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
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. We evaluate all employees and potential candidates based on merit, competence, and qualifications – without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability, political viewpoint, or genetic information.
Our team, 95% 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 brought 40 developers in West Virginia into the Salesforce ecosystem.
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 18% women to 20% women, up from 16% in 2021, 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.
24% of
team members
are women
38% of senior
team members
are women
18% of
technical team
are women
31% of
women
technologists
are senior
team members
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. Based on this, we’ve calculated some of our impact in the graphic to the right.
As a remote company, we estimate our average team member consumes approximately 667.56 kgCO2e each year providing services. In 2024, we hope to determine an accurate measure of energy use across all offices to benchmark a target decrease of 20% by 2030.
130,500
individual plastic cutlery avoided
261,000
individual plastic cups avoided
11,844,000
GMS in CO2 emissions saved from plastic cups
Prior to going remote, 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 team no longer consumes single-use plastic-wrapped snacks. Our team now works remote, but we still maintain this practice in our offices when team members spend time together.
After a 2-phase process, Oktana is free of 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 refilled glass jugs 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.
As mentioned above, whenever possible we choose to source local and environmentally-friendly materials for our offices and events. We use refurbished hardware until full end of life.
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.
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!
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