Environmental Sustainability Manager Yuliia Kuvitanova has completely changed her career path since returning from maternity leave. When she was off work, she thought a lot about the environment and future of mankind and learned about the sustainable development goals put forward by the UN. The breaking point was her family trip to the Carpathians, where no one took away the garbage, so you could clearly see how much waste one family produces each day. Yuliia came across a sustainable development course offered by the University of Rotterdam. She found many interesting practical cases and, for the first time, thought about applying this knowledge in her workplace.

When it was time to return to work, Yuliia said she wanted to pursue sustainable environmental development. The management agreed.

How a sustainable environmental approach has changed the way the company operates

Yuliia’s job is to help other departments move towards environmental sustainability. She mostly works with the administration and IT department, which have the largest physical infrastructure and produce the most garbage, consume the most energy, and have a choice on its sources. One of the key focuses is working with the power supply network.

“A company that integrates a sustainable development approach also brings all its contractors and other corporate partners into its culture. I don’t want to work with people who don’t share my philosophy. So it is important for SoftServe that our partners share this position and adhere to certain environmental standards and vice versa,” she says.

Next year, Yuliia plans to focus more on the implementation of sustainable development requirements from offices. There are organizations certifying buildings that meet sustainability standards. These standards relate to many things, such as what kind of land plot a building is constructed on, whether the wishes of the locals have been taken into account, whether the environmental impact has been considered, the materials used to build it, ergonomics, and accessibility for people with disabilities. All these criteria are included in the sustainability certification.

“This approach requires more investments, however, it’s the company’s responsibility to itself, to society and to its employees. Environmentally sustainable business is more attractive for both its customers and employees,” Yuliia explains.

In addition, the company has become meticulous about sorting garbage and dealing with hazardous waste, and has made it company policy that any equipment that can still be used must be reused either internally or externally. The company sells or donates more than 90% of the equipment it has already written off. The same applies to furniture.

There are also some more subtle changes that affect the company’s environmental footprint, such as scheduling the end of the working day. This allowed the company to reduce its energy consumption by 30%.

The company is also looking into renewable energy. However, this is difficult for the company due to Ukraine’s poor will to switch to modern models of energy markets work. Still, Yuliia is positive that it is only a matter of time. She is looking forward to the changes and is monitoring the situation on the market in order to buy renewable energy directly. Meanwhile, producing its own green energy can be a transitional solution, so the company plans to install solar panels. However, it is not only such large-scale issues that prove that the country is not yet ready to engage with the issue of responsible consumption.

“In the offices, we wanted to change garbage bins to suitable garbage stations, but it turned out that such stations are simply not available for sale in Ukraine. Then we found an option in Poland, but they were huge. Nevertheless, we don’t give up and continue looking for the best option.”

/uploads/stories/the-culture-of-eco-sustainability-in-the-company-becomes-a-powerful-driver-for-people-to-choose-an-ecological-lifestyle/yuliia-kuvitanova-softserve-environement.jpg?1656680548036

Getting people involved in caring for the environment

“Fortunately, the company is willing to make such changes, however, they must be recognized and implemented by employees. Thus, sometimes you need to convince and engage people. I always try to involve people at the stage of decision-making, so everyone clearly understands what we’re doing and why,” says Yuliia.

For instance, Lviv now has a company that provides separate garbage collection services, and SoftServe contracted them. Their offices in Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipro and Kharkiv do not have such contractors, so the office administrators there have being working hard to source them.

In order to involve as many employees as possible, Yuliia plans to launch a training course and shape the company’s ecological culture together with other departments.

It is very important to speak about sustainabilty, because the more we speak, the more we serve an example, the faster it will become a norm. Some of our suppliers didn’t know about sustainable development. So we’re doing much work to spread this culture inside and outside the company.

This value is embodied directly in the product that SoftServe creates and sells. In particular, the company is working on sustainable IT solutions for the environment, education and healthcare.

SoftServe continues its way towards sustainability, and in 2022 it announced four ambitious environmental goals to achieve by 2032. Among them, to become a carbon neutral business, reach net zero waste, design sustainable offices and develop IT solutions that help to address ecological challenges.

“By building the culture of sustainability and eco-awareness inside the company, associates learn from it and adopt it at home – they start to sort garbage, better care about the environment, and use less plastic. So, such an approach from business becomes a powerful driver for many people to choose an ecological lifestyle,” resumes Yuliia.