Sustainability: AdTech Holding’s Path to Preserving Our Future
As a big brand, AdTech Holding feels it is responsible for supporting sustainability in all aspects of its everyday activities. Today, we are excited to demonstrate the steps we are taking to help our planet remain fit for habitation and safeguard a home for future generations.
Our hope is that by sharing our journey, we’ll encourage other tech companies in Cyprus and beyond to join us in this important mission.
What Do We Understand by Sustainability?
Being built mainly around environmental concerns, the concept of sustainability is, in fact, very vast and embraces plenty of practices and activities. What is important is that in the context of big brands, it is not just about being eco-friendly – but also creating safe and balanced working spaces and atmospheres.
Thus, AdTech Holding’s values involve supporting sustainability on different levels. This, for example, includes:
• Eco-friendly office space. Here, we are speaking about various practices like trash sorting and sustainable materials used in the office, such as solar panels or energy-efficient appliances.
• Caring about the local environment. AdTech Holding regularly sponsors eco-friendly activities in Cyprus. This includes, for example, clean-up events that help reduce the impact of irresponsible waste disposal, sponsoring new green or recreational areas, or supporting local environmental organizations. One of the latest initiatives was our sponsorship of the new city skate park in Limassol, the first of its kind on the island.
• Helping the needy ones. We back organizations that help children in need. One of such activities involved backing I Have a Dream: a non-profit organization with a mission to enhance the lives of the underprivileged children. Besides, we are aware of the stray cats and dogs problem in Cyprus, and support shelters that strive to solve the problem.
• Maintaining work-life balance. This point might not seem obvious at first, but providing employees with safe and comfortable working conditions is also a sustainability-friendly practice. Satisfied employees tend to be more engaged in supporting various social responsibility activities within the organization, and we witness this daily. Among our practices related to work-life balance are special ‘no-meeting days,’ balanced healthy meals, and different events we sponsor and encourage. Among them, for example, are the Limassol Marathon and the DragonBoat Race.
• Supporting young specialists. Students and alumni often struggle to find the first job that will provide them with both experience and salary. Meanwhile, investing in young specialists, who are usually more motivated to support sustainable development, might significantly boost the overall company’s efforts in the environmental landscape. With our internship program called AdStep: Your Path to the Future, we hope to give young specialists new opportunities to learn from their novel visions as well.
Is Sustainability a Must for AdTech Companies?
As a member of the European Union, Cyprus has adopted various EU sustainability directives, including the key one: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
According to this directive, companies of a particular scale must regularly report on the social and environmental risks they face and how their activities impact people and the environment. However, not all organizations are required to publish such reports, so does this mean they can ignore sustainability efforts?
As Irina Evangelou, Senior HR Business Partner of AdTech Holding, shared,
‘We as a company are not forced to take part in any eco-friendly activities related to sustainable development. Thus, our current social responsibility strategy is based on our own initiative. We are committed to ensuring that our generation is not the last to experience a comfortable life on Earth – and we want the future generations also to live well, after all.
What is especially valuable about our sustainable development is that, in reality, there is much more beyond the activities we highlight in the media. Our employees are constantly involved in rescuing stray animals. For example, several of them have recently initiated private fundraising to help a very sick cat living near our office. Some of our colleagues regularly visit shelters to pet, play, and walk with dogs; the others donate significant sums for charity on a regular basis.’
Overall, our stance is that big organizations have plenty of resources to make their input into sustainable development. This means there is no reason to refuse to adopt eco-friendly practices, sponsor events, and take part in activities that make an impact on our environment today and in the future.
How to Plan Corporate Social Responsibility Activities in a Big Holding?
As we have already mentioned, AdTech Holding does not only follow some particular activity schedule: social responsibility has become a way of living for many of our employees. However, our annual planning always includes a CSR strategy.
Zoe Dima, the Event Manager of AdTech Holding, shared the planning principles:
‘With our CSR strategy this year, we tried to cover at least 3 different pillars of community support: humanitarian actions, environmental sustainability for the community, and animal welfare. We aim to balance our efforts across these areas, ensuring we make a broad and meaningful impact.
For all our initiatives, like charities, marathons, or greening projects, we consider their alignment with our values, the potential community benefit, and the feasibility of our involvement. Even one more step of kindness can take us all a long way, and doing good is something we strongly support.’
Another insight into planning corporate responsibility activities is that many of them originate from employees’ personal requests and ideas. What is important here is that the AdTech Holding Board is ready to listen to and support the initiatives, making more activities part of the annual CSR plan.
As Irina Evangelou puts it, such support from top management is essential for maintaining sustainable development.
Summary
Our experience shows that creating a sustainable future does not take severe effort when you are surrounded by people who share the same vision. What is even more inspiring is that young people today are becoming increasingly involved in environmental concerns and solutions.
For example, AdTech Holding job candidates often remark on and admire details like organized waste sorting in the office space.
We believe in making a significant impact by supporting young specialists who are willing to build a sustainable future, highlighting our corporate social responsibility initiatives, and making at least a little input on a daily basis. These efforts will culminate in a legacy cherished by future generations, and we will keep developing in this direction.
