Corporate Social Responsibility

In 2020, Oktana was rated by Ecovadis for our commitment to sustainability, a rating that we maintain. We have aligned to three of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

“ Corporate social responsibility is core to maintaining the social license to operate any business. At Oktana, we are committed to a sustainable future and to improving the social, economic and environmental well-being of our team and the global community we share. “

 

– Julia Barrett, General Manager, US

Diversity & Labor Practices

With locations across Latin America and the U.S., we have made a global commitment to Equal Opportunity Employment with standardized definitions of role and seniority. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we do not discriminate against any employee or job applicant because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability or genetic information.


Our team, 90% of which is based in Latin America, represents the diversity of the Americas. In expanding our delivery team into the U.S. in 2020, we chose to continue our mission to bring economic opportunity to growing communities and invested in building a team in Appalachia, a region that has experienced incredible job loss and emigration in recent decades. To date, we have hired and trained 25 developers in Charleston, West Virginia.


According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, women, overall, hold 24% of STEM jobs in the U.S.. In Uruguay, where Oktana was founded, the University of the Republic of Uruguay reported 15% enrollment of women in Computer Science studies (LACNIC, 2019). We are currently working to recruit more women technologists to grow our technical team from 16% women to 20% women globally. We make a conscious effort to recruit a diverse team, in all respects, by partnering with local universities and organizations.


As a Salesforce partner, we are also members of the Salesforce Talent Alliance.

22.5% of

team members

are women

24% of senior

team members

are women

16% of 

technical team 

are women

52% of

women

technologists

are senior

team members

 

Environmental Conservation

Single-Use Plastic

Due to our commitment to responsible consumption, we no longer provide single-use plastic items to our team. We have managed to discourage this consumption by providing, for example, the cutlery necessary for meals. 

 

We have also made an effort to provide ceramic mugs, ceramic plates and drinking glasses. According to data from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the average U.S. citizen drinks a little more than four cups of water per day. See the table below to check out what this meant for the environment.

Annual Impact: Single-Use Plastic Discontinuation

130,500

pieces of plastic cutlery avoided

261,000

pieces of plastic cups avoided

11,844,000

gms in CO2 emissions saved from plastic cups

 

Plastic-Wrapped Snack Consumption

Individually-wrapped snacks

In a single year, the Oktana consumption of plastic snack wrappers accounted for 75,000 pieces of plastic waste across all offices.

 

We have gradually removed individually-wrapped snacks from our offices. As of May 2020, our employees no longer consume single-use plastic-wrapped snacks.

Plastic Water Bottles

After a two-phase process, Oktana is now free from plastic water bottles. 

 

Phase 1 was to reduce single-use plastic bottles. In one year, our largest office, located in Uruguay, replaced single-use plastic bottles with 2,640 reusable bottles of water.

 

Phase 2 involved the full discontinuation of all single-use plastic bottles across all offices by supplying filtered, purified water in refillable containers. In West Virginia we have gone one step further to provide water from LeSage Natural, a nonprofit organization employing the disabled, just one of our responsible procurement choices.

 

Responsible Procurement

As mentioned above, whenever possible we choose to source local and environmentally-friendly materials for our offices.

Annual Impact: Single-Use Water Bottle Discontinuation

2,086

Plastic bottles less in landfills

209

Plastic bottles less in the ocean

521,400

GMS in CO2 emission saved

“Reused bottles demonstrate better environmental performance than a single-use bottle (…) reducing the impact of the volume of packaging materials and energy used while preventing production emissions, even when the single-use bottle uses 50% recycled material.”

Coelho, P et al. 2020. Sustainability of reusable packaging; Resources, Conservation & Recycling.

Volunteerism

At Oktana, we are committed to Pledge 1%, an initiative co-founded by Salesforce that encourages giving back to local communities.

 

Over the past few years, we have helped nonprofit organizations do everything from build full apps to implement custom communities. In 2020, we were accepted into the Salesforce.org Partner Program, a program nonprofits rely on to integrate Salesforce products. 

 

Across our offices, our team members have committed to multiple causes that have a direct impact on their communities. Some examples include teaching children how to code, fostering dogs to prevent euthanization, creating 3D PPE masks for hospitals, supporting micro-entrepreneurs and promoting the benefits of a balanced, plant-based diet.

 

If you are interested in reading more about the unique volunteer opportunities our team members have committed to, check out our Beyond the Office blog series on volunteering. We’re proud to have such good people on our team!