Introduction
Welcome to our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy covering our offices in Highworth, Wiltshire and Jakarta, Indonesia.
We are proud to publish our commitment to being a socially-responsible, sustainable and ethical business. We believe that it is crucial for SME businesses like Reuben to take positive action in a range of areas to foster excellent working relationships with our clients and suppliers, and advance the wider digital sector in which we operate.
In this, our first CSR Policy (dated August 2023), we are setting out the Principles and Values by which we do business at Reuben, as well as establishing the Programmes of Action, for which we will set measurable targets and annually report on in subsequent years.
Respect
Reuben Digital, and its employees, work within a robust environment of mutual trust and respect. This includes, but is not limited to, respect for colleagues, contractors, suppliers, clients and importantly, the planet.
Integrity
We will conduct our business with openness and integrity. We will not make promises above those which we reasonably foresee we can deliver. Our prices and our work ethics are transparent and we pride ourselves on our collaborative working approach with clients.
Honesty and Accountability
We will communicate our working practices and performance openly and honestly to our employees, clients and suppliers. We place accountability, and the trust that our clients place in us to find the best technological solutions and deliver them, at the core of what we do here at Reuben.
Loyalty
We pride ourselves on our long and close working relationships with our existing clients. The happiness of our clients (through delivery of projects with exceptional communication and project management) is our top priority. Retention of their custom is very important to us at Reuben. We always value being an integral part of our clients’ digital team and continue to offer amazing support as required, after a project is delivered.
Compliance
We conduct business complying with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 and conform to the 7 golden principles as defined by the ICO – that information collected or shared is 1) lawful, fair and transparent; 2) collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes; 3) that data processing is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary; 4) accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; 5) stored appropriately; 6) that the security of data is assured; and 7) that we shall be accountable for the data we store. We work hard to comply with our client’s requests for data privacy and data sharing policies.
Agility
We are proud of the agile way in which Reuben’s team of specialist developers can deliver highly complex solutions within the agreed timeframe.
Sustainability
We are committed to delivering high performance and flexible solutions that don’t cost the earth by having a high carbon footprint. Reuben Digital strives to have a positive impact on the world by helping good companies do good things. We will therefore choose to partner with clients and suppliers in the future whose goals align with ours. Currently, we are just at the start of identifying the principles with which we want to do business and our 2023 plan will see us setting out the direction in which we want to grow as a socially and environmentally-responsible business. This CSR Policy will be updated with these findings in due course.
We want to set standards and milestones for the following Programmes of Action:
Environment
We are investing in becoming an environmentally-conscious business and want to be part of the leading edge of suppliers within the digital sector who are committing to becoming carbon net zero, in advance of the 2050 deadline set by the UK Government for all UK businesses. By reducing our carbon emissions and offsetting the remainder to become carbon net zero, we are acting responsibly and playing our part in limiting global temperature rise by 1.5 degrees to avoid the worse effects of climate change.
We’re starting on this journey now because it aligns with the ethical ethos of the people that make up Reuben Digital. We are part of the digital sector that, almost innocuously, emits up to 3.7% of global CO2 emissions and consumes 4.2% of global primary energy[1]. Compare this to the much-maligned commercial aviation industry which actually only accounts for 2-3% of global carbon dioxide emissions[2]!
It will take time to research and measure our impact on this planet, as well as look at our working practices to work in more environmentally-friendly ways and with lower carbon technology, but this Policy sets out our pledge to start on this journey today. Along the way, we will challenge ourselves - on what values the company stands for, and the beliefs we are guided by, and the way we do business. We have signed the Plant Based Treaty, a campaign to put food systems at the forefront of combating the climate crisis. Moving forward, we are committed to all future company paid-for, client entertainment to be sustainably sourced and 100% plant-based, where possible. We have also signed the Sustainable Web Manifesto which is a public declaration of a shared commitment to create a sustainable internet. By signing this manifesto, we declare our commitment to create a greener web. In addition, we have joined Tech Zero, a group for tech companies committed to climate action, pledging to measure and publish our scope 1-3 emissions.
Technological innovation
At Reuben, bespoke technical innovation is integral to every client project. We also pledge to develop solutions which conform to the following sustainable and ethical principles:
Building accessible websites
Published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG is the consensus standard for digital accessibility and how we measure the accessibility standards of the systems we build. Using Google Lighthouse to measure the design and structure of the sites we build, our target is to produce high scoring new websites and we will work with existing clients to assess the accessibility score for existing sites.
