Today we’re excited to kick off audience voting for the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) Aspire Awards, our annual competition inviting youth around the world to creatively express their vision for driving change in local communities.

Over the past 12 weeks, we’ve received more than 1,100 submissions from 51 countries – a record high! We’ve narrowed the field to 20 finalists in each of our content categories, including animation, documentary, music video, narrative, poetry, photography, collage, and collaboration.

Beginning today through June 8, finalist entries will be showcased on our Aspire Awards website. We encourage you – our community members and supporters – to get involved by helping to select our Audience Award winners. You can cast your vote by viewing, commenting on, sharing, “liking,” tweeting, and retweeting your favorite entries.

During the audience voting period, an international panel of professionals working in art, film, and other
creative fields will additionally select first- and second-place winners in each content category and a special category for this year – the UNICEF Challenge – which invites entrants to develop a youth-led project utilizing innovative digital tools and/or digital engagement to bring positive change to their communities.

Winners in our standard content categories are eligible to win software, hardware, and a charitable donation to a cause of their choice. In addition, the UNICEF Challenge winners will receive grants valued at up to $40,000(USD), dedicated to implementing the winning project proposals. Winners’ entries from all categories will be featured at distinguished exhibitions, including international film festivals and other arts organization events.

We’ll announce winners in all categories in mid-June and celebrate the winners and their achievements at the 2013 AYV Summit in August.

To learn more about our commitment to igniting creative confidence in youth, visit our Adobe Youth Voices website. And be sure to watch this space to keep up with what’s happening with the AYV Aspire Awards!

Every year, I look forward to Earth Day. It’s an opportunity to assess how well we’re performing as responsible stewards of the environment, and reflect upon what more we can do. At Adobe, we pride ourselves on being recognized as a leader in sustainability and prioritize reducing our environmental footprint through our everyday operations.

This year, Adobe is celebrating “Be Green” month throughout April. In our offices worldwide, local Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Action Teams have hosted events and activities ranging from food waste reduction campaigns and paper waste reduction competitions to river and park cleanups, bicycle workshops and more. Below is just a snapshot of what our employees are doing around the globe:

• Bangalore – Employees are restoring Puttenhalli lake by painting each of the 23 rectangular dust bins that surround the lake and planting shrubs and flowers at the entrance.
• Boston – Employees started a “donate a mug from home” drive, reducing the use of paper coffee cups.
• London – The team organized a bake-off to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s Sky Rainforest Rescue Project.
• New York – Employees volunteered for “NY Cares Day” at the Fresh Creek Nature Preserve in Brooklyn, an area hard hit by Hurricane Sandy.
• San Jose, Calif. – San Jose employees will remove trash from the local San Jose Guadalupe River, which supports local fish and birds.
• Seattle – Adobe Seattle’s on-site bicycling community is hosting a bicycling expo event and encouraging employees to sign up for a “Bike to Work Challenge” during the month of May.

It’s inspiring to see Adobe employees’ passion and dedication to contributing to a healthy, sustainable environment in their local communities. For more information about Adobe’s CSR initiatives, visit our CSR page.

Last year, Adobe’s State of Create  global benchmark study revealed the existence of a major ‘creativity gap’ in five of the world’s largest economies. The research showed us that four in 10 people believed that they did not have access to the tools needed to support creativity in the classroom.

In response to this study, we felt compelled to address this creativity gap by designating more than $1 million to the Adobe Foundation’s Creativity Scholarships for youth. The Creativity Scholarships program was developed to support the next generation of creative thinkers and equip them with resources to apply creative confidence to advance their education in creative fields.

The scholarships provide financial support to high school seniors and students in their first year of post-secondary education who have participated in the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) program and will be attending or continuing an accredited post-secondary degree or certificate program. This scholarship reinforces Adobe’s commitment to igniting creative confidence in youth and enables AYV participants to launch creative careers and find innovative ways to improve their communities through creative problem solving and expression.

At Adobe, we believe everyone is born with innate creativity and the Creativity Scholarships are designed to support this belief. The power of creativity is real, and unlocking the creative potential in students can lead to real change in communities around the world.

Please check out our AYV site for more info and be sure to keep an eye out for more Creativity Scholarship announcements in the coming weeks.

To apply, submit your application to www.adobescholarship.com by March 31, 2013. Full details can be found here.

People know Adobe for many reasons, many of which revolve around our technologies that help creative professionals bring their ideas to reality and that enable marketers to create and drive industry-leading campaigns based in smart math. At Adobe Summit this week in Salt Lake City, we are talking about our technologies and the future of the industry, and we have specials guests sharing some incredible stories of overcoming tremendous personal and professional challenges to do something amazing. But we also had the opportunity to share a side of Adobe that isn’t talked about as often as our technology.

