Flemish Employers' organisation VOKA organised the third VOKA Day on Corporate Sustainability on 27 October. The perfect moment to put companies and entrepreneurs who are fully committed to sustainability in the spotlight. Guest of honour and UN delegate Nikhil Seth awarded the Sustainable Development Goals Pioneer certificate to various Flemish companies. DNS Belgium also proudly took receipt of the charter and can call itself an SDG Pioneer now.
Big ambitions
UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) is a UN organisation that focuses on training and awards sustainability charters to companies that actively work on reaching sustainability goals. Specific conditions exist to qualify for a sustainability certificate. An organisation that was awarded the VOKA Sustainable Business Charter (VCDO) three times within a five year period, can be given the title of ‘SDG-Pioneer’. We received the VCDO three times in the space of three years, among others thanks to our activities to be climate neutral and our sustainable mobility efforts.
Companies that elevate corporate sustainability to an even higher level and are awarded the charter five times can call themselves SDG Champion. After six times you become an SDG Ambassador. For this you need to be able to provide proof of the integration of sustainability in your business management (among other things), which is something DNS Belgium has been working on for a number of years. The ambition therefore is to be an SDG Ambassador within three years.
Inspiring organisations
By launching the Day on Corporate Sustainability, VOKA wants to inspire businesses and encourage more companies to make sustainable choices. The programme of the Day on Corporate Sustainability gives a platform to various speakers to talk about their personal expertise in the field of sustainability within organisations.
Our sustainability coordinator, Arnaud Recko (picture), will also talk that day. During a breakout session he will talk about extending the lifetime of a product. This is the goal of DigitalForYouth.be. The DigitalForYouth.be campaign to collect laptops meant more than 13,000 reburbished laptops found their way to students. Sufficient material in other words for an interesting story on the subject.
DNS Belgium's sustainability efforts
Corporate sustainability is more than window dressing for DNS Belgium. It is a fundamental value in our organisation that creates the framework for all our activities and business management. Corporate social responsibility has always been in our DNA, but in 2016 we set this in stone by implementing a well-thought out sustainability strategy.
This strategy comprised various pillars which we continue to work on every year.
Being an inspiring workplace
We actively support the physical and mental health of our employees through training and workshops aimed at personal and professional growth. We encourage a healthy diet and active lifestyle through a fit@work-programme.
Being a leader in cybersecurity
We continuously innovate our security policy. We became a member of the Cyber Security Coalition and took various initiatives that ensured the internet could become more robust in Belgium. We take various actions in the field of fraud prevention and with the help of the FPS Economy we can remove fraudulent websites from the .be zone much quicker.
Creating a digital awareness
With Codekrakers, an episode for Ava & Trix, we developed a teaching module for primary schools about how the internet works. We established non-profit organisation DigitalForYouth to collect used laptops for underprivileged young people and to close the digital divide in Belgium. We follow the AnySurfer guidelines to make sure people with a disability also have access to our website.
Toward a sustainable chain
Since the zero measurement of 2017 we have a climate plan to reduce this ecological footprint. Compared to 2016 our direct power consumption dropped by 48 percent in 2017. Mobility accounts for about half of our total CO2 emissions. By focusing heavily on more sustainable commutes, we were able to reduce our mobility emissions by almost 30% by 2019. The CO2 emissions we cannot reduce are offset. We did this by sponsoring the Carbon Footprint Gold Standard VER projects (Verified Emission Reduction).
