Sustainability

Our impact on a sustainable digital society

Our mission is to promote problem-free, opportunity-rich digital living for everyone. And the sustainability of the digital community is central to realisation of that mission. We therefore work with customers, partners and suppliers to promote an opportunity-rich, secure and healthy living and working environment for everyone at SIDN and in the wider community.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals in a circle
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Our sustainability ambitions find expression in various ways. For example, we've joined the National Coalition for Sustainable Digitisation, which was set up to tackle the main obstacles to progress in this field. We also belong to the Sustainability Working Group at CENTR, the association of European domain name registries. Group members exchange sustainability know-how and seek to maximise support for sustainability within the CENTR community. In our work, we're guided by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From the 17 SDGs, we've selected the 6 that are most relevant to us, and in relation to which we can achieve the greatest impact. Details are given below.

Good health and well-being (SDG 3)

SDG 3 is "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". In line with that goal, we take practical action to raise staff satisfaction even further by, for example, drawing on the results of our staff satisfaction surveys. We also seek to promote health and well-being, with the aim of reducing sickness absence.

Quality education (SDG 4)

SDG 4 is "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". Each year, we allocate a sum equal to 7 per cent of the wage bill to training and development.

Affordable and clean energy (SDG 7)

SDG 7 is "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all". In support of SDG 7, we're committed to reducing energy consumption per FTE and to the autogeneration of energy. About 20 per cent of the electricity we use is provided by our own solar panels. Our office building and the data centres we use also run entirely on renewable energy.

Industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9)

SDG 9 is "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation". We're contributing to this goal by including the values and carbon emissions associated with our hardware when calculating our total carbon footprint. Wherever new hardware is required, we give preference to the most sustainable and circular options. What's more, at least 95 per cent of our equipment is recycled or reused, and we use office fittings made from recycled materials.

Climate action (SDG 13)

SDG 13 is "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". In line with SDG 13, we're working to reduce our carbon emissions per .nl domain name. That implies striving to cut harmful emissions directly or indirectly caused by our activities.

Partnerships for the goals (SDG 17)

SDG 17 is "Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development". We contribute to SDG 17 by seeking partnerships that will enable knowledge sharing and accelerate sustainability initiatives in fields such as fighting cybercrime and realising improvements for the internet industry. In addition, SIDN Labs is investigating future-proof security for both our own infrastructure and the internet infrastructure. The Labs team publishes its research findings so that others can utilise them.