Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Here at Rouge Towers, we’re committed to sustainable and ethical business practices.

Yep, that does sound like a line straight out of a CSR boilerplate policy, and yes, we’re in the business of making money, but we know that how we make our money has an impact on the environment and people around us.

We believe that being committed to corporate social responsibility principles makes not only good business sense but also complements our core business strategy and our individual personal values.

The internet now has a carbon footprint greater than most countries, and in the middle of a global health crisis, we’re facing tough physical and mental health challenges, like never before. We need to look after ourselves and the place we call home. Even as a small business, we believe we should play our part.

There are always more things we can do to be a force for good. Here are some of the things we do right now:

Our Team

• Almost 50/50 split of male and female employees
• Company-wide healthcare insurance
• We have a flexible approach to work location and start and finish times for work/life/family balance
• We employ external Health and Safety consultants to look after our team
• We run risk assessments on office and home office environments and provide tailored furniture and kit for a safe and comfortable workspace
• We have a book/training/industry events budget
• We have a childcare voucher scheme.

Our clients

• We aim to work with local companies where possible
• We try to work with clients that make a positive impact. For example:
  • rouge-media.com/portfolio/action-sustainability
  • rouge-media.com/portfolio/public-health-slough
  • rouge-media.com/portfolio/norland-college
  • rouge-media.com/portfolio/bopa
  • rouge-media.com/portfolio/instavolt
  • https://www.iso20400.org/
• We have a reduced rate for charity clients
• We build accessible websites whether or not there is a specific legal requirement
• We source website hosting for our clients from ‘green’ suppliers.

Our office environment

• We work in one shared space – only heating our meeting room when necessary
• We are ISO9001 (quality management) accredited – waste reduction being part of quality control
• We don’t use air conditioning units
• We encourage our landlord to install energy-saving technology (recently a new boiler and led lighting)
• We subcontract spare space to ensure the building is fully utilised.

Our community

• When we have birthday lunches, we support local businesses
• Almost all of our clients work within an hours’ radius of the office
• When travelling to clients, we use public transport or share a car
• We encourage employees to work from home to avoid car miles
• We have a cycle to work scheme and regular cyclists
• We have a (very well used) charity sweet box.

Our office consumables

• We avoid sending and discourage receiving hardcopy quotes, cheques, invoices
• Our printer, when used, has a default mode of low quality, black and white
• By using pencils and rubbers, we reuse note paper
• We don’t upgrade phones at the end of contracts
• We buy IT hardware that’s easily upgradable (not Apple Macs!)
• We recycle more than the standard council recycling (batteries, crisp packets, IT kit when it’s broken).

And we spread the word: https://www.business2community.com/web-design/how-to-make-your-business-website-greener-02403212