iPoint has a long-standing tradition of contributing to charitable causes, social and regional projects, and non-profit organizations around Christmas time. Over the years, iPoint has donated to a number of organizations and initiatives, including:

• Alliance for Climate Education

• Anna e.V.

• AnnieCannons, Inc.

• Arche IntensivKinder

• Behinderten-Förderung-Linsenhofen e.V.

• BruderhausDiakonie

• Eldoret Kids Kenia

• Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei

• Förderverein für krebskranke Kinder Tübingen e.V.

• Gib Bildung eine Chance

• Hamburger Tafel

• Hospiz Veronika

• JAM Deutschland e.V.

• Kreiskliniken Reutlingen

• Lebenshilfe Reutlingen e.V.

• Make a Wish Foundation (Michigan)

• March of Dimes (Michigan)

• nez e.V.

• Not for Sale

• PALUNA – Specialized Outpatient Palliative Care for Children and Adolescents

• Plant for the Planet

• Raise Hope for Congo

• Regionalgruppe Zollernalb-Tübingen des Mukoviszidose e.V.

• Sea Shepherd

• Stiftung Präventive Jugendhilfe

• The Water Project

• Uhuru e.V.

• Wikimedia foundation

• Wirbelwind e.V.

• YouthVille Detroit

Employees

With subsidiaries and offices in 10 countries worldwide, we have identified diversity as one of the strategic success factors in terms of iPoint’s future viability. At iPoint, men and women from various nations and age groups, with different cultural, religious, ethnic, and social backgrounds, and sexual orientation, work side-by-side.

The diversity of our workforce shapes our corporate culture. With their individual perspectives, our employees in heterogeneous teams not only achieve better solutions and higher productivity, but also expand the potential for ideas and innovations within the company. We treat each other with respect, appreciation, and mutual acceptance, are committed to the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and act in accordance with Germany’s Anti-Discrimination Act (Antidiskriminierungsgesetz).

In general, we at iPoint nurture an inclusive culture, starting with the first day on the job. Each new employee is presented with our Code of Conduct (Verhaltenskodex) – defining and condemning all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment – which must be signed. In the interests of equal opportunity, our personnel and salaries are selected on the basis of the applicant's qualifications and motivation, not on the basis of ethnic origin, race, gender, religion, or origin.

We are very proud of the newly built company headquarters building in Reutlingen, Germany, into which we moved in December 2014. Meeting the latest environmental standards, it is characterized by high resource efficiency with regard to building materials, energy sources, and water technology, and a number of other features make it especially eco-friendly:

• Large windows allow for much natural light to enter the building, and indoor lighting relies on LED lights which enable a clear reduction in energy consumption;

• the building regulates its temperature through a geothermal heat pump – a central heating and cooling system that transfers heat or cold air to or from the ground (while substantially more expensive to install than viable alternatives, iPoint does count on the geothermal pump to pay for itself over the coming decades);

• the building’s open design reduces the need for ventilation, heating and therefore also reduces electricity consumption;

• hand dryers were installed in the bathroom to render paper towels obsolete;

• with a vegetation layer on its roof, from above the building is literally turning green; it reduces the amount of wastewater, as a large part of the rainwater is absorbed by the plants;

• plants within the building provide fresh oxygen;

• we improved our waste management by replacing the waste bins at the individual work places with new central waste bins in the kitchens on every level, which was accompanied by instructions and charts on correct waste separation. This measure enabled us to optimize our waste separation as well as reducing our waste by 13%.

At our Reutlingen headquarters, iPoint only consumes electricity from renewable sources (Ökostrom), at a significantly higher cost to the company than regular electricity. We gladly absorb that cost impact, as it is one concrete step we can take.

Sustainable Offices & Venues

Part of the reason we opt to set up country offices is to offset carbon emissions through international travel. The specific locations of our country offices are chosen in such a manner that they have ready access to public transport infrastructure. We also encourage carpooling, in order to reduce emissions and to relieve road traffic. iPoint’s eco-friendly culture also maximizes the “practice” of webinars and web conferences in order to reduce travel costs and environmental impacts. For regularly hosted public corporate events we choose “green locations.” Furthermore, we introduced a home office policy which permits employees to work remotely for up to 20% of their weekly working hours in order to reduce their volume of travel.

Sustainable Procurement

Our commitment to ecological responsibility extends to the products and services we procure, and implicates our business partners. In a bid to lead by example, also our gifts and giveaways for trade fairs, conferences, customer visits, and employees are selected according to ecologically and socially sustainable standards.

We strive for continuous, sustainable improvement of the quality of our business processes and products. To this end, in May and July 2020, we had our quality management system audited (surveillance audit) in accordance with ISO 9001. Organizations that are ISO 9001-certified have a single and complete set of managed and applied procedures, regularly updated and audited.

iPoints unique portfolio of solutions is also available to small and medium-sized companies in terms of price level and applicability. We recognize that software must be simple to use and easy to understand to support users in new, efficient, and sustainable business processes. Our stable and mature solutions enable our customers to meet compliance and sustainability requirements and to produce sustainable products – thereby achieving a significant cost and competitive advantage for themselves.

Sustainable customer relationships

Sustainable customer relationships, customer proximity, and a pronounced understanding of the specific needs, wishes, and requirements of our customers form the basis for profitable growth and long-term business success at iPoint. This manifests itself in a wide variety of areas, e.g. regularly conducted customer surveys as well as regularly hosted customer events, worldwide presence in order to serve our customers as one company with tailor-made solutions and competent contacts – face-to-face on site and digitally –, and data protection and information security measures according to international standards.

Business Ethics

We view ethical behavior as the cornerstone of a successful business. Anti-corruption clauses are therefore included in iPoint’s employee standard contracts since 2018. Furthermore, our Social Charter contains several paragraphs on what kind of ethical, responsible behavior is expected from iPoint’s employees.

As we strive for continuous, sustainable improvement of the quality of our business processes and products we had our quality management system audited (surveillance audit) in accordance with ISO 9001 in 2020. The ISO 9001-certification ensures that Point has a single and complete set of managed and applied procedures that are regularly updated and audited.

Participating in anti-corruption joint action, iPoint has endorsed the Call to Action: Anti-Corruption and the Global Development Agenda by signing the letter of support on August 2, 2018. With the letter iPoint affirms its commitment to integrate anti-corruption into our strategies and operations, and work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

In May 2019 (Sweden, Germany) and October 2019 (Austria), an EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive study of our commissioning was released that specifically hones in on the actions companies are taking to counter the unethical practice of corruption.
 

In the current reporting year, in an effort to assess our contribution systematically, we conducted a detailed analysis of the SDGs. This process, during which we also took into account established tools and guidelines on the interpretation of the SDGs, comprised the following steps:

1. Understanding the SDGs

We continued to familiarize ourselves with the SDGs and their targets in order to understand the opportunities and responsibilities they represent to our company.

2. Defining our priorities

Since not all of the 17 SDGs are equally relevant for iPoint, we conducted an assessment of the impacts of our business activities on the SDGs. The aim was to assess iPoint’s current contribution to the SDGs by focusing on the measures we implement to reduce our negative impacts while enhancing our positive contribution to the sustainable development agenda. The analysis of our strategic priorities extended to the following areas:

a) Products of our core business
b) Internal processes, workflows, operations
c) R&D projects
d) Social commitment (mainly: donations to charitable causes)

The result of this analysis is the following heatmap, the elements of which are detailed in the following paragraphs.