Nasstar Signs Microsoft Partner Pledge to Drive Positive Change
Nasstar is pleased to announce we have once again signed the Microsoft Partner Pledge, committing to driving social and environmental impact in both our business and the wider community.
The Partner Pledge is a joint commitment between Microsoft Partners and Microsoft that focuses on working together to make digital innovation a force for good. It encourages us to grow more tech talent, enhance diversity and inclusion in our business, and help to deliver a sustainable world we can all be proud of.
What have we done this year?
In 2023, Nasstar has driven several initiatives that build towards our Partner Pledge commitment. Each of our initiatives links to one of three key goals: growing talent in our industry, enhancing diversity and inclusion, and shaping a desirable world.
This year we launched our ‘Women in Tech’ Employee Resource Group (ERG) which comprises a diverse and inclusive team of women and allies who each aim to advance the progression of women in the IT industry. Our initiative has several key objectives, some of which have already been delivered:
We’ve increased our maternity pay policy to support mums for longer.
We actively support work-life balance through flexible working hours and remote/hybrid working.
Over the course of next year and in years to come, we’ll continue to work towards these objectives:
Ensuring that a minimum of 40% of our workforce are female by 2030, with a medium-term target of 30% by 2025.
Seeking opportunities to attract female talent by engaging with female-owned consultancy firms.
Improving female retention and recruitment rates within the senior management team.
As well as this ERG, we have developed several internal interest groups around subjects including menopause and early career development.
We have also taken full advantage of the learning materials and opportunities provided by Microsoft to support the knowledge and training of our staff. To date, we have 130 Azure Certifications and 131 Modern Work, Business Applications, and Security Certifications. This breadth of knowledge helps us grow talent in our business and the wider industry.
As part of our ongoing transformation to become a more environmentally conscious organisation, this year we’ve transitioned seven of our sites from older heritage technologies to more energy efficient alternatives. This change has resulted in a reduction of our Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 260 tCO2 per year, as a minimum.
We’ve also partnered with Treeapp, a global tree planting organisation to reforest degraded areas around the world. This partnership enables us to offset our carbon footprint and give back to the environment through a world-changing global initiative.
What is our focus for 2024?
While 2023 was a successful year, we’re looking forward to building upon these initiatives and doing even more in 2024 and beyond.
We will continue to focus on sustainability, working to further reduce our carbon footprint and support our customers with their own sustainability projects. We are continuing to reduce our data centre usage, supporting our commitment to driving sustainable technology by opting for public cloud. To enable our success in this area, we are working with Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Datacenter Optimization initiative that helps partners transform legacy data centre operations to cloud-centric business models on Azure.
We also plan to continue investing in and driving positive change for our workforce, working towards greater gender equality within our business. As part of this, we’re planning to invest heavily in graduate schemes and apprenticeships, supporting our investment in the community and talent across all generations.
The Future at Nasstar
At Nasstar, we are excited to increase our impact across our commitments with the Partner Pledge, and we are looking forward to increased collaboration with Microsoft in 2024. Learn more about our wider sustainability and future initiatives here.