Why Cloudflare Signed the UN Global Compact

Cloudflare has joined the UN Global Compact (UNGC) as a signatory, formalizing its commitment to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The company has released its first Communication on Progress report, detailing how it integrates UNGC principles into its operations and its broader mission of helping build a better Internet.

The UNGC, founded in 1999 following a call from then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the World Economic Forum, is the world's largest sustainability initiative with over 14,000 members across 162 countries. Annan argued that human rights, environmental sustainability, fair labor practices, and anti-corruption are essential not just for social good but for the long-term stability of free and open global markets. Cloudflare shares this view, applying these principles not only to the global economy but also to the Internet itself.

Three Commitments for Members

UNGC participants must make three ongoing commitments:

  • Operate responsibly by adhering to the UN Ten Principles.
  • Take strategic action to advance the UN SDGs.
  • Provide annual public reporting on implementation efforts.

The Ten Principles are derived from several UN treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Fundamental Principles on the Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the UN Convention Against Corruption. They cover four key areas: human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. The SDGs themselves, adopted by all 193 UN member states in 2015, build on earlier initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, providing broad goals with specific targets and indicators.

Focus Areas for Cloudflare

While Cloudflare supports all 17 SDGs, its reporting concentrates on the goals most relevant to its business.

SDG 5: Gender Equality

The pandemic's disproportionate impact on women in the workforce makes SDG 5 particularly timely. Cloudflare has long partnered with returnship programs that offer opportunities to people who have taken career breaks to care for loved ones. This year, the company began reporting on pay equity and signed diversity charters such as the EU Charter and the UK Tech Talent Charter. It also hosted a month of events and programs around International Women's Day.

Cloudflare's Project Galileo also supports gender equality by providing free protection against denial-of-service attacks and other online threats to organizations that empower women. This includes work with the Women in Media Initiative Somalia (WIMISOM), which supports female journalists and campaigns against violence toward women, girls, and children.

SDG 13: Climate Action

Cloudflare has committed to powering its network with 100 percent renewable energy, a goal achieved in 2020. By 2025, it plans to remove or mitigate all historic greenhouse gas emissions associated with powering its network.

New products this year help customers meet their own climate goals. Cloudflare now routes computing workloads to edge locations that produce better climate outcomes, offers real-time information on individual emissions footprints, and lets developers build webpages on infrastructure running entirely on renewable energy.