Today, at our Digital Marketing Summit, we heard from a great mind – Sal Khan about the idea of breaking down barriers to revolutionize whatever you are passionate about. His work and the vision for the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere, inspired us and evoked a standing ovation from the Summit crowd. In one of those rare moments where I had the opportunity to proudly represent all Adobe employees, I announced that Adobe is donating $50,000 to the Khan Academy to further its groundbreaking approach to education and community change.

That was an incredibly special moment to be able to share with our customers and partners. Beyond our technologies, Adobe has a philanthropic side that does meaningful and inspirational work, but that at times takes a backstage to Adobe’s business initiatives. Adobe Youth Voices represents this side of Adobe, and was created to ignite creative confidence in youth, empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. To date, Adobe Youth Voices has created opportunities for over 120,000 youth. We have a vision of a world where the future creative and mathematical minds of tomorrow are not hindered by circumstance but have endless opportunities to succeed.

Beyond Adobe Youth Voices, our broadly reaching Adobe Foundation is funded by Adobe to leverage human, technological, and financial resources to drive social change and improve the communities in which we live and work. The Adobe Foundation supports innovative programs that further its mission and goals, and we are proud to support Khan Academy as a partner in creating opportunities for the world’s youth. I’m pretty excited about it and speak for all 11,000 Adobe employees in saying that we believe the work we do to better humanity is the most important work we can do.

Adobe believes creativity not only makes the world a more beautiful place, but it is also a critical component to addressing some of the most difficult challenges we face as a society.

The global State of Create report Adobe released last year revealed only one in four people believe they’re living up to their own creative potential. In response, we’ve aimed to address this “creativity gap” by further imbedding creativity into our products, communities and schools.

Through Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), Adobe’s global philanthropic commitment, we’re working to ignite creative confidence in youth by empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. In doing so, we can help them become more active and engaged members of their communities and society at large. As an extension of this commitment, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of this year’s AYV Aspire Awards competition.

Now in its second year, AYV Aspire Awards is a global, online challenge that invites youth to creatively express their vision for driving positive change in local communities. Participants can convey their ideas using a variety of visual storytelling methods, from videos to photo essays. In addition, a new category for this year – the UNICEF Challenge – invites youth to develop a video proposal for a project they’d like to implement.

The Aspire Awards call for entries is now open, and we’re looking forward to kicking-off online voting for the public in late April.

Last year’s entries showcased remarkable talent. Below are a few of our favorites.

It’s an exciting time for us – please check out our AYV site for more info, and keep an eye out for more AYV-related announcements in the coming weeks.

Hoodforts dispels misconceptions about “hooded” youth in the Mile End area of London.

Cambio Jovenes explores how youth can shape the world around us.

Keep Pushing is about the importance of persistence in the face of hardship.

Adobe’s newly remodeled open workspace on the 12^th floor of our San Jose headquarters’ West Tower was awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification for Commercial Interiors at the Platinum level – marking the first space to receive LEED-CI Platinum distinction at Adobe San Jose headquarters. Among the features of the 25,000 square foot open office space is natural light for all workspaces and enhanced energy management, resulting in a 50% reduction in energy use. Wood and glass from the old doors and offices have been recycled into dividers that define one of the many collaboration spaces on the floor. The open floor plan is flexible and improves collaboration, as communication is much easier within teams and across functional groups. Over time, Adobe’s goal is to expand this open, collaborative floor plan to most of its San Jose headquarters as well as other offices worldwide.

The company’s newest LEED Platinum CI certification is Adobe’s 23^rd LEED Certification and 17^th LEED certification at the Platinum level. I want to extend my congratulations to all who worked on this project. For more information about Adobe’s facilities initiatives, visit the Environment section of our Corporate Social Responsibility Page.

Adobe volunteers install solar through community giving project with GRID Alternatives

At Adobe, employees with questions or ideas about sustainability turn to the Green Team, a group of passionate volunteers who are helping Adobe employees become more sustainable, both at home and at work. Many Adobe employee homeowners in San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle expressed interest in lowering their utility costs and using solar energy but weren’t sure where to start. As a result, Adobe’s Green Team engaged our West Coast employees in a SunShares program, a solar group-buy model designed to overcome common challenges to solar installations by pooling employee buying power and guiding them through the installation process, enabling employee groups to secure significant discounts on purchasing or leasing solar installations.

Sunshares was developed by the City of San Jose as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities Initiative. The Adobe Green Team SunShares program educated more than 100 employees about the opportunity through webinars and workshops, and included Adobe employees in the contractor vetting and selection process. The employees selected SunPower*, who delivered a 20 percent discount on solar electric systems in addition to leasing options to Adobe employees, family members, friends and neighbors of employees in San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle. The group exceeded its goal of 150 participants and a total of 24 installations representing 124 kilowatts of new solar energy capacity were completed in September 2012.

