certification program such as the Forest Stewardship Council, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or the Canadian Standards Association Group Sustainable Forest Management System standard. In 2021, over 99% (based on spend) of the paper and paper/wood-based packaging IBM directly procured worldwide came from suppliers that warranted that the source was derived from sustainably managed forests. Biodiversity IBM has been a member of the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) since 1991. Four IBM sites (IBM Corporate Headquarters, New York; IBM Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and IBM Almaden Research Center and IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory, California) have maintained WHC Conservation Certification for their wildlife habitat management and conservation education programs for over 17 years. In 2021, we worked with the WHC to develop education materials on how to create pollinator-friendly habitats and provided them to IBM employees worldwide. We also set a goal to plant 50 pollinator gardens at IBM locations globally by year-end 2023. Planning and design are underway as we work toward this goal. Conservation and biodiversity IBM has comprehensive programs and goals that help conserve natural resources and protect the biodiversity of our ecosystems. Water conservation Preserving water resources and safeguarding watersheds are important priorities. IBM’s water conservation goal is to achieve year-to-year reductions in water withdrawals at larger IBM locations and data centers in water-stressed regions. In 2021, withdrawals at these locations decreased by 1.2% versus 2020. IBM’s primary use of water at locations subject to this goal is cooling and humidity control at offices and data centers (40% of total water withdrawals), irrigation (31% of total water withdrawals), and domestic water use in the workplace (29% of total water withdrawals). In 2021, water withdrawal reduction efforts consisted of installing automatic irrigation systems and decreasing overall landscape irrigation, upgrading cooling tower equipment and water storage tanks, and ongoing maintenance of water pipes. In addition, IBM reused or recycled over 26,500 cubic meters of water for landscape irrigation and to supplement makeup water used in cooling tower systems. Further, IBM is raising awareness of the importance of efficient use of water and conservation during new employee onboarding. IBM also continues to look for opportunities to reduce water use at locations outside of water-stressed regions. In 2021, more than 40,000 cubic meters of water were saved through various conservation projects, including upgrades to reverse osmosis deionized water systems at IBM Research locations to allow for reuse of reject water. Paper and paper/wood-based packaging IBM has sustained a voluntary goal for the responsible sourcing of paper and paper/wood-based packaging since 2002, requiring that paper and paper/wood-based packaging directly procured by IBM come from suppliers that source from sustainably managed forests. Suppliers must either disclose their sources for paper and paper/wood-based packaging to IBM or provide evidence that their sources have been certified to be from sustainably managed forests by an accredited third-party 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Water conservation % annual reduction in water withdrawals at data centers and other large IBM locations in water-stressed regions (goal year-over-year reduction) 2.9 0.4 2.0 6.7 1.2 IBM considers climate-related risks in its enterprise risk management process. See page 15 for more information. 44 IBM 2021 ESG Report