CGBC Case Study: Twitter
Industry
Social Media & News
Product/Service
Social Networking Platform
Location
George’s Quay, Dublin
QEMS + GHG
ISO 9001 – Twitter EMEA
ISO 14001 – Twitter EMEA
ISO 14064 – Twitter Worldwide
Objectives
- Establish a Quality Benchmark
- Transparency & Visibility of Business Processes
- Pan EMEA Regulatory Compliance
- CO2 Emission Reduction
- Sustainability
Backstory & Landscape
One of the biggest Social Media companies on the planet, Twitter has scaled from a social networking platform where like-minded strangers could share tips and interact to become the dominant combined Social Media & News platform of our time.
Founded in California in 2006, its physical presence is now global, with 33 Twitter offices now present in 19 countries, 7 of which are in Europe. Since 2011, Twitter’s EU HQ has been based out of its George’s Quay site in Dublin’s Grand Canal Digital Hub.
When its EMEA Operations team, based out of Dublin, first began discussing ways in which they could review and improve their process methods and operations in general, the first and biggest challenge they faced was that they were taking on a complex region-wide project.
At that time, Twitter employed 7,500 staff globally, of which around one-quarter was spread out across the EMEA region. That’s thousands of people speaking different languages, with different skill sets, situated in 8 different countries Europe-wide. Not only did the Dublin team have different languages and time zones to contend with, they also had to navigate their way through a tangle of varying and sometimes conflicting local & EU regulations.
The Brief - Setting a Quality Benchmark
Despite the size and significance of its EMEA operations, Twitter did not have an established benchmark for Quality and best-practice business processes. It was facing ongoing challenges with cross-regional communications and unaligned systems, with employees spread across the the region performing the same routine tasks using differing methodologies and technologies.
Combined, these challenges became the driver for initiating a move towards ISO certification.
Having studied the various options open to them, the team decided that ISO 9001 would provide the best Quality framework. The aim was to implement a robust QMS that would set a robust benchmark across the region and put Twitter on a more sustainable footing.
CG Business Consulting worked with the Ops team to implement the QMS, resulting in a clear 360 overview of a newly streamlined business process model, which in turn put the Ops team into a more structured mindset.
Environmental Gap Analysis
The team then set about scaling this best-practice framework to shore up EMEA ESG strategies. Powered by green electricity, the Dublin site was already on a pathway to sustainability, so, it made sense for an ISO 14001 EMS to become the next milestone in their ESG journey.
CGBC was engaged to perform an Environmental Gap Analysis but once the project began, it became apparent that there was going to be a huge hurdle to overcome.
The region spanned eight countries, which meant eight different strands of national and local legislation. To compound matters, half of the EMEA teams were operating out of serviced offices, which made extrapolating and collating the relevant data such as Waste Records and Energy Usage Metrics extremely arduous.
Pan-EMEA Regulatory Compliance
Landlord, language and legislation barriers notwithstanding, the CGBC Sustainability Division took on the challenge of handling all aspects of information gathering and documentation. This included going on-site, where possible, to research and collate the requirements of all the relevant site-specific legislation to ensure Pan-EMEA regulatory compliance.
This detailed and extensive body of work showed up previously unknowns gaps in Twitter’s processes and systems. The Ops team viewed these as a positive, taking the opportunity to put appropriate measures in place to bridge the systemic gaps.
The Carbon Footprint Project - Drivers & Key Challenges
The subsequent ISO 14064 GHG (Carbon Footprint) project was a natural next step for Twitter. An integration into an already existing system, it took as little as two months.
A framework that supports the verification of GHG inventories and projects, ISO 14064 proved to be central to Twitter EMEA’s achieving their aim of publishing an accurate Annual Sustainability Report.
However, as Twitter’s data was held in multiple outsourced Data Centres, establishing exactly where the relevant data was being stored and then gaining access to it, were the primary challenges facing the team. That said, once the data was collated the Carbon Footprint process was closed out in less than two month.
Positive Impact
Sustainability:
Familiarity with Scope 1-3 GHG emission classification enabled the Ops team to understand which business activities fell under each particular scope, thereby simplifying the process of reviewing metrics such as Air Travel and Energy Consumption, and planning measures to address their environmental impact.
Engagement & Collaboration:
In turn, this increased the teams’ interaction with C-Level management, who could they were delivering real-time, positive changes in terms of energy consumption, resource performance and driving delivery on sustainability targets.
Whereas ISO 9001 & 14001 were very much focussed on Operations like Real Estate and Workplace Operations, ISO 14064 involved a lot of cross-functional teamwork between areas which historically had never worked together, leading to stronger inter-departmental relations.
Business Approach & Processes:
The ISO 9001 QMS acted as a catalyst for a dramatic shift in mindset amongst the Ops Team. WIth routine tasks now more streamlined as a result of working with more streamlined and transparent systems, their communication, strategies and structures were now functioning at their best, meaning the team felt more in control of managing a multi-location regional operation.
Real Results & Future Pathways
The benefits that Twitter has gained by implementing an integrated Quality and Environmental Management System have been manifold. Supplemented by Carbon Footprint best-practices, the QEMS has afforded Twitter EMEA the opportunity to become fully compliant with all EU and local regulations for the first time in its history. Furthermore, having immediate access to pan-EMEA Environmental Regulatory Information has simplified the process of performing regular regional process reviews, enabling the team to quickly schedule any required updates.
The big win for Team EMEA was that it was the first region to achieve all three ISO certifications. Now deemed leaders in those disciplines, the EMEA ISO 9001 model has become the blueprint for rollout out QMS both in JPAC and the Americas.
Twitter EMEA’s ability to deliver a global internal process for ISO certification combined with its having integrated continuous improvement into is business strategy, is now the key driver for future pathways, with projects coming down the pipeline
CG Business Consulting
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