The SunPower Foundation, GRID Alternatives and the SunShares team also developed a combined giving campaign and raised $7,500 to sponsor a 3.88 kW solar installation volunteer workday on the home of a local low-income family in East San Jose. Adobe employees volunteered and brought solar power to a family in need.

*Adobe does not endorse SunPower.

Adobe Green Team SunShares participant and homeowner, Anna Luong, presents her new solar system

Today at Greenbuild 2012, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green, Adobe announced that its San Jose headquarters, as well as its San Francisco and Seattle buildings, have been re-certified for the second time as some of the greenest facilities in the world. Each building earned Platinum level-status under the LEED-EBOM (Leadership and Environmental Energy and Design – Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance) program of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Adobe has been innovating in the LEED green building movement for the past decade. In 2010, Adobe’s San Jose headquarters received the highest score ever awarded by the USGBC at that time. The company now has 22 LEED certifications worldwide, including Beijing and Noida, and 16 certifications at the Platinum level. Our latest re-certification puts us on track to achieve Adobe’s publicly stated goal of NetZero consumption in our United States owned facilities by 2015, which means our buildings will have zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually.

Additionally, Adobe is the first to re-certify its buildings using LEED’s new software system. Adobe was the beta-tester for the system created by Zia for Buildings with the support of USGBC. The system is designed to maintain the ongoing reporting for LEED re-certifications.

To learn more about our green initiatives, visit our Environmental Sustainability page.

For the past five years, Adobe has partnered with SAP and KaBOOM! to build playgrounds in the Bay Area.
With executive sponsorship from Matt Thompson and support from Mark Garrett and Ann Lewnes, this event has been a tremendous opportunity for teams at Adobe to come together in a fun way and make an impact on the community.

Last week, more than 110 Adobe employees from Worldwide Field Operations, Global Marketing and Finance brought their tools and smiles to create a new playground for Escuela Popular in San Jose, a family learning center that builds on students’ social, linguistic and cultural strengths with the intent to develop bilingual, bi-cultural students fully prepared to continue on to higher education and empowered to pursue their goals. Not only does it serve 600 children during school hours, Escuela Popular has the Alum Rock Youth Center on site, which operates a Boys & Girls Club and other programming for school-age children from the community every day after school, and the campus is open to the community from sunrise to sunset on weekends.

“When we first visited Escuela Popular, we knew this was the perfect site. Escuela Popular is a great school in a community that totally deserves a playground. We know the playground will be put to good use during and after school and on the weekends,” says Julia Love, Senior Program Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility.

In less than six hours, more than 300 volunteers from Adobe, SAP and the community:

• Mixed 16,000 pounds of concrete
• Moved 170 cubic yards of mulch
• Moved 10 cubic yards of decomposed granite
• Moved 10 cubic yards of top soil
• Built 4 child picnic tables
• Built 8 benches
• Built 1 green child size garden tunnel
• Built 4 raised planters and 8 planter boxes
• Built and painted 3 trash containers
• Built 1 amazing outdoor classroom

There was a special sense of collaboration for this year’s build. Many of employees raised their hands to help out before the event took place. “Even the planning process itself evoked a sense of community within Adobe,” says Katie Hingle, Director of Licensing Programs, Business Model Strategy and Pricing Operations Group and a 3-year veteran KaBOOMer and build captain. “There were so many things that needed to happen before the build day. It was amazing how quickly we were able to get support from others wanting to play a role in this event. You could tell that the KaBOOM! build really resonates with employees and gives them a sense of pride knowing that Adobe supports KaBOOM’s mission to promote creative play for children in our local communities.”

Stephen Snyder, VP of WW Channel Sales, shares his experience at the build: “This was a fantastic event and a great way to give back to the community. I am proud to work for a company that gets together with other Bay Area companies to support the community in which we work.”

Learn more about Adobe’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts and see pictures from the day on our FB page.

Last night the great and the good of New York’s media, publishing and creative industries gathered, with Adobe, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The occasion, a reception to celebrate Adobe’s sponsorship of a unique exhibition – Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop.

Adobe’s chief marketing officer, Ann Lewnes, kicked things off before CEO Shantanu Narayen welcomed everyone and introduced Thomas Knoll, co-inventor of Photoshop and Adobe’s newest Digital Imaging Fellow.

Shantanu and Photoshop co-inventor Thomas Knoll

The exhibition is a reminder that the urge to manipulate photos – for good and for bad, for art and for propaganda – has been with us since the medium itself was invented. The exhibition also reminds us of the profound impact that Adobe Photoshop has made on our visual culture.  Creative people all over the world have pushed publishing, art, and visual media forward using techniques that were either too complex or simply not possible before Photoshop.  Because of this, controversy is never far away from Photoshop.

One of our core values at Adobe is to conduct ourselves in a responsible, socially conscious manner. As we continue to evolve the interaction of art and science within Photoshop, we look forward to the incredible visual content our customers will continue deliver and the positive influences it may have in our shared human experience.