We believe that small actions can lead to big positive changes. Our commitment goes beyond environmentally friendly initiatives and includes the support and development of our employees are an important part of our efforts.
In addition, we can make a decisive contribution to sustainability with our IT projects and digital solutions. In this blog article, we give you an insight into our global activities relating to sustainability and social responsibility at COCUS.
COCUS Sustainability and Social Responsibility: Our Green Working Day
As part of our journey towards sustainability, we recognize and actively address the environmental challenges faced in office settings. From reducing plastic waste to minimizing carbon emissions, we integrate eco-friendly practices into various aspects of our activities. We have put together an overview of some of them for you:
Around the Office
- Transport Policy & Free Tickets: Our employees can use public transport free of charge, and we cover the cost of monthly public transport tickets throughout Germany and in Portugal. This not only reduces the CO2 footprint that would be generated on the way to the office and to our customers - the free alternative also makes environmentally friendly and sustainable journeys and trips more attractive for the private everyday lives of our CO-lleagues.
- Job Bike: Prefer a sporty and even more flexible commute? We at COCUS also take care of that. In Germany, our employees can lease any model of bike from us at a reduced rate.
- Hiring Policy for Public Transportation: New with us? During recruitment, we also support sustainable travel by reimbursing candidates' public transport expenses to visit the COCUS office.
In the Office
- Filtered Water Solution: Our commitment to sustainability begins with the small yet impactful step of providing a filtered water solution. This action translates into a reduction of over 105kg of plastic, that is equivalent to approximately 2,100 plastic bottles, and 400kg of carbon emissions per year.
- Plastic-Free Kitchenware & Waste Recycling Bins: We actively favor the use of ceramics, glass, and silverware in our kitchen areas, contributing to the reduction of single-use plastics. Near our kitchen area, we have implemented waste recycling bins for plastic, paper, and organic waste minimizing our overall waste footprint.
- Eco-friendly Materials & Recycling: Our starter pack for our newcomers includes eco-friendly materials such as reusable bottles, recycling bags and carrier bags to ensure that sustainability is practiced from day one. In the long term, we also ensure that outdated computers and cell phones are reused to continue to help reduce waste. Our employees can purchase the devices from us at a greatly reduced price.
Working from Home
With our FlexOffice policy, we embrace the modern working environment while significantly reducing commuting and CO2 emissions by allowing our employees to work from home at any time. We support work-life balance through our policy of up to 100% remote work, flexible working hours and the option to work in the office or at home every day.
In addition to the FlexOffice option as such, we pursue further measures as part of our sustainability and social responsibility:
- Green Monday Office: Taking a bold step, our office in Portugal remains closed from Saturday to Monday as part of our Green Monday Office initiative. This move not only minimizes our environmental impact but also reduces carbon emissions from transportation and saves energy.
- Design Offices: For our employees in Eschborn and Berlin, we rely on Design Offices, which offer flexibly bookable workspaces and rooms. The Design Offices are built and operated in a resource-saving manner and are certified as climate-neutral by TÜV.
- Recycling Bags Collaboration: In collaboration with Lipor, we provide all our employees with a kit of three recycling bags for use at home. This initiative extends our commitment to sustainability beyond the workplace and into the homes of our team members.
COCUS Sustainability and Social Responsibility: Our Diverse Teams
For us, sustainability is more than a strategy – it’s part of our DNA. With a diverse team representing over 19 nationalities, we celebrate cultural richness, and foster a workplace that embraces cross-functional and cross-national collaboration and individual well-being:
- Fostering Diversity and Inclusion: Diversity is at the core of COCUS, reflecting a mosaic of cultures in our workforce. Our comprehensive code of conduct shapes our values and norms, actively promoting an inclusive culture. English and German language courses further enhance collaboration, creating a harmonious work environment.
- Cross-country and Cross-functional Teams: Our cross-functional teams enable creative collaboration and generate a wide variety of individual solutions. Our employees develop their personal skills and professional expertise through diverse and varied assignments.
- Employee Growth: Employee development is key for us. Our training programs cover Swift, Scrum, leadership seminars, and the COCUS Learning Academy. With tailored training sessions, we contribute to a culture of continuous learning and knowledge exchange.
- Health: A conscious approach to the health of our employees is important to us. This includes joint (sporting) activities such as the company run "B2Run" or our company events as well as transparent feedback discussions and support programs. We discuss our measures for the mental health of our employees separately here.
COCUS Sustainability and Social Responsibility: Innovative IT Projects
In our IT projects, we develop long-term solutions and ensure seamless integration and flexible scaling of applications, software, websites and interfaces:
- Feasibility & Quality: We aim to combine feasibility with quality - this enables us to create low barriers to entry for the necessary ecosystems. In this way, we create company-wide sustainability together with and for our customers, based on automated digital solutions and connectivity down to the last corner.
- Digitalization & Automation: Especially in the area of sustainability, digitalization and automation offer many opportunities for savings and optimization to reduce the carbon footprint. Tailor-made solutions, for example digital apps or connectivity solutions for autonomous machines, devices and remote maintenance options, can replace paper-based and location-based processes. Hardware can also be systemically reduced or upgraded to allow for various software integrations and make individual parts easier to replace and upgrade.
- Analytics & Sustainability Planning: Measuring and understanding data is the first important step in taking measures to reduce the carbon footprint in order to act more sustainably as a company. COCUS supports your company in meeting sustainability targets and government regulations. With excellent, use-case-specific digitalization solutions, you can efficiently analyze your carbon footprint, identify optimization potential and thus reduce it sustainably.
- Awareness: Last but not least, we are actively involved in campaigns on our social media channels: COCUS AG, COCUS Portugal, COCUS Connectivity. As part of our "Trees for Likes" donation campaign, for example, we have been able to plant around 110 trees every year! With our posts and articles, we want to regularly raise awareness of IT-driven benefits in the area of sustainability.
If you would like to find out more ideas and project insights on the topic of “Sustainability with Digitalization”, take a look here.
From supporting our employee development, driving digital progress and implementing sustainable practices, we are shaping a future where small and big decisions contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive world.
