We take social responsibility seriously. We are strongly committed to operating in an ethical, sustainable and secure way. Our services are crucial to the continued performance of the economy in the Benelux and to society. As a vital part of society, Eurofiber has a huge responsibility, not just for assuring the quality of our services, but also for carefully considering the way they are established and the well-being of the people that contribute.
One of Eurofiber’s five strategic pillars is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is placed at a Board level. Concern for people and climate is anchored within our organization, processes and company culture. We do not stop with words but put Corporate Social Responsibility into practice by running several great initiatives. Based upon the feedback of colleagues and discussions with the Board we have adopted the following long-term ambitions:
Climate proof is our number one ambition. By 2025, we want to have reduced our carbon emissions by 50%, and in 2030, we want to be a Net Zero company and have reduced our carbon emissions by 100%. For circularity, we aim to use 50% circular products for new build, maintenance, and replacements in our network. In 2030, this has to be 100% circular products.
Second, we are fair in the way we do business. Our ultimate goal is to make use of 100% fair trade throughout the value chain, with zero ethical breaches and incidents. Our social ambition on DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging) is creating an inclusive and energizing environment that inspires everyone to learn and grow with the goal for gender balance of 40% women in management positions in 2028.
Lastly, Security & Privacy is recognized as an important priority and there are specific long-term ambitions organized within this department.
CSR Governance is the condition for making the priorities to be 100% implemented, measurable and verifiable. We encourage everyone to take their social responsibility. By having an Internal Control Framework in place, we can practice what we preach.
Our CSR priorities explained
The CSR committee, led by Gijs Phoelich, ensures alignment, collaboration, and execution on the pre-defined priorities to bring CSR to the next level at Eurofiber.
Diversity and personal development
At Eurofiber, we aim for diversity in our workforce. This is partly based on our conviction that a wide variety of backgrounds, insights and opinions will lead to better decisions and a thriving business operation. Eurofiber represents a safe and free environment which encourages people to be themselves, to say what is on their mind and to develop themselves, based on a strong sense of personal accountability.
To underline our diversity and development policy, we partner with VHTO to organize Smart City Challenges for Girls. These events are intended to make young girls passionate about technology by introducing them to challenging issues in the field of digital society in a fun and easily accessible way. The involvement of our own employees contributes to the continued anchoring of diversity in our company culture.
Health and safety
Our policy regarding working conditions affects our own employees as well as the employees of our partners in the chain. For instance, all our partners’ service engineers need to attend a training course and have to certify every three years to ensure that they work according to the proper processes and procedures. Safety and health are recurring subjects in that. We use random checks to verify whether work takes place according to our regulations and legal requirements.
Our contractors are legally obligated to work according to the Safety, Health and Environment Checklist for Contractors (SCC). All the requirements they need to meet have been laid down in contracts. These contracts are evaluated annually and adjusted as needed to comply with current legislation and regulations.
Sustainability throughout the supply chain
Sustainability is a state of mind, and one that we strive for in every possible area, both within our organization, but also outside of our walls. We support our entire society in becoming more sustainable with our products, services and expertise.
In 2015, we started implementing socially responsible procurement (SRP) as part of our sustainable business operations. We focus considerable attention on making every step of our supply chain more sustainable. Our data centers are ISO 14001 certified, and we exclude chain partners who do not comply with our sustainability criteria. Aligning and collaborating with our suppliers and contractors is crucial in this. That is why we remain in constant contact and use a code of conduct which is partly about sustainable production and processing of resources and waste materials.
We have also started circular purchasing. An example of this is the return process for the routers that our customers send back after terminating their contract. In collaboration with a partner, these routers are refurbished, used again and processed at the end of their lifecycle according to environmental regulations
Green energy and public transport
We have made the environment our top priority in our transport policy, reducing CO2 and NOx emissions. In April 2018, we removed diesel-powered cars from our lease car fleet. We also encourage our employees to make use of public transport. Eurofiber’s main location is situated near the railway station in Maarssen. Its excellent accessibility by public transport was an important reason for Eurofiber to renew the lease contract of this location for another ten years. Furthermore, we rely exclusively on green electricity.
Scienced Based Targets
Scienced Based Targets initiative, abbreviated to SBTi, is an initiative, from among others WNF. This standard supports the calculation of what you need to reduce as a company in order to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. In November 2021, Eurofiber committed to SBTi for setting Net Zero long-term targets. In September 2022, SBTi targets for our CO2 reduction for Scope 1, 2 and 3 were submitted and approved by SBTi in 2023. After that, the aim is to demonstrate annually that we're taking the right steps to achieve these targets.
Annual ESG report
We constantly update our policy on corporate social responsibility based on the latest developments in Eurofiber, our supply chain and society as a whole. That includes the way we report on our accountability and responsibility. Our 2023 ESG report covers Eurofiber Netherlands , Eurofiber Belgium and Eurofiber Cloud Infra. The information in this report has been verified by FIRA Sustainability.