How all BeFrank employees contribute to sustainability

Sustainable business operations are a key part of our strategy and we involve all BeFrank employees in this mission. Everyone contributes towards achieving our shared sustainability ambition. Would you like to know more about our personal goals and whether this approach might work for your organisation?

Sustainable business operations

What do we do ourselves? We keep our own CO₂ footprint as low as possible and operate with respect for nature and the environment. We work entirely digitally and encourage employees to commute by public transport. Our office design incorporates many reused materials and new additions are made from sustainable materials, ensuring 100% reusability. Since April 2024, our efforts have been recognised with a B Corp certification, which we are incredibly proud of! At the same time, we acknowledge that sustainability is an ongoing journey. There is always room for improvement – whether by reducing energy consumption or by engaging in more volunteer work. Every year, we set new goals to push ourselves further.

Employees as sustainability ambassadors

Our employees also play a role in achieving our sustainability ambition. We encourage them to reflect on their contribution by asking: ‘How will you contribute to sustainability at BeFrank in the coming year?’ This helps them consider how sustainability impacts their work and define their own goals, which are then documented as part of the performance review cycle. What makes this unique is that everyone approaches it differently. The goals range from small to ambitious, technical to health-focused and personal to work-related. To inspire others, here is a selection of this year’s personal goals.

The sustainability goals of BeFrank employees

Each quarter, I organise a BeVolunteer outing to ensure every colleague in our team takes advantage of their volunteering leave this year.

My goal is to keep BeFrank’s cloud data usage as low as possible – ideally even reduce it. Concretely, this means that I monitor usage and, for major changes, ensure that proposals adequately consider the impact on our consumption.

My goal is to always cycle (on a speed pedelec) from Almere to the office – a return trip of 70 km, totalling about 5,000 km annually.

I aim to buy and sell more of my work clothes through second-hand channels.

As a BeFit coach, I will organise at least two mental and physical well-being workshops for all colleagues this year. Additionally, I regularly organise running or strength training sessions during lunch or after work.

I plan not to use the lease car 100 times and bike to the office instead, saving approximately 1,400 km of car travel. But most importantly, it gives me a wonderfully clear head!

When optimising internal business processes, I aim to make them as sustainable as possible, for example by ensuring even more communication with employees happens digitally instead of by post.

I aim to send as few email attachments as possible to reduce storage space and CO₂ emissions.

I limit myself to flying no more than once a year. This year, I did not fly at all.

My goal was to buy nothing new for four months – and I succeeded! It gave me a sense of calm.

At the end of the year, employees review their progress with their managers. These sustainability goals have no impact on the outcome of the performance review, but serve to raise awareness. This approach encourages us – and hopefully others – to do even better!

Would you like to know more?

Interested in our sustainable business operations? Take a look here. If you have any questions, our Sustainability Project Manager, Joy Hofman, would be happy to share more about our sustainability ambition. You can contact her at joy.hofman@befrank.nl.