Sustainable Business

All Polymedia Europe technical employees have received the training and qualifications necessary to install and maintain our solutions to a safe and high standard. This includes VCA VOL certification, which ensures their capability to perform in a manner consistent with best practice with regards to health, safety and the environment. As an additional guarantee of safe practice, we have appointed emergency response officers within our team.

From a straightforward meeting room to international conference capabilities, we aim to deliver to you a solution that meets your requirements and exceeds your expectations. The VCA VOL certification is part of our commitment to offering you the best possible experience.

All employees within our company who (may) come into contact with classified NATO, EU and/or ESA information have been appropriately screened and are in possession of a Personal Security Clearance Certificate (PSCC).

Whenever we use products and services from third parties, we also try to apply our CSR values. One way in which we do this is by working with local companies. This ensures minimal travelling time for meetings and that the delivery of the product is faster. We also look to enter partnerships with businesses who practice sustainable business operations.

Another way in which we participate in society is via our sponsorship activities. For example, we sponsor a cycling club in the Netherlands and a jeux de boules association in France. We are always to open to considering such sponsorship requests.

When we come into possession of used products from our customers, we always try to give them a second life. For example, we used old monitors that reached the end of their life with a client company, as TVs to provide entertainment for young people at another organisation.

Electric transport has positive effects on air quality, noise pollution and the climate. Electric cars produce considerably less harmful emissions, such as CO2, nitrogen and particulate emissions. For these reasons, several employees at Polymedia Europe drive an electric lease car. Our goal is to have a fully electric fleet of vehicles in the company within 5 years. Our employees are on the road a lot – that’s our job – but in this way we hope to contribute to helping the climate.

Even better than electric driving, is working from home – even when it’s just one or two days a week. By working in the cloud, we can access our programs and files anytime and anywhere. And with tools such as Microsoft teams or Zoom, consultation and meetings are also possible remotely.

Good working conditions are part of CSR. There are many reasons for a company to provide good working conditions. It motivates employees, reduces absenteeism and accidents in the workplace, encourages people to stay longer within their job and offers a company a better image and more efficient production. Polymedia is involved in ensuring good working conditions on a daily basis. We do this via courses and a posted campaign and by team building, including team outings outside of work time. Work hard, play hard is out motto.

Environmentally conscious entrepreneurship starts with creating a sustainable environment. We are also working on this every day within Polymedia. Some examples include:

• We are in the process of replacing all our incandescent and fluorescent lamps with energy-saving or LED lamps.
• We are always conscious of our air conditioning and heating. We keep windows and doors closed in the winter as much as possible and open them in the summer for cooling.
• We turn off the lights in areas where no one is present.
• We turn off computers and screens if they are not being used.
• We consciously opt for more sustainable products when a device needs to be replaced.

Polymedia also separates waste. We have a cardboard/paper container and a separate container for (commercial) waste. These are collected by a party who plan the entire collection route in advance to avoid coming exclusively to collect our containers. We have deliberately selected the company for this environmentally conscious approach to their work.

We ask our colleagues to stop and think before printing. Is it really necessary or can it be done digitally? We encourage the use of Whatsapp and e-mail or, (even better) approaching colleagues directly in person. We chose to add a phrase to our signature encouraging this approach. This way we create awareness among colleagues, customers and external partners:

Denk aan het mileu voordat u deze e-mail print / Think of the environment before printing this e-mail / Pensez à l’environnement avant d’imprimer cet e-mail

Everyone in our organization has added this sentence to their signature. Since we have many international customers in addition to those in the Netherlands, we have selected three languages.

When sending packages or pallets, we typically use recycled boxes, pallets and reusable packaging material. Sending parcels causes more pollution than might be expected. This is not only due to the packaging material, but also because the package has to get from A to B and is sometimes returned.

As a result, we have studied the right packaging material and box and also considered who to use to send our packages and their track record for sustainability. To prevent returns, we only send products to our customers that fully meet their needs. Our sales and purchasing departments are aware of this policy.

We address each other as a team in the field of sustainability. When people do not realize that sustainability is important, it is difficult to bring about change. That is why we explain the necessity and hold each other accountable for this. We explain, for example, why it is not smart to have the heating on and open the window at the same time. We also reward positive behaviour in the field of sustainability.