Our sustainability strategy

In deciding to update our company strategy in 2023, moreover, we defined five bold moves to help steer us and our customers into the future. One of these moves is to lead our industry in sustainability and responsibility best practices. A new taskforce propelling this ambition has already put new key initiatives into motion, allowing them to gain momentum along multiple pathways to sustainability that we have had in place for years.

People

Our organization is built around people. That's why we create spaces where people can come together and feel comfortable enough to be at home, experiencing mental and physical safety and wellbeing in their workplace. Everyone we work with and consider working with is entitled to equal treatment. The hiring and appraisal process at Schuberg Philis is designed to be thorough and equitable, implementing fair payment, benefits, and opportunities across all demographics. Motivated this past year to document our strong company culture, we began a consent-driven process of writing down our code of conduct, which details the values and virtues underpinning our daily business.

As a company that brings together many backgrounds, ages, and talents within and across our teams, we support diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. Since coaches play a significant role in nurturing each unique colleague on their Schuberg Philis journey, in 2023, we set up a forum for better empowering our coaches. Annually, we host a Girls’ Day event, undertake projects through our partnership with NewTechKids, and collaborate with European Women in Technology. By providing colleagues time to pursue courses, certifications, and credentials within the company and via partnering communities, we encourage the broad cultivation of their skills and networks. This culture of lifelong learning cultivates our multidisciplinary cadre of experts and teams, fostering a dynamic educational environment that empowers us to address the complex challenges of our time.

Planet

Being an industry leader in sustainable IT practices is one of our great ambitions, and we have accordingly sharpened our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework. Of the various sustainability challenges within our company and the industry, we acknowledge that CO2 is the most significant. In 2023, we embarked on determining the figures we must achieve to reduce our carbon footprint and to better assess and measure our company's environmental impacts. These efforts entailed establishing our C02 registration tool and providing transparency on our efforts, integrated reporting, and a roadmap toward compliance with the Corporate Social Responsibility Directive (CSRD). For CSRD compliance, we are defining actions to achieve desired impacts, to better manage risk (for details, see our Director's report), and to obtain business sustainability certifications from B-Corp and EcoVadis.

Everyday efforts to increase sustainable practices at work include minimizing C02 emissions and resource use by using wind power, running energy-efficient datacenters, recycling electronic waste, donating surplus restaurant food to families in need, and supporting a forest-planting organization through our referral program. We are also exploring ways to use hardware and software more sustainably, another widespread industry challenge. To this end, we launched a research program in partnership with the VU Amsterdam to measure the carbon footprint of cloud computing. Alongside the ambition to shrink our own footprint, we are investigating and investing in the potential of our IT solutions to lower our customers' C02, which could have enormous impact on value chains worldwide.

Prosperity

Work at Schuberg Philis is not only about what colleagues can contribute to the company, but also what the organization can contribute to the development of its members. Each week, our restaurant serves healthy, sustainably prepared meals, while annual exercise and wellness activities promote physical and mental health. Alongside a competitive salary and a generous compensation and benefits package, our indefinite contracts take care of people on the job and off. Hiring hundreds of people, we take responsibility for providing them and their families a sound safety net with a good pension plan, excellent survivor’s pension and disability coverage insurances, and inclusion in our employment ownership program. This system reflects our company's collective ownership, encouraging the entire organization to be invested in its profits, risks, and potentials over the long term. The decision to convert our 15% bonus structure into a 15% fixed salary increase was intended to further enhance colleagues' economic wellbeing.

Working with customers who share our values means we pursue our mission together: finding ways to improve lives globally today and for generations to come. Our commitment to optimally serve all our customers ensures that their customers in turn have optimal user experiences and pursue greater prosperity in their own lives. Providing mission-critical IT to organizations that serve vital industries in the Netherlands and beyond, Schuberg Philis chose to do the kind of work that would have significant impact on society. We wield that influence by uniting the brightest minds and the latest in technology to offer products and services that make positive impacts on people, the planet, and our collective prosperity.