For this reason, over the last two years, the ESG task force (i.e., a group of people from different departments who volunteer time during the quarter to work on environmental, social, and governance projects) has focused our efforts on raising awareness and taking small steps towards becoming a mature organization in terms of sustainability.

One example of this work was the focus group we held in September, led by Darren Lynch. In this meeting, we brought together different members of the SimScale team to discuss a very relevant topic: how does remote working impact our carbon footprint and what can we do to improve the situation?

Doing this type of activity is very important because while we know that remote working can be sustainable, we must identify potential pitfalls and act on them proactively. By understanding the environmental impact of our remote working practices, we can make informed decisions.

At the end of the session, we wanted to have a series of recommended actions to address the pitfalls we identified throughout our meeting… and we found them!

Some of the issues identified that negatively affect the environment when working remotely are:

• Central heating in home offices
• Travel to the head office for events
• Generation of plastic waste

Talking openly during the focus group helped us to share solutions that some of us were already implementing and to discover new ones during the brainstorming. Some points of agreement we came to were:

1. Zoned heating will allow us to stay warm during working hours in our dedicated office/room. Instead of centrally heating rooms that are not in use, the heating can be turned on an hour before moving to those other rooms.
2. Find and use more zero-waste shops. These places stock products but not in an individually packaged form. Encouraging shopping through these means would generate better consumption habits and a reduction in the use of unnecessary plastics.
3. Purchasing energy-saving electronic devices would also help to reduce electricity consumption during the working day. During breaks or at the end of the working day, it is important to switch off or put equipment on standby to avoid unnecessary consumption.
4. Encourage remote meetings and in case of travel, use the sustainability guidelines recommended by SimScale.

This was the first of many open talks SimScale employees will be holding on sustainability and what more we can do to care for our planet. We highly recommend that you take the time to talk about these issues with colleagues, family, and friends because while individual efforts are crucial, collective actions amplify the impact.

Stay tuned for more insights into SimScale and see what the team has been up to on our @lifeatsimscale Instagram feed. Want to start your own SimScale story? Make sure to keep an eye on our careers page for possible openings!

The post Sustainability in Remote Work: Let’s Talk About It! appeared first on SimScale.

So… we decided to get down to work!

What is Appreciation Week at SimScale?

In the context of World Gratitude Day, we decided to dedicate a week to thank our colleagues for their invaluable contribution to making SimScale an amazing place to work. As such, everyone was invited to send their appreciation and kudos through our internal Slack channels, either publicly or privately. This activity was a wonderful reminder of the great team we have and the achievements we have been making in recent times.

Why does this matter?

At SimScale, we know that recognition and appreciation are vitally important topics for motivation and engagement. It allows us to see the impact of our individual contributions on corporate objectives, as well as to enhance the development of our colleagues. We are convinced that actions such as these contribute to the development of a culture of recognition that must be worked on and strengthened on a daily basis. For this reason, the ESG team is working on other initiatives that will soon be implemented. Stay tuned!

Are you appreciating your colleagues enough?

If the answer is no, we recommend that you take 10 minutes and write a nice message to a colleague thanking them for their effort and dedication! Not only does it feel great, but you can also make your colleague’s day! Would you like to thank a colleague but don’t know how to write it? Here are some tips.

To enhance the clarity and effectiveness of the message, we suggest that appreciations should be structured as follows:

Who? Include the person or group of people you want to appreciate.

What? Specify what the person did or is doing that merits appreciation.

How? Describe how their actions make you feel.

When? (optional) If you want to refer to a specific situation, you can include it separately or within the “what.”

Example: I would like to [appreciate/say thank you to] [Colleague name]. Every time I have an issue with [something], he/she/they is/are there to assist me. This makes me feel extremely safe and not unsure or scared at all if any problem arises. 

Stay tuned for more insights into SimScale and see what the team has been up to on our @lifeatsimscale Instagram feed. Want to start your own SimScale story? Make sure to keep an eye on our careers page for possible openings!

The post Appreciation Week at SimScale! appeared first on SimScale.

But first…what is the ESG task force?

It’s a group of volunteers from different teams and departments within SimScale that work together on Environment (E), Social (S), and Governance (G) related projects. In the time it has been functioning, the task force has developed a dozen policies, guidelines, and procedures to strengthen the company’s governance, measured our carbon footprint and achieved Carbon Neutral status during 2023, raised awareness through internal training on topics like Workplace Harassment and Unconscious Bias, and laid the groundwork to collaborate more and directly with our society with initiatives such as the Volunteer Program, among others.

