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Mar 18, 2024
4 min

Living Our Purpose Helps Calix Grow and Thrive

Purpose-Driven Companies

Corporate purpose and profitability can and must coexist.
 

In fact, the evidence is strong that responsible businesses outperform their peers. 
 

Annually, JUST Capital publishes a list of America’s Most JUST Companies, and Boston Consulting Group found that these companies generate 2.5 times more value than comparable businesses. In fact, the JUST list has beaten the Equal Weighted Russell 1000 benchmark by 38.5% since its inception in 2016. 
 

The JUST list stands out in my mind because it measures company performance on the issues Americans say corporations should prioritize: fair pay, creating jobs in the United States, employee retention and training, among others. 
 

Why Do Purpose-Driven Companies Do So Well?
 

Because they value all their stakeholders. Businesses succeed when they think holistically—building trust and long-term value with employees, customers, partners, government, community leaders, and investors. They can attract and retain talent because employees want to work for responsible, purpose-driven companies. They deliver better products and services, too, because their values align with their customers. 
 

Our customers in rural America understand this. They fulfill their purpose and commitment to their subscribers and communities every day. 
 

Calix understands this, too. For 25 years we have lived our purpose: helping our customers thrive so they, in turn, can help their communities thrive. We accomplish this through our commitment to being environmentally, socially, and financially responsible. 
 

Those commitments help us thrive, too. Five years ago, we introduced the managed services commercial model—first with IQ Suites and later with a rich portfolio of offers. Service providers either choose to include or separately sell these services with their broadband packages, providing incremental value to their subscribers and expanded revenue and profit. We believe this shared success model is the very definition of sustainable business, and it has led to significant growth for Calix and participating customers. Last year, Calix debuted on Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies List. And we are just getting started. 
 

At ConneXions, we announced our sustainability strategy. We believe sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present and future generations, equally. To accomplish that goal, we need to think about both what we do and how we do it. 
 

Our sustainability strategy is focused on five pillars: 
 

  1. Technology Innovation: We will focus on themes of improving product durability, through our software-enabled platforms, efficiency, better Wi-Fi coverage, higher density configurations, reduced power consumption, and recyclability. These efforts help broadband service providers and their subscribers reduce their power consumption, carbon footprint, and energy costs.
     

  2. Culture and Social Impact: This includes building a Great Place to Work, engaging all employees, and supporting volunteer efforts and community outreach, philanthropy, diversity, and inclusion. We commit to extending community to the industry and sharing our best practices with customers and partners to help them build and sustain great places to work, too.
     

  3. Sustainable Supply Chain: We are committed to improving the resiliency and diversity of our supply chain, reducing the carbon footprint, and improving the use of recyclable materials throughout.
     

  4. Sustainable Enterprise: Through a variety of projects, we will reduce our power consumption, including consolidating our research and development labs into the Calix Virtual Innovation Lab, allowing our team to work remotely, using EV transportation in our Bangalore facility, and reducing our facilities’ footprint. These measures will reduce our energy usage substantially. 
     

  5. Sustainable Partnership: Creating lasting change in rural communities, high-quality broadband services deliver economic development, better education, health care, and public safety services, and strengthen social and civic engagement. Our commercial model supports growth and innovation for us and our customers as we succeed together.


We are immensely thankful for the partnership we have with our customers and the shared purpose of making a difference in the lives of the people and communities they serve every day. 
 

Learn more by visiting the Calix Sustainability page today.

Chief Sustainability Officer

Martha is the Chief Sustainabilty Officer at Calix. Martha is focused on Calix’s culture and leading initiatives related to equity, diversity, and inclusion; advancing women in telecom; and growing our environmental and sustainability efforts. Previously, Martha was the chief customer success officer at Calix and has held leadership positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, Microsoft, and Salesforce. She is a graduate of Smith College and serves on their presidential board, and is a published scientific author.

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