UNGC, The Diversity Pact and green IT

UNGC

A step forward in our commitment to sustainable development!

Mazars in Denmark is pleased to announce that we have joined the United Nations Global Compact initiative — a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices.

With this announcement, we are proud to join thousands of other companies globally committed to taking responsible business action to create the world we all want.

The UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 15,000 companies and 3,800 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and more than 69 Local Networks.

Mazars in Denmark embraces a culture of integrity and responsible business practices that can be seen all over our organization, from strategy through business relations to operations. Now, as a member of the UNGC, we have taken another important step towards strengthening corporate sustainability. Therefore, with this adhesion, we reaffirm our commitment to the above-mentioned values and to the ten universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, as well as our compromise to take actions that advance the Sustainable Development Goals as part of our commitment to contribute to address global challenges.

“We are proud to commit Mazars in Denmark to the 10 principles. By making a commitment, we also achieve a direction, guidelines for our areas of action and priorities for active processes and their evaluation” noted Pia Lillebæk, Managing Partner.

As a Participant of the initiative, we encourage you to visit our profile on the UN Global Compact website and learn more about our sustainability work at https://www.mazars.dk/Home/Services/Sustainability-and-ESG

The Diversity Pact

”It is time for joint action for diversity. It is necessary, and it is now - but it will not be easy. Therefore, it is important that we stand together” – The Diversity Pact, Dansk Erhverv.

As a signatory of the Diversity Pact, an initiative launched by Dansk Erhverv, Mazars in Denmark shows support to the 15 recommendations or framework conditions and commitment to the 5 transformation principles proposed by the above-mentioned initiative to create and achieve better framework conditions to foster diversity and inclusion in the Danish labour market (for more information, see the recommendations and transformation principles in the attached documents).

Joining the Diversity Pact is an excellent opportunity for Mazars in Denmark to contribute, together with other signatory companies, to this initiative with new proposals, ideas and experiences to address the challenges that the Danish labour market is facing, which will allow us all create real change.

With this objective, the Diversity Pact calls for action in companies and for an open political debate about the framework conditions that impact the work with diversity and inclusion in Danish companies and organizations, which entails the culture not only at the workplaces, but also around the workplaces. Therefore, the proposals are related to three main areas of action, each one of them with an impact on the framework conditions for diversity and inclusion at work, in families, and in society:

• The gender gap in educational choices and the labour market.
• Work-life balance.
• Denmark as an international labour market with room for diversity.

At Mazars in Denmark, we are very pleased to have joined the Diversity Pact and to have the opportunity to work towards and positively influence the diversity and inclusion framework and situation, not just in our company, where we are proud of already having a strong commitment to these issues, but also in the Danish labour market and society.

Green IT

Green IT or green computing can be defined as the environmentally responsible and eco-friendly use of IT equipment, including practices such as the following:

• Designing energy-efficient computers and other digital devices.
• Manufacturing IT equipment in a way that seeks to minimize waste, energy and emissions produced during this process.
• Using electronic devices in an eco-friendly manner, reducing their electricity consumption to the minimum possible (e.g. using the sleep mode when away for a long period of time).
• Giving a second life to the IT equipment (reusing, reselling and disposing of it in a sustainable way).

As part of Mazars commitments to both lower its environmental footprint (identified as a material / urgent issue to address) and contributing to the social pillar of ESG, at Mazars in Denmark, we have started our path towards the green IT. By giving a second life to the IT equipment that we no longer use, we have contributed to the so essential circular economy, at the same time that we work towards the Sustainable Development Goals 12 (Responsible production and consumption) and 13 (Climate action).

In this sense, our initiative helped prevent 11,55 tons of CO2 emissions from being released to the atmosphere. Furthermore, as we, at Mazars in Denmark, have always done, also this time the reused devices that no longer served a purpose will be recycled in an environmentally friendly way, which means that the resources composing these devices will go back into the production of new devices, ensuring that nothing goes to waste, which avoids greenhouse gas emissions from being released.

* The figures are indicative and are based on calculations made by the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. Contact Foxway if you wish more details about the calculation methods used.

Apart from contributing to the environmental pillar of ESG, our green IT action will allow other people to access to affordable electronic devices that they perhaps could not acquire otherwise, thus supporting also to the social pillar of ESG.

“Mazars in Denmark has always ensured environmentally friendly disposal of IT equipment that has reached the end of its useful life according to our measuring points. However, this is the first time that we send equipment for recycling in this way and give the opportunity for the products to have a second life without scrapping. We hope that it provides opportunities for some who would otherwise not be able to afford equipment, and it is thought-provoking to see how proportionately large a saving there is on greenhouse gas emissions in relation to the relatively modest work effort we have put into this change”, noted Kurt Christensen, Managing Partner.