Sustainability Statement

A message from our CEO, Des Lekerman:

Our core values of ‘Think greater’, ‘Better together’ and ‘Do what’s right’ mean everything we do at Kocho is naturally grounded in the principles of sustainability. We are committed to a sustainable future, improving our social and economic environments, and offering meaningful jobs in a workplace that supports diversity, inclusion, and openness. We are also committed to delivering services in a way that minimises their impact on the natural environment, while at the same time promoting and maintaining the sustainability and business integrity of our clients.

What we’re already doing

• We’re already a Microsoft Gold Partner for Identity and Security, and have signed their Partner Pledge committing us to work towards a more sustainable future by:
  • Growing talent in the industry
  • Enhancing diversity & inclusion
  • Shaping a desirable world
• In September 2023, we completed our first sustainability assessment with EcoVadis and we’re delighted to have been awarded a Bronze EcoVadis Medal with a score that places us in the top 50% of companies assessed by them.
• We help our clients achieve their own sustainability objectives by developing solutions in the Cloud that reduce their reliance on on-prem infrastructure, thus reducing their own emissions and power consumption.
• Our offices are geographically distant from each other and many of our people work remotely or on client sites, so we’re constantly looking at ways to reduce the environmental impact of business travel through the use of video conferencing, virtual meetings, and events. We also source eco-friendly items and clothing wherever possible for our people to use.
• We encourage our people to support charities close to their heart and we match donations. We’ve supported the Women’s Refuge for the last few years at Christmas and we’re aiming for our offices to each support a number of charities as part of supporting our local communities.
• Our Sustainability & Compliance team works across the business to ensure we continue to work ethically and live up to our core values:
  • We treat all our people with dignity and respect, celebrating diversity and inclusion in the workplace;
  • We have a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of bullying, harassment, fraud, bribery or corruption;
  • We will not deal with businesses we suspect of being involved in modern slavery practices or who utilise child labour, and will avoid dealing with those who engage in practices harmful to the environment;
  • We will not do business with companies linked to oppressive, hateful or predatory regimes.

In the pipeline

• We’re working towards achieving ISO 14001 certification to formalise our Environmental Management System (EMS). This will complement our existing certifications in ISO 27001 (Information Security) and ISO 9001 (Quality).
• We want to better measure our emissions, power and water usage, so we can include accurate figures as part of our annual reporting and also take steps to reduce this usage further.

For the future

We’re just getting started on our sustainability journey and our aspirations continue to grow. Future plans include:

• Becoming carbon neutral as a business;
• Further developing the diversity of our workforce, giving opportunities to those from previously under-represented or under-privileged groups;
• Developing apprenticeship and graduate programmes to support the next generation of engineers, analysts, managers, and generalists joining our business;
• Building closer links with our local communities to create clean and safe environments in which to live and work;
• Driving sustainability in our supply chain by integrating it into our procurement and supplier management processes so we can partner with sustainable companies;
• Achieving a Silver EcoVadis Medal, which will place us in the top 25% of companies assessed by them – the next stop will be Gold!