travel
Employee commuting
Upstream leased assets
Upstream transportation and distribution
Waste generated in operations
Investments

Total emissions

8,861 (market based)| Carbon reduction plan

Carbon reduction initiatives

Energy efficiency

Cognizant has developed a global approachto emissions reduction which includes
emissions generated in the UK. Our planfor decarbonisation and the delivery of Net
Zero Goal will be implemented through:We are focused on reducing energy
consumption and delivering energy efficiency
across our offices and IT infrastructure. Totalelectricity consumption in 2023 was 61% lower
than our 2019 Net Zero baseline year. Our
energy intensity in 2023 was 34.69 gigajoules
per million $ of revenue, 66% lower than 2019.

•

Delivering on our renewable electricity
sourcing goal.

•

Improving the energy efficiency of ouroffices and data centres.

•

Engaging our suppliers to set their own
science-based emissions reduction targets.

•

Optimising our approach to business travel
and employee commuting.

••

For the offices we own in India, we havecontinued our focus on upgrading:•Heating, ventilation and air
conditioning equipment, including:•

Replacement of conventional Air
Handling Unit (AHU) motors withelectronically commutated motors

Sourcing high quality, credibly certified
carbon offsets.

•

Retrofitting of chillers and otherrefrigeration systems

Creating a climate competent workforce.

•

Installation and commissioning ofvariable refrigerant volume units

Renewable electricity sourcing•

Fluorescent to LED lighting

We have committed to ensuring 100%
renewable electricity sourcing by
2026. In 2023, 52% of the electricity weconsumed in India came from renewablesources, compared to 44% in 2022.

•

Conventional to modular Uninterrupted
Power Supply (UPS) systems.

To meet our renewable electricity target,
we are focusing on the following:•

Long term Power Purchase Agreements(PPAs) to source solar and wind-generated
electricity for the properties that we own inthe states of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

•

Engagement with landlords to agree tosource renewable electricity where welease property.

•

Sourcing electricity on a green tariff.

•

Purchasing Energy AttributeCertificates (EACs).

4| Carbon reduction plan

Over half of the properties owned by
Cognizant in India are Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
certified for new construction by the
Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).
We have also implemented a new Enterprise
Building Management System Platform in our
Chennai office that can leverage AI solutions forreal time data insights, predictive maintenanceand improvement in operational efficiency.
For our IT infrastructure, we focus on improving
the energy performance of our data centres.
Key deliverables in 2023 included:•

18% decrease in the number of hypervisors
in use.

•Hosting over 80% of the apps we use
across the business in the cloud, which ismore energy efficient.

•

An average Power Use Effectiveness (PUE)of 1.34 for the data centres we manage atthird-party owned sites for our clients.

In the UK, we typically occupy multi-tenanted
facilities and so are generally reliant on ourlandlords for minimising energy consumption.
We are focused on ensuring the following:•

Associates turn off electrical devices when
not in use.

•

Air conditioning units only operate duringbusiness hours.

•

The temperature of our server rooms isheld at +/- 21 °C.

In 2023, we moved to a new office inBishopsgate, London. This building hasachieved:•

BREEAM23 Outstanding in the
Refurbishment category, indicating thatthe building has been refurbished withenvironmental performance in mind.

•

WELL v24 Platinum certification, indicatingthat the building has been designed with
our associates’ health and wellness in mind.

•

Cycling Score Platinum5, indicating
the building’s cycle-friendliness.

•

Circadian lighting that adjusts to outside
sunlight levels thereby optimising energy use.

Travel and remote work
The majority of our business travel emissions
are attributable to air travel. In 2023,
emissions from business travel was 62%
lower than our 2019 Net Zero baseline year.
Our approach is to encourage more thoughtful
travel. Our travel booking systems enable us
to identify reasons for travel, routes taken,
airlines used and any obviously inefficientjourneys. We use this data to provide advise
and guidance to associates on ways to
avoid unnecessary travel. Our ongoinginvestment in advanced video-conferencing
tools has supported our push toward
travel avoidance. In 2023, our associates
undertook over 11.5 million virtual meetings.
Associate work commutes are anothersource of emissions that we monitor. In
2023, we added 176 electric vehicles to thetransport provided to associates commuting

