Net Zero Commitment

INSTANDA is committed to operate in a sustainable way becoming Net Zero by 2040 in line with the goal to limit global warming.

Our commitment will see INSTANDA's business and operations become Net Zero through:

• Focusing on reducing carbon emissions, water usage and increasing recycling
• Promoting and supporting healthy and sustainable living across its global employee base
• INSTANDA will work collaboratively with all suppliers and will ask suppliers for their own carbon reduction commitments 

INSTANDA has today committed to pledging £1 million towards becoming a Net Zero business across its own operations by 2040, aligned to the highest ambitions of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and a decade ahead of the UK Government’s own target.

INSTANDA's £1 million pledge will push far beyond the confines of their business operation placing the largest emphasis on ensuring their global workforce embrace sustainable living practices, making environmentally friendly decisions easy and accessible. As a no code technology platform provider, much of our operational commitments will be driven through our suppliers such as Microsoft who themselves have a net zero commitment targeting 2035.   

This pledge will enable the business to fulfil Scope one and Scope two emissions, putting the business on course for Net Zero a decade ahead of the UK government’s deadlines. 

INSTANDA are working with the EcoVardis to assess our current status and to help us determine realistic targets for reduction over the coming years. 

In addition, we will work in partnership with our suppliers to ensure they set their own Net Zero commitments supporting our own ambition targets.

Sara Shipley – INSTANDA's Chief People Operations Officer said: “Our commitment is to ensure that not only are our business operations sustainable but that we help all of our employees adopt more sustainable and environmentally friendly ways of living. 

“We are committed to reduce the impact our business and our global workforce has on the environment and we are committing to reduce our own carbon emissions and become Net Zero by 2040, ten years ahead of the government’s own targets’

“With the focus on sustainable living amongst our global workforce, we have promoted active recycling, water management and energy efficient practices through our Environmental Fund that supports our employees adopt to more sustainable living practices, from purchasing LED lightbulds to light their homes, to providing interest free loans to purchase solar panels, ground and air-source heat pumps. In addition, we are rolling out a salary sacrifice car scheme (initially in the UK) allowing people to lease hybrid or full electric cars. We will continue to drive these practices over the next 20 years pledging £1 million in programmes that will transform the way we do business and put environmental impact at the forefront of every decision we make.

“We recognise that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the changes needed to help the planet exist sustainably and whilst we are only a small firm we want our actions to go far beyond the normal confines and help employees continuing to live sustainable, even when they no longer work for us – we want to create a legacy of sustainability.

Across the INSTANDA a number of programmes will be implemented that focus on 7 core areas to tackle climate change:

• We operate on a 95% remote basis to reduce the volume of business travel which reduces our company driven carbon emissions.

• Planting the INSTANDA Forest – Partnership with One Tree Planted:
  • To offset the carbon impact of business flights we are committed to plant 10 trees for every long-haul flight taken and 5 trees for every short haul flight taken.
  • For every employee we plant a tree when they join the firm and to cover an average of 4 in person meetings per year we also plan an additional 4 trees per year.

  • For every new client we win we plant one new tree

• INSTANDA Sustainability Fund:

  • This fund offers up to £100,000 per year for our employees to access in the form of an interest free loan enabling them to make sustainable life choices, installing solar panels, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, smart meters, LED lighting, etc.

• Promoting the transition to EV / Hybrid cars:
  • In our continued pursuit to see our employees adopt more sustainable life choices we are launching a salary sacrifice car scheme for all UK employees* in 2024. With over 44% of our UK population under the age of 35 we understand that affording the life choices you wish to make can sometime be difficult. This scheme has been created to enable all UK employees to access cars that may currently be out of reach (based on the comparative purchase price of a full electric vehicle (EV) vs the more traditional and lower cost petrol/diesel car). Set up as a salary sacrifice lease option, this scheme provides the most tax efficient access to car lease whilst promoting a proactive transition to electric vehicles/ hybrid. This new offering could see 100+ people (households) making the switch to EVs in 2025 alone.

    • Once this scheme is embedded in the UK (our largest global employee base) it is our ambition to roll out a similar scheme in North America.

• Every employee receives a welcome pack with a number of sustainably sourced items, highlighting our desire to limit our impact on the environment. The contents include a reusable water bottle supporting our ambition for people to reduce plastic pollution, the pack also contains ethically sourced and manufactured note books and pen/pencils.

• Drive for Zero Printing approach – whilst we still have a need to create some paper-based collateral to support our presence at industry events all of this is done in the most sustainable way. Outside of this we try to limit the amount of printing that is done – with our transition to remote / hybrid working we have opted not to provide employees with printers instead working on creating extensive sharepoint processes to take as much work as possible electronic. All employee and client contracts are sent via docusign removing the need to physically print. All company and corporate presentations are created in appropriate software and circulated in a secure electronic way.  Agendas and meeting papers are also all embedded in the teams invite or circulated electronically in advance.

• Education and Awareness – every year the INSTANDA culture committee participate in National Recycling Week running a number of interactive activities and educational sessions to help people better understand how they can fully embrace recycling both at work and at home.

Our approach to ESG fully reflects how we view our employees in every aspect of life. To us our people are more than the role they do for us and that is why our approach to ESG goes far beyond the confines of the Monday – Friday that they are actively working for us. If we can help every employee at INSTANDA make more sustainable choices both at work and in their personal life, we have the opportunity to make a positive impact far beyond our size and scale as an employer, embedding ways of living that will continue far beyond an individuals tenure with us.