The road to VAST GREEN
VAST FORWARD has been a value-based company since its inception. Trust, love, discipline and growth define how we work together internally, how we shape our customer relationships and what direction we take as a team toward the future. Our values support us in our day-to-day work as a 100% virtual team. In 2020, we added a new, core value: Sustainability.
MISSION UND VISION
As a digital service provider, we want to set up concrete starting points for the optimization of our digital infrastructure. With “Green Data” and our motto “We Do Not Just Compensate”, we stand for lasting and sustainable change – both with VAST FORWARD and in the digital industry.
Our mission as a digital production service provider is to support transformative change in the digital industry. In doing so, we aim to make a sustainable, measurable and long-term contribution to a low-carbon economy.
VAST GREEN - Sustainability in our DNA
As a 100% remote company, VAST FORWARD already carries many sustainable approaches in its DNA: Our office has been almost paperless since 2015, we have no fleet of cars, do not commute, and founder Maren and second chair Matthias live and work energy-, and water self-sufficient on their sailing catamaran.
More than just a label
ur VAST GREEN strategy is based on scientific, globally recognized findings. And because a sustainable future can’t work without the people who shape it, we work collaboratively as a whole team to transform and implement our VAST GREEN strategy.
No Blueprint - A Methodical Approach
Even in 2023, there is no blueprint for SMEs, no established approach for the path to more sustainable business: Products, workflows, dependencies, basic requirements – the parameters seem to be too diverse on the one hand – on the other hand, the consulting landscape is blossoming, as sustainability is a constantly growing business model today.
VAST FORWARD has gone its own way. VAST FORWARD has gone its own way. The idea: our own framework for implementation, an agile framework in which we can test and adapt our approach in sprints to achieve feedback and learnings before making strategic decisions and implementing concrete measures. In work groups, the entire team is working on the results and is involved in the process from the very beginning.
Process management and Targets
Greener with a system
Our VAST GREEN sustainability principles are simple. As is so often the case, we need to start making changes where we can quickly take action ourselves: Waste reduction, a new way of thinking in collaboration, a new way of looking at travel or in social responsibility, how we can build closeness despite distance.
Even before we developed our strategy, our deeper involvement with the topic of “sustainable business” showed us how extensive and complex the subject is.
And: Where do we start, how can we really make a difference? Many companies limit themselves to the simple measure – offsetting CO2 emissions or purchasing certificates.
With our strategy, we go one step further and go beyond offsetting. Our sustainability method “VAST GREEN” is based on the motto “We Do Not Just Compensate”. With this statement we aim to develop a more sustainable future together for VAST FORWARD, a “green”, digital product and thus also future-proof work.
Key sustainability themes for VAST FORWARD
- 1. Living mindfully
- 2. Conserving resources
- 3. Show consideration
- 4. Producing less waste
- 5. Pioneer role – being an industry leader
- 6. Impact-oriented investing
Greener with a system
For the right categorization and the definition of clear sustainability goals, we added expert knowledge to our team: Alyssa Jade McDonald, among others on the board of BNW (German Sustainable Business Association), developed the core of VAST GREEN, the strategy with concrete Objectives and Key Results (OKR), based on the principles formulated from within the team. In the course of the strategy implementation, these are further developed and communicated transparently to customers and stakeholders, such as within the framework of our supply chains. We realise an accompanying, permanent reporting via our project website, on which many insights from the working groups are shared in addition to the strategy.
VAST GREEN OKR's 2021-22
- Increase supply chain transparency
- Benchmark and offset carbon emissions
- Share resources
- DEVELOP GREEN DATA STANDARDS
- ENABLE INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION
- Sustainable finance
Materiality analysis and stakeholders
Sustainability has significantly changed the way we do business. Incorporating the topic of sustainability into all business activities, as we do at VAST FORWARD, is acting in a risk-conscious manner.
We look at our internal processes, and we also actively engage our external network in our sustainability initiative VAST GREEN. In 2022, for example, the main goal of our sustainability initiative was to conduct a stakeholder analysis and to engage stakeholders The analysis of our supply chain and stakeholders is an ongoing process that we started in 2021 and constantly monitor for changes.
To analyze the relevant sustainability issues, we surveyed our extended network on their sustainability efforts in the company by means of a stakeholder survey at the beginning of 2022. In September 2022, we organized a sustainability event for our external network from creation and programming – the VAST FORWARD Developer Day. The goal of the event was to develop a shared learning journey around the topic of sustainability.
In our materiality analysis, we summarized the key sustainability issues and risks for VAST FORWARD and our stakeholders.
SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSPARENCY - HOW SUSTAINABLE IS OUR NETWORK TODAY?
Leading By Example
Despite the fact that sustainability reporting requirements are becoming more and more concrete and more companies are required to disclose their sustainability efforts, this will not apply to companies of our size in the near future. But we, too, are part of digital supply chains. We therefore want to set a good example for our stakeholders and are already positioning ourselves as a sustainable partner.
The constant analysis of our own supply chain also plays an important role in the implementation of our sustainability strategy, as many further steps in the implementation process build on this.
Certifications
Since its founding, the BNW has been centered on the conviction that the ecological, social and economic dimensions are firmly interconnected. The association stands for holistic and collaborative development. Members have the opportunity to network with each other and to jointly promote the ecological and social transformation of the economy. The now 500 members are all driven by a common goal – future-oriented economic activity.
The“Umweltpartnerschaft Hamburg” (Hamburg Environmental Partnership) is an institution for the promotion of voluntary corporate environmental protection in Hamburg and the surrounding area. As an active partner of the network, we voluntarily do more for environmental and climate protection than is required by law, e.g. with regard to company mobility.
Through the local support of the “Umweltpartnerschaft Hamburg”, we also have the opportunity to network and exchange ideas with companies with similar interests in order to tackle the sustainable transformation together.
As an all-women core team, a fair, diverse, gender-equitable working environment, as well as respectful interaction within the team, is very important to us: we want to live diversity and show the male-dominated tech industry that this can work successfully. In doing so, we at VAST FORWARD are committed to an appreciative and prejudice-free working environment that values talents based on their performance – regardless of age, gender and gender identity.
That is why we signed the “Charta der Vielfalt” (Diversity Charter) in 2022. We are convinced that living diversity and showing appreciation has a positive impact on our society.
The Ad Girls Club, wants to change the advertising industry together with agencies and declare war on structural sexism. By signing the Ad Girls Club Manifesto, we publicly commit to the demands of the Ad Girls Club.
In the area of economic responsibility, we currently serve the following SDGs:
