Environmental Sustainability Policy

Defining the problem

Prater Raines Ltd builds websites for a range of clients from our office in Sandgate. Those websites are hosted on our servers located in Maidstone and Dartford. We make use of cloud hosted software and services, as well as software installed on our corporate laptops. We travel to meet clients and to attend conferences.

Doing all these things contributes to climate change. Travelling to and from the office, to meetings, and to conferences contributes to fossil fuel emissions. Powering servers and laptops, using cloud software, and running the office requires energy. Servers and laptops are built using finite resources and can contribute to the growing issue of e-waste.

At Prater Raines, we are keenly aware that what we build affects the world we live in. We are also aware that how we build is just as important. That’s why this policy exists and why our Managing Director, Tim Prater, is responsible for ensuring we do everything we can to contribute to preventing climate change.

Reducing our emissions

There are a range of ways in which we seek to reduce our emissions. These include but are not limited to:

• Using a renewable energy supplier for our office and ensuring all devices are turned off when not in use.
• Working with a climate neutral data centre (https://www.custodiandc.com/about-us/sustainability/) and hosting in the UK. 
• Travelling by public transport and avoiding flying where practicable including, for example, traveling by train to Germany for the TYPO3 developer days.
• Encouraging walking and cycling to the office.
• Preferring online to in-person meetings.
• Working from home where possible.
• Providing facilities for food and drink preparation in the office.
• Building efficient software using frameworks and libraries sparingly to reduce computational overhead.
• Using specialised local AI models rather than relying on Large Language Models wherever possible.
• Exploring multitenancy where it is a more sustainable option.

Repair, reuse, recycle

Wherever possible, we avoid contributing to e-waste and to general waste that ends up in landfill or burned for energy. Some of the ways we do so are:

• Providing a technology recycling bin at our office in Sandgate.
• Repairing and upgrading our servers and laptops whenever we can rather than replacing them.
• Recycling office waste wherever possible.
• Avoiding printing.

Culture

Key to reducing our climate impact is ensuring that everyone in the business is involved. We ensure this by:

• Equipping our staff with the knowledge and expertise they need to contribute through appropriate training.

Monitoring

To maintain our commitment to helping to tackle climate change we must follow a deliverable and measurable action plan. Our action plan includes:

• Working with experts such as the SME Climate Hub to monitor and improve our progress and processes. 
• Using The Green Software Maturity Matrix (GSMM) from the Linux Foundation’s Green Software Foundation as a self-assessment tool.
• Reviewing our progress annually alongside this policy.

Green Software Maturity Matrix