Environmental protection is a year-round job, but Earth Month is an opportunity to celebrate, learn, and reflect on our sustainability journey.

Comcast recently convened hundreds of employees for Our Sustainable Future, an event focused on inspiring and empowering teams across the company to support our environmental goals.

It was a wonderful chance to acknowledge both the progress and challenges as we work to reduce our carbon footprint and advance on our goal to be carbon neutral by 2035.

While strategies like sourcing clean energy and driving energy efficiency are among our top priorities for reducing our carbon footprint, we are also driving positive impact through our products and platforms – both of which were showcased at the event.

As I reflect on the broad display of creativity and talent, I see three themes that unite us on our journey toward a more sustainable future.

1. It starts with building the best product

At Comcast, we pride ourselves on building products that are made to last, as reliability is the foundation of our business. But it’s also the foundation of sustainability. The distribution model for our connectivity devices ensures that customers are able to access the latest technologies and enjoy the best customer experience, while maximizing reuse so that each product is used until the end of its life – often finding multiple homes before it is decommissioned.

Our design teams are constantly innovating to increase the lifespan of our products. For example, the decision to change the color and finishes on our XB gateways from Xfinity Grey to Xfinity White has reduced refurbishing and repair costs and helped reduce waste to landfills.

2. Sustainable design is a constant evolution

Because sustainability can mean so many different things – reducing material inputs, increasing recyclability, utilizing recycled materials in products, reducing embodied carbon, the list goes on – there are several tradeoffs to consider when making sustainable design choices, making it a constant process of learning, testing, and recalibrating.

For example, our award-winning Xfinity Eco Capsule™ has been celebrated for its outstanding design as the first Xfinity modular packaging system that is 100% recyclable and reusable. Our next generation of packaging will not only prioritize recyclability, but also the carbon emissions associated with shipping and transportation.

Our challenge is to innovate and adapt in constant pursuit of better, more sustainable products.

3. An opportunity to use our platforms for good

The same sustainability values we carry in designing our products also apply to our platforms. As a global media and technology company, we are uniquely positioned to help drive awareness of the world’s most pressing issues and offer solutions that can drive positive change.

For example, TODAY Climate, led by Al Roker, is our commitment to covering climate change and sharing sustainable solutions with our millions of viewers. In the UK, Sky produces the Daily Climate Show, investigating how global warming is changing our landscape, as well as developing a variety of other content focused on behavior change, particularly in youth programming.

The Universal Filmed Entertainment Group recently launched the GreenerLight Program, an initiative focused on embedding sustainability across the entire filmmaking process including script development, locations and set needs, as well as on-screen behaviors.

These are just a few examples of the ways we’re continuing to drive sustainability across our products and platforms. By working together, we can drive lasting change to create a greener, cleaner future.

Sara Cronenwett is Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Environmental Sustainability for Comcast Corporation.

Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.

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