5 | Carbon reduction planoutside of normal working hours. Our total
emissions from all associate commuting in
2023 decreased by 72% compared to 2022.
We also surveyed associates on theirhome working practices. This enabled us
to calculate total emissions generated
through remote work at 168,757 MtCO2e
for the year ended 31 December 2023.
Supply engagement
Our sourcing of purchased goods andservices and capital goods accounts for
49% of our total emissions footprint, making
it a priority for our reduction plan.
We have identified those areas of purchasingthat generate the most emissions and the top
150 suppliers most relevant to this sourcing.
These 150 suppliers account for 72% of
Cognizant’s total supplier-generated emissions
and are therefore the focus of engagement.
In 2023, we identified which have committed
to emissions reductions targets and whichhave not. We then engaged the latter groupdirectly to discuss the potential for reduction
commitments. We are committed to engaging
90% of our top 150 suppliers to set a sciencebased emissions reduction target by 2026.
In 2023, 39% of these suppliers had met
this expectation, up from 18% in 2022.
To support this objective, we haveintroduced expectations on target
setting and emissions data disclosure incontracts signed with new suppliers.
Carbon offsets
As part of our Net Zero Goal, we arecommitted to offsetting all emissions
that are unavoidable from 2030 onwards
using credibly certified carbon offsets.
Rather than delaying, we are taking early
action by investigating specific projects thatmeet our needs. We began this process in
2023 by establishing a set of principles toensure that the offsets we purchase meet ourrequirements and align with credible goalstandards. We are using these principles to
identify specific projects that fit these criteria.

Climate training•

We want to ensure our associates possess theclimate skills necessary to support our clientsin meeting their environmental commitments.

Energy efficient usage of heating, ventilation,
cooling, lighting (LEDs).

•

IoT sensors and connectors.

In 2023, Cognizant introduced climate
training for associates through our Learningand Development studio. We established an
objective for 100,000 of our associates globallyto undertake this training by the end of 2024.
In addition to providing basic information
on climate and biodiversity science, ourtraining gives information to specific teams
on how their roles relate to sustainability.
By the end of 2023, nearly 29,000
associates from over 40 countries havecompleted the training, reflecting almost
30% progress towards our target.

Certification schemes
Cognizant’s global approach to Environment,
Health and Safety (EHS) incorporates ISO
standards 45001:2018 for occupational H&S
management systems and ISO 14001:2015 forenvironmental management systems. As of2023, nearly 95% of our workspace was coveredby our EHS management system. We now track
and report this metric based on workspace(e.g., offices) rather than associate count in aworkspace. This allows us to accommodate
the realities of hybrid work.

Future carbon
reduction initiatives
We have identified levers, including in relation to
the UK, for targeting the most material aspectsof our GHG emissions and delivering against
our Net Zero Goal:
Building energy performance including:•

Energy profiling of offices.

•

Consideration of environmental factors andgreen building certifications when selecting
new real estate space.

6| Carbon reduction plan

IT energy performance, including:•

Energy efficient IT equipment (e.g., copiers,
desktops, monitors etc.).

Renewable energy sourcing:•

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

Operational efficiencies:•

Developing policy and engaging associates
for optimal flying.

•

EV charging points at or near offices.

Emissions associated with purchased
goods and services:•

Supplier Net Zero commitments.

•

Providing guidance, support andengagement opportunities to suppliers.

Carbon offsets:•

Certified.

•Auditable and verifiable.

Declaration and sign off
This carbon reduction plan has been
completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 andassociated guidance and reporting standard
for carbon reduction plans.
Emissions have been reported and recordedin accordance with the published reporting
standard for carbon reduction plans andconsidered the GHG reporting protocol
corporate standard principles and guidance
and uses the appropriate government
emission conversion factors for greenhousegas company reporting 6 .
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions havebeen reported in accordance with SECR
requirements, and the required subset of
Scope 3 emissions have been reported inaccordance with the published reporting
standard for carbon reduction plans and thecorporate value chain (Scope 3) standard7.

This carbon reduction plan has been reviewed
and signed off by the board of directors of
Cognizant Worldwide Limited, evidenced bya written resolution of the board dated
25 June 2024.

Signed on behalf of the supplier:Name : Rohit Gupta
Title : Head of UK & Ireland, Cognizant
Date : 28 June 2024

1. https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard
2. https://www.cognizant.com/en_us/about/documents/cognizant-2023-sustainability-report.pdf
3. https://bregroup.com/products/breeam/
4. https://www.wellcertified.com/certification/v2/
5. https://cyclingscore.com/
6. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greenhouse-gas-reporting-conversion-factors-2023
7. https://ghgprotocol.org/standards/scope-3-standard

Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stayahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we’re improving everyday life. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.

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7 | Carbon Reduction Plan