All of our Roots are important, but this Root is possibly the most defining as it is an enabler to the others.
We operate around all three letters of ESG. The third letter, G, can be considered the one that drives most firms, significantly larger ones. A firm’s Governance dictates how it makes decisions and, ultimately, how it behaves. This Daisy Action Root focuses on our Corporate Governance, which is divided into three parts, starting with our main Corporate Governance Framework, Wates. It also includes being a signatory of UN-Compact and striving to become a B-Corp.
The practices and procedures of these external bodies align with the UN-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). Given the nature of ICT throughout its lifecycle.
At Daisy, we recognise that as an IT company, we have a direct or indirect impact on every one of the UN-SDGs. This recognition underpins our awareness of effects and how we can influence them throughout our value chain. This influence means leading new approaches and supporting new environmentally friendly technologies and ways of doing things. Ultimately in our decision-making, we have agreed to follow the precautionary principle for both environmental and socially impactful decisions.
Wates Corporate Governance
“Corporate Governance is the bedrock of a well-functioning company and is ultimately the driving force for ESG. The Wates Principles provide an excellent structure to communicate how we meet, exceed and want to develop to our stakeholders.”
Daisy utilises the Wates Corporate Governance Principles. We are a Large Non-Listed UK Company, and this is best practice. These six Principles drive the mechanisms by which Daisy runs. These Principles each have a common theme of engagement with all our stakeholders. These stakeholders include our workforce, customers, suppliers, the communities where we operate, and broader stakeholder considerations such as the local and global environment. It takes place through the setting of the ‘Tone’ of how we engage and talk.
The principles include incorporating good information flows.
That means listening to and seeking feedback from our stakeholders and proactively engaging with other organisations, trade bodies, charities and others. Consequently, we encourage our workforce to be non-exec directors of other firms and Charity Trustees.
Our C-Suite is 50% female, with our management board 33%. This gender split is higher than our sector’s average. Furthermore, We have robust procedures in place regarding incentivisation. These procedures limit the risk of perverse and/or conflicting incentivisation. There is a clear separation between the management board and the business owners. There is a three-stage decision-making process that sits within our annual and medium-term business strategies, together with monthly meetings occurring between the c-suite and the representatives of the owners of Daisy.
UN Compact
“Daisy joining UN-Compact is a clear signal of intent. Developing good practice across the supply chain, committing to developing sustainable tech and utilising the precautionary principle to deliver on best practice environmentally and socially.”
This is a global initiative led by the UN. It is made up of firms that have agreed to adhere to and promote a set of 10 Practices. These apply to how Daisy operates internally and what we expect of our supply chain. The values are based on four areas – Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption. These Practices run alongside those of Wates as well as those under B-Corp. They incorporate the fundamental human rights of individuals within our company and those we work with. That means not being complicit in human rights abuses and upholding the norms of international human rights.
In terms of labour, it means the removal of child labour, compulsory labour and discrimination. Moreover, it requires the acceptance of the freedom of association and the effective recognition of collective bargaining.
In terms of the environment, we support the precautionary legal principle. That means that decisions should not be made due to a lack of scientific certainty when it is highly likely they will have a detrimental environmental or social impact. Furtherore that we shall engage in activities demonstrating environmental responsibility. Indeed, we agree to help develop and innovate environmentally friendly technologies. Finally, we stand against corruption in all its forms, this includes extortion and bribery.
In each of the roots, we will refer to these Practices, as they help to shape the thinking and approach taken by our firm. We want to ensure that how we operate makes us proud.
The 10 Practices each align with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
B-Corp
“Daisy wants to be a B-Corp. We want to demonstrate a commitment to people, planet and good practice. We believe that being a B-Corp is a great way to demonstrate this to ourselves and all our stakeholders, especially our workforce of today and in the future”
Daisy wants to become a B-Corp, and therefore we need to ensure that all necessary mechanisms are in place, in letter and actioned in spirit. We will do this by working with the B-Corp criteria to achieve B-Corp status. The assessment runs inline with a firm’s financial year. We, therefore, want to accomplish this by April when our current financial year has ended and our new one has begun.
The B-Corp assessment is scored out of 200, a firm must achieve at least 80 to achieve it. We want to achieve far more than the minimum. Furthermore, the firm agrees to materially improve each year, incorporating this commitment into its articles of association. This may be considered an ESG scoring mechanism. Unlike other ESG scoring mechanisms that are opaque, it is transparent. Becoming a B-Corp requires independent assessment too. No artificial intelligence is involved in scraping the internet to obtain insights into a company. This style of evaluation makes it differ from ESG assessment processes, where such technology is central, with numerous potential uncertainties. Indeed, such methods may result in historical information, including web archives.
The independent assessment and association with B-Corp provide confidence to others in what a company wants to be and to whom it wants to be linked.
The B-Corp assessment is divided into Six Procedural Areas. These areas are Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, Customers and, Disclosure questionnaire. You may notice that these procedures operate in the same areas as the UN-Corps Practices and the Six Wates Principles. Essentially, the B-Corp assessment process reviews how well our systems work to deliver what we seek.
In each procedural area, there are common issues, and a core one of each is engagement with stakeholders, particularly the workforce. This engagement runs through the Principles, Practices and Procedures.
The achievement and maintenance of B-Corp status bring a growingly positive, inclusive culture that People and stakeholders want to be part of. The role of the Planet, our final value, features heavily with this Principle, Practice, and Procedure approach to our Governance.
The UN-SDGs
“At Daisy, we believe we have a direct or indirect impact on every UN-SDG and want to play our part in delivering them. We are utilising Goals with our stakeholders to deliver new ways to work internally and externally.”
The United Nations developed a set of “Sustainable Development Goals” that it wants to achieve globally by 2030. These Goals have been agreed to by each of the UN’s 193 Member Countries. All countries, including the sub-national Governance within them, have a duty to deliver these Goals.
This duty impacts how we work with all levels of government with whom we work. They also provide an excellent mechanism to shape the development of the technology that we are doing through our internal TRAction team. The SDGs are globally recognised, and as such, all members of our supply chain recognise them. This makes the SDGs an excellent way to communicate with public and private organisations about what we seek to achieve through our actions. The SDGs enable commonalities between organisations to be quickly identified.
The SDGs seek social development, targeting education, discrimination, health and poverty. They seek environmental changes to ensure water quality, climate action, clean air, and biodiversity on land and beneath the waves. Finally, they recognise the need for Governance, including positive, ethical leadership, responsible consumption and production. This Governance extends to the role of cities and the need for partnerships.
The different SDGs can be seen as driving forces behind our ESG Action Roots. This helps to show how we are looking to deliver and work with others in achieving each of the Action Roots that underpin our aims here at Daisy.
We certainly do not profess to get everything right environmentally or socially. Still, we want to learn and aim to lead on ways of getting there.