Amsterdam Standard’s new mission

With the new year, 2024, Amsterdam Standard will start its transformation into becoming your sustainable partner. Last year Leopold was reinstated as CEO and, with a fresh breath of air, and a head full of ideas, explained our new company mission and vision.

We know now that IT and SaaS are a commodity, a readily available asset that is the foundation of most businesses. We lost our edge, our unique selling point that let us grow incredibly well over the last years.

The way we want to stay on top of our game is two-fold. We want to improve our sustainability and become carbon neutral, but we also want to improve our team's mental health and bring back some of the social aspects that were taken from us by the pandemic.

How do we want to improve internally?

Unfortunately, the  Covid-19 pandemic was relentless and forced us to stay at home and dive into the deep end of working remotely. For some, this was a godsend that saved precious hours they wasted in traffic. Others felt lonely, enclosed by the same 4 walls and couldn’t cope at home. After the worst waves passed and the world began returning to normal, our office spaces still echoed with the howling wind.

Attempts to encourage employees to return and work from office in a hybrid model didn’t work well. Extra benefits and perks in the office weren’t enough of an incentive. Our average employee age is 32.5, meaning their top priorities are: building homes, mortgages, spouses, and kids. Working remotely gave them the freedom to handle kiddy drop-offs at daycare and prepare dinner for the family while being able to productively finish their tasks during the day.

Sounds great? So why are we still encouraging our employees to come to the office?

We believe the pandemic took away our social aspect. People, in general, fester in their smart devices instead of interacting with other individuals. We feel this is unhealthy for our minds. To bring back a more lively spirit in our teams, we introduced Office Days, so employees have a set day to come into the office. Other colleagues will be there too, so no one has to sit alone.

Why do you need to care about being a sustainable company?

At Amsterdam Standard, we are dedicated to empowering innovative and sustainable tech companies all over the world to lead the change in creating a cleaner, greener future for our planet. This is more than our corporate responsibility. Being sustainable is beneficial not only for our environment but also brings long-term profits and business growth. Your entire supply chain matters, from production to distribution and the end-of-life phase. We’ll be a sustainable part of your supply chain.
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77% of executives report regulatory pressure to act on climate change.

75% of consumers are changing their preference to more eco-friendly products.

49% of employees prefer to work at a sustainable workplace.

Source: Deloitte CxO Sustainability report, 2022.

In Q1 of 2024, we want to research our options, reduce our office space where possible, or find an office space that allows us to change the energy provider to a greener one. Maybe produce our own solar energy? Once we learn which solutions are best for us, we’ll start implementing those that will allow us to reduce our carbon footprint, with the goal of becoming completely carbon-neutral within a few years.

We know this will be a lengthy process. Since our developers have reported that they are more performant at home, we are considering changing our office spaces from the traditional desk and chair model to something more of a think space. With soft couches and cozy areas, where they can come in once or twice a week and brainstorm ideas in their teams, come up with solutions, and bond socially while doing so.

By 2026, Amsterdam Standard, wants to only work with new, sustainable companies while still serving our existing clients. Maybe we can inspire them to follow us in the good direction.

There are assumptions that climate tech projects are boring, but it’s quite the opposite. The companies we’ve already spoken to and hope to start partnering with in the near future have shown incredibly innovative ideas, from fleet management of electric bicycles in real-time, through intelligent heat pumps, all the way to literally groundbreaking underwater sea batteries that will store excess energy created by wind turbines to use at times of higher electricity usage.

We are excited to see where this new vision will lead us. Our sustainability train has already started its route. Though many don’t believe in it yet and are doubting our success, we are determined to push forward.

We acknowledge that some parts of sustainability conflict with our social mission - like coming to the office. Why lose time in traffic, burning fossil fuels on the way, when you can stay fully remote and deliver the same value?

While that is true we also value the mental health of our employees. We want to mitigate the negative effects of isolation, anxiety or burnout. By investing in Office Days where people can bond, share knowledge and nurture good communication.

Only time will tell if this was a good choice, but it is good to know where this train is going, and everyone is welcome to hop on as soon as they want to come along with us.