World Environment Day

As we were preparing the Q2 2023 program, we knew we wanted to organize an inclusive activity for everyone, regardless of their location, something fun that would directly impact the environment. The timing was perfect: we knew that World Environment Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers the environment faces and what we can do to protect it, was celebrated in June.

During the meeting, Steffen, one of the members of the ESG task force, suggested: “How about an activity where whoever comes to the office chooses to take the stairs (note: we’re on the fourth floor) instead of the elevator? Based on how many times they do it, we could plant trees in a place that has recently suffered deforestation or similar damage. We can do it throughout the month.”

Done! We had the perfect idea for the occasion and we named it #WorldEnvironmentalMonth! Now, we needed to address a few issues:

1. How do we count the number of times the stairs are used?

No problem! With a couple of components, Steve, another member of the ESG task force, took on designing this amazing counter that each person would press upon entering or leaving the office, before using the stairs.

2. How do we involve our remote colleagues who can’t come to the office?

Well, that’s simple! Stairs are not exclusive to the office. They are everywhere: public transportation, buildings, stores, etc. Each time they choose to use stairs instead of an elevator or escalator, it counts too!

3. How do we record it?

We committed to making a weekly post in a special Slack channel for the #WorldEnvironmentalMonth where we discussed highly relevant topics on the path to sustainability (e.g., plastic pollution, deforestation, water conservation, and renewable energy), along with statistical data and interesting articles. Whenever a colleague used the stairs, they could react with an emoji to the weekly posts!

Thanks to the contribution of everyone who participated in this initiative, SimScale participated in the planting of 100 trees in the Bavaria region of Germany, alongside onetreeplanted. This contribution helped improve an area that had been affected by drought, storms, and bark beetle infestation. Furthermore, using stairs instead of the elevator resulted in saving 10.491 kg of carbon.

We’re thrilled about this activity and look forward to sharing many more with you in the future!

Stay tuned for more insights into SimScale and see what the team has been up to on our @lifeatsimscale Instagram feed. Want to start your own SimScale story? Make sure to keep an eye on our careers page for possible openings!

The post Environmental Month 2023 appeared first on SimScale.

As one of our values says, “We walk the talk”. For this reason, we knew we had to engage as an organization in concrete sustainability actions that would leverage the efforts that many organizations and individuals around the world are making to achieve the global goals defined in the Paris Agreement.

In 2022, we began this journey by establishing an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) task force composed of different SimScale professionals who dedicate time over and above their daily tasks to discuss and find solutions to the problems inherent to this area.

The work of the task force was focused on defining a clear and precise ESG strategy based on sustainability principles and governance. These were the foundations that allowed much more ambitious plans to be put in place, such as our Carbon Neutrality Project.

It was during the same year that SimScale conducted its first-ever Corporate Carbon Footprint measurement for the year 2021. Together with our partner ClimatePartner, we collected and processed all the information required by the GHG Protocol in order to ensure that our processed data was complete.

The process of data collection, measurement, reporting, and analysis took approximately one month and yielded the following results:

After obtaining accurate information on our corporate carbon footprint, we decided to offset 100% of our emissions by financing a project. Three projects were considered and after a vote from all SimScale employees, we decided on a solar energy project in Morocco. This project is significant for the region as it increases the availability of clean, renewable energy while minimizing the exploitation of greenhouse gas fossil fuels, a clear accelerator of global warming.

As a result, we officially became a corporate carbon neutral company for the year 2023. We’re so proud of this!

We know that this is only the beginning of a path with which we hope to lead by example in the preservation and care of our environment. For this reason, during the year 2023, we have been working on, and have on our roadmap, the following projects:

• Measurement of our 2022 corporate carbon footprint and comparative analysis of the results
• Definition of sustainable travel and procurement policies
• Continue to offset our carbon emissions that could not be reduced with the sustainable measures introduced
• Encourage a culture of sustainable consumption of our resources in the office
• Lay the groundwork for the design of a long-term net zero emissions plan

Stay tuned for more insights into SimScale and see what the team has been up to on our @lifeatsimscale Instagram feed. Want to start your own SimScale story? Make sure to keep an eye on our careers page for possible openings!

The post Our Carbon Neutral Journey appeared first on SimScale.