We’re becoming a more sustainable business

In the last year, there has been a sizeable improvement in how the policies that guide Scott Logic’s work and the actions we are taking promote sustainability.

EcoVadis has completed independent sustainability assessments of our business. They define sustainability as “the continuing commitment to act responsibly by integrating social and environmental concerns into business operations”. Their assessment approach is based entirely on documentary evidence of policies, actions and results, categorised under four themes: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement.

Based on this year’s assessment, Scott Logic’s overall score is 63 (out of 100), putting us in the top 14% of assessed organisations in our industry, regardless of company size. By comparison, last year Scott Logic scored 49 and was in the top 45%. Within the Labour and Human Rights theme, our score this year put us in the top 9% of assessed organisations in our industry.

Here is a selection of the policy enhancements, actions and results from the last 12 months that have materially improved the sustainability of our business:

• Measuring our carbon footprint, developing independently validated net zero targets, and setting out our roadmap to those targets (Scott Logic Environmental Impact Report 2021).
• Public commitments we’ve made to contribute to collective initiatives such as Tech Zero, the Scottish Business Pledge and TechSheCan.
• More inclusive and generous Family Leave policies.
• Our hybrid working policy, promoting a better work/life balance for our people.
• Our Individual Development Budgets (£1,000 and two development days a year), providing enhanced support for professional development.
• Improved policies and training in ethical areas, building on existing firm foundations regarding whistleblowing, information security and anti-corruption.

We must acknowledge that our score on the Sustainable Procurement theme did not improve from last year’s assessment to this. This is as we expected, because we intentionally prioritised other areas over this period. We will be prioritising sustainable procurement in the coming year – not least in progressing delivery of our net zero plan, in which we will be making our engagement process more robust in relation to our suppliers’ decarbonisation plans.

We intend to continuously improve across all aspects of our business. Targeted independent assessments such as those done by EcoVadis help us hold ourselves accountable for staying true to our purpose and mission as a business.