Environmental Policy

To minimise the environmental impact of our work, we shall:

• Comply with all relevant environmental legislation.
• Commit to using sustainable travel systems whenever possible.
• Work to prevent pollution, reduce business waste, and minimise the consumption of resources.
• Educate and Motivate employees to work in an environmentally responsible manner.
• Commit to using suppliers and subcontractors that also work in an environmentally responsible manner.

On top of this, we're also a committed member of 1% for the Planet and are keen carbon off-setters.

Since 2020, we've offset 13 tonnes of office carbon emissions

As a remote company with no fixed office, we carbon offset for our employees instead.

Employees calculate the carbon footprint of their house using the WWF Footprint Calculator and then choose a project to sponsor from the Gold Standard. Etch then purchases those carbon credits on behalf of the employee.

If you're interested in finding out more about carbon offsetting, then the Wikipedia page is a good starting point.

Nerdy bit: The calculation we use is Math.ceil(${totalEmissions} * 0.${homeValue})

Since 2020, we've offset 0.5 tonnes of travel carbon emissions

Wherever possible, employees should travel to business meetings, meetups, and conferences using public transport.

All travel emissions are offset.

We use hosting providers that use green data centres and have strong environmental policies.

Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean uses a variety of data centres. We use their LON1 and FRA1 cloud regions, hosted in EQUINIX LD5 and Interxion respectively.

Heroku

Heroku is owned, managed, and run by Salesforce.

Vercel

Vercel uses a variety of cloud providers. You can see their Green Energy Policy on their FAQs.

While we're a pretty paperless company, sometimes we do need to write things down or print things out. We make sure to buy recycled or FSC-certified paper for our printing.

When we buy swag for ourselves or other lucky people, we make every effort to buy sustainable products. That means we look for organic, fair-trade, and sustainable products to stick our logo and slogans on.

We recycle our old hardware at local council facilities (after we've securely wiped all data from them!)

In this policy, the following terms are defined as follows:

Us/We/Etch

Etch Software Limited

Although this Policy explicitly covers the responsibilities of staff, it does not cover the matter exclusively. Other Etch policies, standards, and procedures define additional responsibilities. All users are required to read, understand and comply with other policies, standards, and procedures. If any staff member does not fully understand anything in these documents, they should consult with the persons listed under responsibilities. The aforementioned persons shall resolve any conflicts arising from this policy.