We are a consultancy which develops, designs and provides advice on IT solutions and digital communication. Our activities cover many different disciplines and we deliver a broad range of services.
We always stretch a little further in order to offer our clients proactive and forward-looking solutions which are innovative and sustainable. That means sustainability is closely integrated throughout our company.
In 2019, we established a cross-disciplinary team with members from all our regions which will work with management to make provision for increased collaboration on business development across geography and expertise.
The aim is to make us adaptable in the face of rapid future changes. That will be crucial if we are to remain a player who drives society in a sustainable direction.
We have a clear environmental and social responsibility which we take seriously, and we want to contribute to long-term value creation. Our goal is to create continuous value for our clients, their customers and society as a whole.
In line with global sustainability guidelines, our contribution is made through projects pursued in addition to our own operations. One of our core philosophies has always been “show, don’t tell”, which reflects the way we work, collaborate and communicate.
Although creating financial results is important for every enterprise, we also generate additional value of a non-commercial character. We do this in order to accept greater responsibility as a business for society and the environment.
Our new vision, adopted in 2019, is that “we lead the way and build tomorrow’s society”. Combined with our ambition of being “the most trustworthy consultancy with the most satisfied employees and clients”, this defines the way we work on sustainability.
Our approach is holistic and based on integrity and openness, and we are concerned to ensure that we concentrate our work on sustainability and socially responsible investment – in line with environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles – where it is most needed.
To achieve this, we have identified areas with the greatest relevance for us in relation to the social, environmental and economic effects we have through our operations and at our stakeholders. One measure has been to involve more of our most important partners in seeing where we can make a difference and contribute to continuous improvement.
Our senior management participated in a workshop in early 2020 in order to learn from other organisations and from our own employees with leading-edge expertise and experience on sustainability.
Management wants to raise the level of our ambitions for how we understand and manage the attainment of our own social, environmental and financial goals.
We are now working to identify how we can best integrate sustainability even more effectively in our core business, and are taking steps to take a more holistic and long-term view of our environmental footprint.
We will develop a corporate vision and an ESG-specific strategy for sustainability, which will look more closely at how we can take greater responsibility for and contribute to developing a better world.
We are constantly seeking new initiatives, and make provision for open dialogue, information sharing and contributing suggestions. As a result, we invite employees and external partners to engage in dialogue through a number of channels.
The workforce is our most important resource and forms the core of who we are as a business. The “Bouvetdeler” (Bouvetshares) concept occupies a central place in our values, allowing everyone – regardless of region and role – to share what they find interesting and relevant on our website. That creates an openness which we value as a company.
We also have other sharing arenas, such as BouvetOne. This is the collective term for our internal professional conferences, where employees can hold workshops or give presentations on subjects they are enthusiastic about.
In addition, we ensure professional development and job satisfaction through seminars, certification, learning, and opportunities to form professional and social groups for pursuing various subjects and interests.
Two examples are “security”, a technical group with attracts much engagement and provides interesting and relevant events as well as collective sharing of professional expertise.
In addition comes “berthing” – a concept for welcoming new recruits which allows then to build expertise, gain confidence in the consultancy role, and secure a sound professional and social network.
We organise a number of internal competitions, participate in hackathons and organise an annual outing to celebrate our foundation as a company. In addition, three members of the workforce sit on our board.
We are listed on Oslo Børs (the Oslo stock exchange) with long-term investors, and conduct an annual share programme for employees so that all of us can obtain an ownership stake in our company. That puts us in a unique position, where we can achieve a high level of commitment.
Quarterly presentations are provided for our investors, which give them an insight into our development and allow them to put questions to the CEO and CFO.
We ran ESG interviews in 2020 with some of our largest shareholders and with employees who have participated in the share programme. That gave us feedback on how our investors perceive sustainability trends in general as well as an insight into their expectations for our future work in this area.
We conduct an annual client satisfaction survey, and our long-term client relationships give us good and useful feedback on what they expect from us in terms of both sustainability and our social contribution.
Since many of our employees work at our clients, we are able to build close relations with them and engage in regular dialogue. We believe that closeness to the client is crucial in delivering good solutions with the right quality.
A local presence, with 10 offices in Norway and three in Sweden, equip us to understand the client’s language, culture and business. As a long-term supplier to and digitalisation partner for many clients, we are experiencing an increased demand to devote attention to sustainability and to accept an active environmental responsibility.
Together with our clients, we are concerned to include sustainability in assignments where this is relevant. We therefore work continuously to develop expertise in this area.
That allows us to offer solutions which help our clients to become more sustainable. Our approach is to contribute to an appreciation of how digitalisation can be an important instrument for our clients.
Partners, suppliers and society as a whole
Our partners and suppliers are also important for our further development. We conduct regular dialogues to meet the requirements set with regard to sustainability.
Playing an active social role is important for us, and includes support for local initiatives and non-profit organisations. We do this through communication, board representation, and participating in and contributing to national and international conferences.
To integrate sustainability in social development, we see that the ability to adapt to continuous change is necessary. We as a company must take on board and respond to input from and the needs of our employees and society as a whole.
A global outbreak of a respiratory infection caused by a previously unknown coronavirus (Covid-19) is currently under way. We are responding to this event with flexibility and adaptability.
Our employees are working from home in a balance between job and domestic life. Attention is concentrated on everyone – include the families of employees – feeling safe both at work and in the home.
The need to strengthen a sense of belonging and to continue building on our culture is particularly great now that our collaboration arenas are exclusively digital. This means we must establish new and inclusive types of meetings and social arenas.
Working together, we have to reinforce our Bouvetdeler sharing concept with new forms of collaboration, and to build and establish new networks across regions and specialist disciplines.
The world around us is perceived to be uncertain, but a crisis like this has provided positive environmental and climate effects such as reduced air pollution.
Creativity increases as we work to master and navigate in a more unpredictable society. That triggers our ability to innovate, which can help us to see new opportunities for developing a more sustainable society – even after these conditions have passed.