Sustainability Strategy
4C Strategies’ vision is to combine the power of digital innovation with industry expertise to build a stronger and more resilient society.
Organisations face new and evolving challenges in an uncertain and unpredictable world, in which war, climate change and cyberattacks are real threats that need to be countered by building operational resilience and crisis management capabilities. The Company helps manage these threats by supporting governments, institutions, and businesses to build organisational resilience, uphold critical processes and ensure compliance. 4C Strategies’ work mitigates the consequences of critical events, giving the Company a critical role in preserving a sustainable society.
4C Strategies aims to maintain a good balance between business, environmental and social sustainability. This is considered crucial to meet current needs, without jeopardising the needs of future generations. To emphasise and formalise the governance and integration of environmental sustainability into its strategy and operations, the Company has adopted environmental protection and travel policies to mitigate the carbon footprint. These policies manage work-related travels, server environment and the Company’s offices, and expects all suppliers to meet the same environmental standards that the Company adheres to.
The Company has a restrictive approach to sales outside the Company’s prioritised markets and has chosen to only do business with countries that have entered declared partnerships or alliances with the EU or NATO. The Company does not do business with countries that have been imposed by sanctions, even if these sanctions omit regulatory restrictions on sales.
4C Strategies recognises that its business activities have direct and indirect environmental and social impacts, which the Company believes it has an obligation to manage to the best of its abilities.
Since 2005, 4C Strategies has been a member of the UN Global Compact, an initiative designed to encourage companies to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies and to report on their implementation to bring about positive change in human rights, labour, the environment, and corruption. The ambition of the initiative is to contribute to overall positive changes in the world, while simultaneously strengthening 4C Strategies’ position as a sustainable and forward-looking company.
4C Strategies’ work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals
As a part of 4C Strategies’ ESG work, the Company has identified several areas in which the Company is able to contribute to the United Nations’ (the “UN’s”) sustainability goals. These areas are goal 11 (“Sustainable cities and communities”), goal 8 (“Decent work and economic growth”), goal 3 (“Good health and well-being”), goal 5 (“Gender equality”), as well as goal 13 (“Climate action”). The Company contributes to these goals in several ways. Examples of the Company’s specific initiatives per goal are listed below.
- Goal 11. Support organisations to build organisational resilience, uphold critical processes and ensure regulatory compliance.
- Goal 8. Support international institutions, such as UN’s funds and programmes, to build organisational readiness, and conduct training for the Company’s employees in anti-corruption practices based on ISO 37001.
- Goal 3. Several initiatives are implemented to preserve and contribute to the well-being of active military personnel and veterans. 4C Strategies, for example, is a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant, an initiative that supports veterans and active members of the UK’s military by ensuring they have the same access to government and commercial services and products as any other citizen.
- Goal 5. Sustained focus on gender equality throughout the organisation, which has led to a workplace experience score of 4.4/5 for equal treatment. The latest 2020 salary mapping also showed that there were no unequitable differences between men and women.
- Goal 13. 4C Strategies’ data centre uses 100 percent fossil-free electricity and is ISO 14001 certified, while the offices are in an ongoing transition to 100 percent fossil-free electricity. The Company has also implemented a sustainability and travel policy to minimise climate impact from employee work and travel.
Sustainable Society and Preservation of Democracy
4C Strategies contributes to a sustainable society that upholds democratic principles by helping the Company’s customers build operational resilience, maintain critical processes, and ensure regulatory compliance. Examples of how the Company has supported, or is currently supporting, its customers in these respects are illustrated below.
- Enabling NATO and NATO allied forces to optimally manage, plan and conduct military exercises that fully prepare them to deal with possible conflicts in order to preserve democracy;
- supporting hospitals to ensure resilience in medical and technological operations, and communications against life-threatening risks;
- insight sharing with a Princeton University research centre on how democracies can defend elections from disinformation;
- delivering consistent and coherent national Covid-19 efforts; and
- supporting exercises, such as Unified Response, the UK’s largest ever multi-agency disaster training exercise
Whistleblowing
4C Strategies strives to maintain a high level of business ethics and foster a transparent business and work climate. The whistleblowing channel gives you the possibility to alert about suspicions of misconduct such as corruption, financial irregularities, violation of work place safety and health policies, discrimination and harassments in a confidential and, if desired, anonymous way. More information about whistleblowing and how to submit a report can be found in 4C Strategies Whistleblower Policy.
The reporting channel, allowing anonymous messaging and dialogue, can be found here: WhistleB Reporting Channel
