Sustainability has become a crucial aspect of any company’s operations in recent years. As society is getting more environmentally aware, businesses must keep up with the emerging trend and make sure operations are not only effective and efficient but also positively contributing to saving the environment in ways like low emissions, decreased waste production, more effective energy usage, and many more.
Moreover, apart from the chance of gaining a positive reputation, sustainable operations also mean reduced costs because of recycling materials, saving energy, and increased customer trust. All of these, eventually, result in higher profits and more loyal clients. This means, being sustainable does not only help save the environment but also brings higher revenue and more customers.
As a global software development and consulting company, Ascendix does not stand aside the global trend for eco-friendly and sustainable businesses. With our international reach, we strive to be sustainable and protect the environment by all means available to us and are committed to excellence in sustainability just like in all other processes.
We would like to share our achievements in the sphere of sustainability and deliver more detail on what is being done from our side to contribute to reasonable energy consumption, decreasing the amount of waste, and optimal resource use.
Sustainability at Ascendix starts at the core of our operations – the software development practices.
One of our biggest efforts in sustainability was moving all our IT infrastructure to cloud services, which significantly improved energy usage and optimized workflows.
Instead of utilizing on-premises data centers, which take up a huge amount of energy and effort to maintain, we at Ascendix switched to cloud services, which positively contributed to sustainability and also cut costs by more than 25%; continually, we saved even more resources, as the price of cloud infrastructure has lowered even further.
The two cloud services that we decided to use are Azure Microsoft Services and AWS, which are renowned for being green and energy efficient.
Moreover, we continuously monitor the performance and energy usage of our digital infrastructure with cloud providers’ metrics, which helps us to identify any emerging resource waste.
We have implemented server virtualization across our cloud platforms to reduce hardware needs and enhance our operational efficiency with online processes. This way, we ensure optimal performance with minimal resource use.
Ascendix team regularly reviews the virtual servers’ resources usage and adjusts it based on actual performance to prevent waste and maximize efficiency.
This way, we’ve significantly reduced our hardware needs, increased efficiency, and optimized costs, while at the same time staying sustainable, resourceful, and eco-friendly.
Ascendix is especially strategic and resourceful when it comes to utilizing offline office spaces. To reduce our environmental impact and decrease the number of large property spaces, we have established two dedicated offices – in Dallas, Texas, and in Porto, Portugal.
They are designed to meet our offline team needs, create a positive and productive work environment, and maintain a perfect balance with energy-saving needs.
Furthermore, when the offline presence is strictly required during in-house company events or meetings with clients from other European countries, we choose to rent coworking spaces. This lets us be flexible and increases sustainability, as the property space is only used when it is actually needed.
Ascendix Office in Porto, Portugal | Source: Ascendix.com
Our existing offices in Dallas and Porto are optimized with LED lighting, motion-sensor systems, and multiple recycling stations for general waste, paper, and batteries, which allows us to reduce environmental impact and contribute to recycling.
With our shared workspaces and optimized offices, Ascendix not only creates a collaborative and highly productive work environment but also shows our commitment to both effective space management and sustainability practices.
One of the most impactful and effective ways of how Ascendix supports sustainability is by encouraging remote work. While we have established offices in Dallas and Porto for required offline and in-person meetings, the vast majority of Ascendix team members work remotely from the convenience of their homes.
Ascendix provides online workers with all the necessary equipment for work, so that the home office setup is fully appropriate and supportive of our teams’ productivity. This practice also helps save energy and reduce the environmental impact of running large office spaces with their increased energy demands as well as get rid of tiresome and lengthy daily commuting to work, which at the same time has a detrimental impact on the environment because of carbon dioxide emissions increase.
Therefore, as we implement and support remote work practices, Ascendix cuts down on the energy used for transportation during employee commutes and decreases the need for large office resources and high energy consumption, which results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy consumption.
This approach might seem simple, but it has proven to be extremely effective and positive for balancing sustainability with a productive work environment.
Usually, businesses use loads of paper in their operations – for purposes like official correspondence, signing client agreements, and job offers. This means an immense number of trees are cut and processed into paper only to put a written note on the blank or a form.
We believe most of (if not all) these operations can be done online and in digital form. Therefore, Ascendix has done away with paper documents and moved all our operations to online mode.
Now, instead of handling piles of documents (which, by the way, is really inconvenient and does not let you find anything fast), we use digital databases and online tools for e-signature.
The documentation is stored, sorted, filtered, and managed in the form of digital documents like PDFs or Word, with each department having access to its own documents, which eliminates the need for lengthy search processes.
To ensure all the operations at Ascendix are fully legal and compliant, we use official e-signature providers to sign deals with our clients, independent contractors, and employees. With tools like DocuSign, we handle both client agreements and internal documents quickly, conveniently, and securely. This also speeds up the general review process, cuts down on any red tape, and saves forests.
Ascendix provides the hardware for all of the team members, as was already mentioned, but we went a step further in becoming green.
Besides helping to set up effective home offices with high-quality equipment, Ascendix also makes sure that the hardware we send to our team is eco-friendly and energy-efficient so that electricity is saved whenever possible.
At Ascendix, we are committed to promoting sustainability and eco-friendliness among clients and the team as well. This also extends to a relaxing part of work, such as our in-house celebrations and team events like a company anniversary, an employee milestone, Christmas, or other special occasions.
During these, we take the opportunity to give our team members thoughtful, eco-friendly gifts to encourage environmental protection and more resourceful consumption.
Ascendix Team in Porto, Portugal
When presenting our teammates with nice things to celebrate a special event, we always carefully choose gifts that are both useful and sustainable.
For example, for the recent Ascendix anniversary, Ascendians received thermal mugs, which would help to reduce the usage of disposable single-use cups during pleasant outdoor walks.
Also, some time ago all the team members got branded Ascendix t-shirts, which were made from natural materials to ensure that our gifts are practical and environmentally friendly.
On the previous International Women’s Day, our female team members got all-natural cosmetics, made from organic materials.
Moreover, we also use 100% recycled or organic packaging to minimize our environmental impact even further.
To promote mindful consumption among our team members, Ascendix often goes for gifts that would encourage our team members to switch to an eco-friendlier lifestyle.
For instance, recent presents like eco shoppers – reusable shopping bags – help reduce single-use plastic consumption, and practical items like backpacks are reusable and convenient, and at the same time serve a higher aim of saving the ecology.
Eco-Gifts to Ascendians
We at Ascendix are committed to making our operations as sustainable as possible, and we try to do that in all the ways which are available to us.
Surely, it takes more than one person to create a lasting positive impact on the environment, and that is the exact reason why we believe businesses have a great chance and power to drive change in sustainability and save the planet.
By incorporating eco-friendly practices across our operations, we aim to lead by example and inspire others to join us in making a positive difference for our planet.
Yana is a professional in Salesforce consultancy services. She shares valuable insights about Salesforce products and services, helping businesses choose the best solution for their operations.
(22 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...