SIBB e.V. is the "Association of the Digital Economy Berlin - Brandenburg" and deals with this promising sector. Working in this sector requires future-oriented action in all areas of the association. As a result, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that there is a need for more sustainability. In order to meet this need, we developed the following environmental/sustainability policy, from which our catalogs of measures were derived. In the following, we commit ourselves as an association to meeting the listed fields of action and objectives and thus doing our part to contribute to a more sustainable future.

The focus of our sustainability activities is on the fields of action "Environmental Protection - Ecological Action" and "Good Work". As a Berlin association, we are guided by the Berlin sustainability goals and the criteria for good work of the Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district authority.

Fields of action

• Further training and awareness-raising:
  1. "Berlin educates further" (see point 4 Berlin sustainability goals)
  2. "Act globally and locally" (see point 17 Berlin Sustainable Development Goals)
• Equal rights:
  1. "Equal opportunities for girls and women" (see point 5 Berlin Sustainable Development Goals)
  2. "Equal opportunities for all" (see point 10 Berlin Sustainable Development Goals)
• Ecological action:
  1. "Berlin eats more sustainably and healthily" (see point 2 Berlin sustainability goals)
  2. "Green and affordable" (see point 7 Berlin Sustainable Development Goals)
  3. "Berlin is getting rid of waste" (see point 12 Berlin sustainability goals)
  4. "Climate-neutral by 2045" (see point 13 Berlin sustainability goals)
• Good work:
  1. "Good work and sustainable growth" (see point 8 Berlin Sustainable Development Goals)
  2. "Work that is safe" (see point 1 Criteria for good work)
  3. "Work that is well paid" (see point 2 Criteria for good work)
  4. "Work that values people and is meaningful" (see point 3 Criteria for good work)
  5. "Work that keeps you healthy" (see point 4 Criteria for good work)
• Promoting innovation and business:
  1. "For a strong location" (see point 9 Berlin sustainability goals)

Goals

• Further training for our own employees already takes place regularly, for example in workshops. In future, we will place particular emphasis on the areas of action mentioned above and raise our employees' awareness of their own opportunities to influence these areas. We also want to use our reach and integrate sustainability into our external image in order to raise awareness of the topic among outsiders.
• On the one hand, equal rights include equality between men and women, which we want to achieve within our association. More specifically, for example, we want to increase the number of female-led companies and start-ups we support. On the other hand, preventing discrimination is also part of equality, which is why we also want to anchor this as a principle of our future work.
• In terms of "ecological action", we currently still have a lot of room for improvement, which is why we will focus on this area of action. The gradual development towards climate neutrality of the association will be achieved by switching to green electricity, more ecological heating and the increased use of rail transport instead of cars, which is why these steps are our first goals. We would also like to make the consumption required by the work of our employees and the organization of events more ecological in the future.
• "Good work" is of course a key area of action for SIBB, as we act as an employer ourselves and therefore have a responsibility towards our own employees. We will therefore also focus on this field of action and develop an extra catalog of measures. In this, we will concentrate on developing work in the association for the better in line with the DGB index/guidelines for good work. Accordingly, our aim is to offer our employees a job that is well-paid, safe, healthy, appreciative and meaningful. We also want to achieve a score of at least 80 in all sub-areas of the DGB index in order to be assigned to the best possible "Good Work" area.
• The SIBB supports young entrepreneurs in the start-up process, providing direct support for companies. It also ensures good networking and a constant exchange and growth of knowledge within the industry by organizing workshops and the like. All of these things ultimately ensure more innovation, which has been promoted by the SIBB. For example, SIBB has been awarded the "Innovative through research" seal for several years in a row. The research and development projects in which SIBB is involved as a network management organization are also increasingly targeting sustainability and carbon reduction issues, either directly or indirectly. It should have become clear that SIBB is already very active in the field of "promoting innovation and companies". It is therefore our aim to continue and further intensify these activities.

Appropriate measures are taken to achieve these goals, which are handled in a regulated process, monitored by a sustainability officer and documented in two separate catalogs of measures.

Entered into force February 2022