Giving Back

Deji

It starts with listening

We engage with communities and organizations through stakeholder roundtables and intentional conversations, learning how we can best provide support and make a positive impact.

"We bring a holistic approach to building our products sustainably, fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce and giving back to our communities — all of this helps us act responsibly for our stakeholders.”

Deji Olukotun

Director of Sustainability and Strategic Initiatives

Giles Martin

Regenerative sound

Conserving forests and promoting biodiversity

As a global company, we are committed to fighting climate change. In 2023, Sonos launched a partnership with 1% for the Planet. As proud members of this global movement, we are donating 1% of all Certified Refurbished sales to high-impact nonprofits focused on environmental preservation and restoration. We continually look for ways to mitigate our environmental impact and do our part to protect the planet.

Since establishing our Regenerative Sound program in 2021, we have focused on supporting ecoacoustics projects. Ecoacoustics is a cutting-edge field that uses sound to monitor and promote biodiversity conservation. Our collaboration with 1% for the Planet enables us to deepen our investment in organizations like Rainforest Connection, which unite scientists, governments, and local communities to take action against climate change and the ongoing biodiversity loss crisis that threatens thousands of species with extinction.

"By listening to and learning from nature, we can contribute to global conservation efforts and safeguard critical species and forests from the worst impacts of climate change,” says Deji Olukotun, Director of Sustainability & Strategic Initiatives at Sonos.

Sonos' contributions aided a Rainforest Connection project in the Chocó region of Ecuador. Known for its rich biodiversity, the Chocó rainforest is home to thousands of wildlife and plant species. Sonos traveled with Rainforest Connection and other key stakeholders to deploy acoustic sensors in the Ecuadorian rainforest. We are thrilled to share the sounds of this remarkable region through a spatial audio soundscape captured during our visit.

Listen to the rainforest below.

Giles Martin

Inclusive sound

Championing women and BIPOC in sound

The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only 3% of audio engineers were women. That doesn't sound right to us, so we're supporting We Are Moving the Needle, a nonprofit founded by Grammy award-winning sound mixer Emily Lazar, and Immersive and Inclusive Audio Institute International, founded by renowned audio engineer, Dr. Leslie Gaston-Bird. Immersive and Inclusive focuses on training and developing talent from underrepresented groups in spatial audio production. This partnership is a testament to our commitment to promoting diverse representation in sound engineering and mixing, and our efforts to advance the field of spatial audio.

We’re also proud to partner with New Music USA. Through New Music USA, we provide dedicated support to individual music creators through two key programs: Reel Change, a five-year grant and mentorship program for film composers from diverse backgrounds, and the Creator Fund, micro-grants that will help artists on the Central Coast of California advance to the next stage of their creative practice.

Giles Martin

Music education

Positively changing the lives of young people

Since 2018, we have donated over $1 million to youth music education programs around the world, partnering with youth orchestras, beatmaking workshops, choral groups, and music camps. We’re proud to have achieved our goal of providing 100,000 hours of quality music education to underserved youth by 2025.

For the fifth consecutive year we supported MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration and Innovation. Our support enabled MOXI to provide free admission to students from Title I schools throughout Santa Barbara County and Ventura County. MOXI’s education program enables the next generation of eager young minds to form the building blocks to enter engineering and science fields – and have fun doing it.

To advance educational equality, we awarded a grant to Mission Scholars, a program of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation. Mission Scholars offers comprehensive college admissions guidance, mentorship, and career development training to low-income students in South Santa Barbara County. The program follows a seven-year plan, supporting students from their sophomore year of high school through college graduation.

Read all about our efforts

Learn more about our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in the 2024 Listen Better Report, where we share detailed information on our broader initiatives regarding sustainability, supply chain responsibility, giving back, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and disclose the progress we've made in the past year.

listen better report Download the 2024 Listen Better Report (PDF)