Sustainability Policy and Practice

Social

Understanding and respecting the customer is the focus of our work. When we undertake work for a customer, we become partners with a mutual stake in a successful outcome. Honesty is always the best policy. Our obligation to our customer is to be a trusted advisor, to deliver a quality product, and to ensure they are aware and in control as work progresses.

We believe in knowledge interchange with our colleagues and our customers. We strive for a collegial atmosphere and encourage everyone to contribute to improve our products and practices. Everyone benefits when individuals can develop professionally and find ways to innovate. We must all strive for a healthy work-life balance.

We believe in giving back to our community. In 2009, we began making a donation to charity during the holiday season in lieu of corporate gifts. Charities are selected that are important to our employees.

Economic

microworks strives to provide fair value for fair work. We all win – or we all lose. By helping our customers make strategic, longer term investments in technology, we maximize impact and minimize waste. We invest time in understanding a customer to ensure they obtain the best business solutions. We recommend solutions that are sustainable, upgradable, and manageable.

Every year we participate in Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration SIGNALS banquet. The event provides a forum for sustainable development students to liaise with the Ottawa’s business community.

Environmental

microworks’ green logo and recycled paper stationery was adopted over 20 years ago to signal our interest in environmental management. Our environmental policy ensures that the company and our employees work to reduce our environmental footprint.

Re-Use of Materials

Packaging materials and office supplies are reused whenever possible. Employees are encouraged to re-use packaging materials for personal use, e.g., boxes.
Surplus equipment is offered as a donation to local charities.

Recycling

Surplus equipment that cannot be donated is disposed of through authorized recycle centres.
Blue and black box recycling is practiced in the office (for cans, bottles, plastic and paper).
Batteries are collected and disposed of through authorized recycle centres.
Toner cartridges are recycled through the manufacturer.
Photocopier and printer paper is composed of 100% recycled material.

Minimize Use of Paper

microworks has an electronic document management system that significantly reduces the number of paper documents created.

All printers and desktops are configured for two-sided grey-scale printing as default.
Meetings are conducted with electronic documents rather than distributed handouts.
Employees are encouraged to ‘think twice’ before printing.
Marketing campaigns are designed for electronic information distribution.

Energy Efficient Infrastructure

All equipment purchased for the office is Energy Star compliant.
microworks partners with manufacturers of Energy Star compliant products, whose corporate policies conform to our environmental policy.
An energy audit service is offered to clients requiring infrastructure assessments.
Low-energy lights are used throughout the office.

Reduce Travel Emissions

Telecommuting options are available to employees.
Many clients are located in the downtown core, where microworks’ head office is located. Walking to client sites is encouraged and preferred by employees.
Online meetings are used to minimize travel to clients who are more distantly located.

Innovation

Employees are encouraged to suggest better ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.