Building secure solutions
Our Microsoft Azure Cloud Hosting solutions are using state of the art Cloud and Virtualisation technologies, based in UK data centres, to provide fully backed up and secure hosting. We install SSLs on all websites and regularly review security risk in conjunction with our clients utilising external penetration testing services for both websites and infrastructure.
We are currently finalising our Cyber Essentials Plus Certification.
We develop software utilising the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) framework.
Building green solutions
The Internet consumes a lot of electricity, from the data centres, transmission networks to the devices that we use to connect to websites. The average web page tested produces approximately 0.5 grams CO2 per page view [3]. For a website with 10,000 monthly page views, that's 60 kg CO2 per year. We use a carbon calculator to measure the amount of Co2 given off by the websites we develop. By finetuning our future technology stack, design principles, using accessible fonts and agile content, we aim to produce new websites that have a lower carbon footprint than the industry average.
Bringing this intentionality into our design and build protocol doesn’t just affect the energy usage – it'll also make a site perform better, make it more user-friendly, more accessible and better optimised for search engines. It’s a win-win for client and planet!
Our websites are hosted by Azure who, as a part of Microsoft, has been 100% carbon neutral since 2012. They’ve committed to being powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025, carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050, they plan to remove all of the carbon from the environment that the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975. We are therefore proud to display the Green Web Foundation’s logo on our own website to show the world that the hosting we have chosen is green.
Another of our major suppliers is Fasthosts – our domain registrar and email provider – and their UK data centres run on 100% renewable energy from offshore wind and biofuel.
Over the next 12 months, we will be evaluating all of our suppliers to see where they are on their sustainable future journey, and pledge to change suppliers if their principles do not align with ours.
Investment in employees
We have been a local employer in Wiltshire for over 20 years and are proud to have opened our first overseas office in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2022.
Our employees are our greatest asset. We strive to be a responsible employer by creating an environment that gives employees the desire and ability to flourish. We place great importance on professional and personal development and we are eager to provide employees with the tools to succeed.
We observe fair labour practices in both the UK and Indonesia, and provide flexibility in working arrangements, including part-time hours, flexible working days, “bring your dog to work” and regular working from home arrangements.
We are an equal opportunities employer and seek to employ an ethically-diverse workforce. We also positively encourage all genders to apply for job opportunities within Reuben Digital and would like to see more women in programming roles.
Reuben Digital has collaborated with Cirencester College since 2015 to offer an apprenticeship scheme for young people wishing to work in the digital sector. Three employees have completed their apprenticeships with us and are now full-time, permanent members of staff, qualified in either a Digital Marketing or Web Developer Level 3 BTEC.
We also support the annual work experience week operated by our local schools, and each year have a young person spend a week at Reuben experiencing what it is like to work in a busy tech agency.
As we work on the detail of our CSR Policy, we will continue to offer employee benefits that empower, upskill and reward our staff.
Community and charitable work
Giving back to the local community, supporting the arts and sporting talent through company sponsorship has been at the heart of Reuben’s philanthropic principles from the company’s start. Some examples of our support are highlighted below:
- Proud sponsor of Luke ‘The Duke’ Watkins, professional cruiserweight boxer since 2015, supporting Luke with the design, building, hosting and ongoing management of his website
- Proud sponsor of 17 year old Domonic Newbury, one of the young rising stars of British Motocross, currently competing in the British Championships
- Built and hosted the original website for the Keep Highworth Green project, when the old Council-owned golf course was earmarked for housing development until the decision was overturned in 2022
- Complimentary hosting services for local Swindon voluntary organisation, Dial a Ride, which has been providing door-to-door transport services to provide a lifeline to help people get out more and be more independent.
- Ray's lifelong passion for Jazz has led to a meeting of minds and a new friendship with the very talented and award-winning jazz saxophonist and author Simon Spillett. Reuben Digital has donated the creation of a formal blog and fresh new website to become a fitting permanent digital home to Simon's historically and culturally-significant writings, pictures and archive material. Ray has also provided financial support (in addition to a crowd funding project), to enable the first new Big Band recordings of the arrangements and compositions of one of the UK’s most important modern jazz musicians, Tubby Hayes, to be made in 50 years. Acting in the capacity of “executive producer”, Ray was privileged to attend the recording session at the fabulous studios at the Trinity School, Croydon.
Having moved offices back to Highworth High Street very recently, Reuben Digital is looking forward to contributing to this vibrant market town and participating in some of the local events and initiatives.
Next update of this Policy
Thank you for reading our first CSR Policy. We will update the Policy with progress made and targets set later in 2023.
References
[1] 4 pitfalls to avoid for an effective CSR policy by Greenly.earth
[2] Aviation Sustainability: Facts and figures
[3] The Website Carbon Calculator