SUSTAINABILITY-POLICY.md

Sustainability Policy (work in progress)

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a key issue for businesses and society in general, as people realise that current industrial, economic and social systems are storing up problems for the future. Sustainability is not about moving backwards, but about looking forward to new, better ways of doing things.

The Lyne Design System Core Team believes in the triple bottom line concept of sustainability, which focuses on three key areas:

• Environmental: reducing environmental damage to levels that can naturally be absorbed by nature
• Social: developing a healthy, fair global and local society
• Financial: creating sustainable business models and stable, prosperous economies

Lyne Design System - Sustainability Policy

In the Lyne Design System Core Team we aim to do our best to work towards sustainability. We’re not perfect, but it’s something we take very seriously. We have a range of environmental, social and financial strategies that help us to reduce our negative impact and give something positive back to the world.

The Lyne Design System is proud to be an environmentally responsible project. We recognise that our operations can affect the local, national and global environment, and we accept our environmental responsibilities beyond the legal and regulatory requirements.

We’re fully committed to reducing our environmental impact by integrating best practices into all our business activities, and continually reviewing our policies and processes. We promote our environmental ethos and values to our team members, and externally to our consumers, contributors, suppliers and partners. We actively seek to work with people who share our environmental concerns and policies.

Environmental

• We try to avoid using physical stationery or printing documents as far as possible.
• We use low energy appliances wherever available.
• We do not use air travel (until electric flights are available), and instead work with international clients, staff and partners using web communications and travelling over land, preferably by train, if required.
• We try to keep our carbon emissions to a minimum and actively track our performance against this objective (wip).
• We develop services that can be delivered with no physical goods production or transportation.
• We comply with and, where possible, exceed current environmental legislation and codes of practice.
• We carry out detailed tracking of our greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption (wip).
• We aim to minimise consumption of natural resources, including energy, water and raw materials, as far as economically practicable (wip).
• We assess the environmental impact of all past, current and likely future operations and fully integrate environmental consideration and objectives into our business decisions (wip).
• We adopt best practice and assist, where possible, in developing innovative solutions to the environmental issues and problems facing the web design and development industry (wip).
• We educate staff on the environmental impact of our industry and encourage them to be generally more environmentally responsible. We also encourage staff to engage in our environmental policy, and consult with them to discuss their environmental concerns and pursue new initiatives.
• We encourage awareness of and commitment to improved environmental performance amongst the consumers of the Lyne Design System.
• We purchase products and services from suppliers that share similar environmental policies to ours including fellow B Corporations whenever possible.
• We use our marketing and communication skills to actively promote environmental sustainability and raise awareness of climate change and the environmental impact of the web.
• We monitor and review our environmental performance, and publish and communicate this to staff and our broader stakeholder network.

Environmental targets

To complement the above initiatives, we have two overarching targets to guide our environmental approach.

• tbd.

Social

• We believe in the credo "Public Money, Public Code". Paid by tax payer's money, we strongly believe that the outcomes of our efforts should be available to the public for education, inspiration, collaboration, reuse and transparency reasons.
• We value our team. We make sure all team members enjoy their work by giving them every possible opportunity to express themselves, fulfil their potential, and fit their work around other important aspects of their lives.
• We allow flexible working by allowing our team members to choose their own place and time of work. This helps team members maintain a healthy work-life balance.
• We maintain healthy relationships with the consumers and contributors of the Lyne Design System and accommodate their needs wherever possible.
• We use local suppliers where possible to reduce our carbon footprint and stimulate the local economy.
• We only deal with ethical organisations that treat their staff well.
• We try to create opportunities for young talented individuals with strong ethics and help them to develop their careers by getting them involved in our work and helping to promote them.
• We use fair trade products where appropriate.
• We comply with all equal opportunities laws and regulations.
• We actively promote the benefits of socially responsible business.
• We actively promote the benefits of Accessibility and Inclusive Design.
• We actively promote the benefits of Privacy by Design and Ethical Design.
• We actively refuse the integration of Dark Patterns into the Lyne Design System.
• We refuse to work with organisations involved with ethically dubious activities such as military systems, tobacco, junk food, nuclear power, hunting, animal testing and genetically modified crops.

Financial

• We’re committed to building a strong, valuable brand.
• We’ll keep costs to a minimum by virtual operation of the business using modern communication technologies.
• We’ll avoid ethical liabilities by implementing our social and environmental sustainability policies.
• We’ll invest in sustainable businesses to help encourage the growth of a sustainable economy, as well as providing the business with a strong long-term investment portfolio.

We review this policy and the way it’s being implemented regularly, and inform staff of any changes to our sustainability policy and practices. All employees are responsible for their adherence to the principles of our sustainability policy.

Complementary

The Lyne Design System is an open source project initiated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). Please find out more about the overall sustainability strategy and the core values (german link) of SBB.