Case study: How thinkstep promotes responsible business practices

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2018 Sustainability Report thinkstep identified a range of material issues, such as sustainable growth, thought leadership, employees/labour, products and services, energy & carbon. Among these, promoting responsible business practices stands out as a key material issue for thinkstep.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups thinkstep engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics thinkstep carried out an in-depth survey among 143 stakeholders, and also obtained stakeholders’ comments and feedback on material sustainability topics through meetings and telephone interviews with stakeholders’ representatives.

What actions were taken by thinkstep to promote responsible business practices?

In its 2018 Sustainability Report thinkstep reports that it took the following actions for promoting responsible business practices:

• Implementing a Code of Conduct
• In 2014, thinkstep introduced the thinkstep Code of Conduct, which outlines the expected behaviours of all of its employees, directors and officers. For sustainable success, it is essential that thinkstep makes business decisions and treats all stakeholders ethically and in compliance with all applicable legal requirements. Accordingly, thinkstep conducts and reports all financial transactions (including invoicing) accurately, truthfully and completely, and complies with the anti-corruption laws of the countries in which it does business. thinkstep does not make any direct or indirect payments or promises of payment to government officials for the purpose of inducing the individual to misuse his or her position to obtain or retain business for thinkstep and provides timely, regular and reliable information about its activities, structure, financial situation and performance to shareholders.

• Promoting transparency and accountability
• As thousands of people around the globe use thinkstep’s GaBi and SoFi Software solutions, it is thinkstep’s duty to make sure that the user experience for both solutions always meets the needs of its clients. Thus, in addition to existing feedback mechanisms, thinkstep invites all its clients once a year to a user group meeting where it collects their feedback and lets them exchange their unique user experiences. The information thinkstep receives during these face-to-face meetings, plays an important role in defining the roadmap and new features for its software developers. thinkstep maintains both GaBi and SoFi as highly secure softwares, is very aware that it works mostly with sensitive data during its consulting work, and has not received any substantiated complaints concerning breaches of its clients’ privacy.

• Applying a Sustainable Purchasing Policy
• thinkstep envisions a world in which the production, distribution, use and disposal of goods and services enhance the long-term health and vitality of society, economies and the planet. Thus, a key element in thinkstep’s “Reducing our Environmental Footprint” pillar is to adopt sustainable practices at work and at home and to increase employee awareness of the impacts of their choices through active engagement in environmental and social impact reduction activities. thinkstep is committed to walking its own sustainability talk and to leading by example and as a result, has developed and implements a Sustainable Purchasing Policy and associated Guidelines, specifically to encourage the adoption of more sustainable purchasing practices at thinkstep, help reduce its environmental footprint and enhance its positive social impact. The Sustainable Purchasing Policy and Guidelines document was signed in 2015 by thinkstep’s CEO and CFO at that time. Through this policy and the associated guidelines, thinkstep encourages its staff, who are responsible for procurement, to purchase quality products and services at competitive prices, while considering key environmental and social benefits over the entire life cycle of the product or service, including:
  • Energy and water efficiency
  • Reduced resource requirements
  • Recyclability
  • Biodegradability
  • Minimal packaging
  • Durability
  • Workplace health and safety
  • International labour standards and human rights
  • Total cost of ownership
• One indirect way thinkstep increases employee engagement is raising environmental awareness through its Sustainable Purchasing Policy, which is applied to all purchases related to office electricity, computers and electronics, paper and printing and catering and food. Purchasing was chosen because it is common to all thinkstep offices, and as such, visible to all employees. thinkstep purchases green electricity in its headquarters in Stuttgart and its office in Berlin, while its long-term target is to switch to green electricity in all its offices around the world where such electricity is available. thinkstep’s IT department purchases computers and monitors (and other devices) that have achieved an EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) gold or silver rating and that allow thinkstep to enable energy-save mode. thinkstep also has environmentally responsible e-waste disposal in place in accordance with local regulations, in all its offices worldwide. When it comes to paper, thinkstep makes sure that all paper products meet the specifications outlined under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Recycled label (or equivalent) and that the same specifications are applied when it comes to choosing printing service providers for marketing materials and client publications. Furthermore, thinkstep’s catering events are planned with preference for regional / local / organic food and vegan / vegetarian options and take into consideration ethical standards for farming. For example, all coffee and boxed tea purchased by thinkstep must be organic, shade-grown and fair trade certified. In 2018, thinkstep purchased water dispensers to reduce bottled water in its headquarters and works locally with different offsetting partners. thinkstep also conducts an annual review of its sustainable purchasing policy and guidelines, and reports internally and externally on its progress regarding its action plan. During this review, the Sustainability Officer works in collaboration with the rest of the thinkstep sustainability team (and other internal teams) to make recommendations to improve thinkstep’s sustainability programme, on an ongoing basis. This policy applies to all thinkstep operating regions and offices.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures

Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Business theme: Anti-corruption

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by thinkstep, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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