ESG

Sustainability at Northern Data

Array

Success can only be persistent when committing to and taking part in the process of sustainable development. The ultimate goal is to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

On the way to achieving this goal, ESG helps us to track our progress. We integrate ESG criteria into our business management and operations the best way possible. This is a process and will evolve over time.

ESG Reporting 2021

Array

The 2021 reporting aimed to establish the first inventory of ESG data by determining where exactly Northern Data stands and what data can be measured or quantified. It provides the fundamental knowledge for Northern Data to create a long-term ESG strategy and establish ESG KPIs that will be reported on in future reports. Besides, it provides a stable groundwork for ESG rating agencies to carry out sound ESG ratings on Northern Data in the future.

Environmental Reporting 2021

Array

In the context of ESG compliance, Northern Data bears a high level of responsibility in the environmental area because of its high electricity demand. The company’s goal is to ensure that its energy consumption, which is also a significant cost factor, is as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. In 2021, Northern Data operated nine data centers in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and the USA. Their construction and operating processes aim for the highest energy efficiency. By now, the monitoring and gathering of data about the energy consumption and other relevant environmental parameters, can so far only be documented for the Sweden site. The data center in Sweden, due to special ESG project management with a tier 1 consultancy in 2021, provides the Benchmark for our data center portfolio. The site is equipped with all needed devices to measure environmental performance and has been TÜV-certified for 2021 in terms of carbon emissions in scopes 1, 2, and 3.

Array

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is defined as the ratio that describes how efficiently data centers use electrical energy to generate compute power. Northern Data calculates the Data Centers’ PUE by dividing the amount of power entering the data center by the power that is used to run our IT infrastructure in it. For the reporting year 2021 the PUE of our Flagship Data Center Sweden 1 which is 1.04 was determined. Northern Data currently works on the roll-out of suitable measuring methods in all data centers globally as they strive to determine the PUE in all data centers with the same reliable standard method as in Sweden.

Array

Total Energy Consumption

The total energy consumption is defined as the sum of all electrical energy consumed in Northern Data’s data center operations including contracted third-party data centers. The data for the energy consumption is provided by the contracted energy suppliers according to the data center location. Based on this information, the total energy consumption for 2021 was 468 GWh.

 

Array

Energy Sources

Northern Data reports on the share of emission-free and fossil energy whereas emission-free energy is defined as electricity coming from renewable energy sources (such as hydro, wind, solar) as well as from nuclear energy. The share of emission-free energy was determined by multiplying the data taken from the fuel mix by the amount of energy used in the data centers. In 2021, 347 GWh (74%) of Northern Data’s energy sources were emission-free, whereas most of this (226 GWh/ 65%) from renewable energy sources. 121 GWh (26%)were drawn from fossil fuel sources.

 

Array

Compensation

To compensate the 121 GWh reliance on fossil fuels in 2021, Northern Data purchased 147 GWh of RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates), making their data center operations 105% carbon neutral in 2021. Through the purchase of RECs, Northern Data is advocating for the advancement of clean energy policy, markets, and technology, and believes in their economic and environmental benefits. The RECs purchased were retired against Northern Data’s energy consumption in the North American Renewable Registry (NARR) and are a combination of Certified Green-e, wind, and solar. The overall capital expenditure was EUR 570 k.

Array

Electrical waste is regarded as all kinds of discarded electronic devices and assets. Northern Data manages its electrical waste by deciding whether it can be remarketed, refurbished, recycled, or must be disposed. Hereby, the company strives to give the discarded electronic devices and assets a second lifecycle through refurbishment and remarketing. In 2021 there have been no significant amounts of electric waste at Northern Data and therefore no waste has been measured. Northern Data handles the recycling and disposal of electrical waste in a manner that is compliant with local and European laws and guidelines.

Array

In Data Center Operations

For the Benchmark data center Sweden 1 Northern Data reported a TÜV-Süd certified Carbon Footprint of 0 t CO2e in Scope 1 and 2 activities and 7,248 t CO2e in Scope 3 emissions in 2021. For the other operating data centers the carbon footprint has not been determined in 2021.

Array

In Business Travel 

Most of the business travel at Northern Data is booked through GreenPerk, TravelPerk’s carbon neutral business travel program. GreenPerk partners with carbon calculation and offset providers, so that Northern Data compensates for its CO₂ emissions directly through the platform. Offsetting happens on a per-trip basis, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the company’s business travel to zero. With the contribution Northern Data supports projects to combat deforestation in Indonesia, reforestation in Cambodia and the promotion of hydropower in Turkey. All projects are VERRA/GOLD-awarded and audited.

Social Reporting 2021

Array

In 2021, Northern Data’s focus was to attract top talent to support the strategic objectives of the company. The talent attraction campaigns resulted in an almost threefold increase in the workforce compared to 2020. Northern Data’s employees are spread across key locations in North America and Europe and have specialist expertise, primarily focused on IT skills. Talent attraction and retention is critical to the future success of Northern Data, as such Rosanne Kincaid-Smith was hired as Chief People Officer in February 2022 to provide professional leadership for the company’s ongoing talent strategy.

Array

Northern Data, as fast-growing business, maintains a special focus on Talent Attraction. The company requires specialist talent with expert skills. To support this, the company has built a Talent Acquisition function that is focused on the recruitment of employees with specialist skills in information technology. The company uses many focused strategies to attract talent, such as the recently launched employee referral program that motivates employees to bring expertise from their own network to the company. In 2021 Northern Data has employed 162 employees of which 97% have a full-time contract and 3% a fixed-term contract.

Array

Northern Data places great importance on the physical and mental well-being of its employees. The rules of conduct for a safe workplace as well as healthy interaction are documented in Northern Data’s Code of Business Conduct & Ethics. Northern Data provides ergonomically designed office equipment, including height-adjustable desks, to ensure that the work environment supports employees’ posture and physical health. During the Covid 19 pandemic, swift action was taken to protect the health of all employees. Thus, working from home was enabled and supported. In addition, an unlimited supply of Covid-19 masks and Covid-19 antigen tests were available to employees.

Array

Northern Data is currently building a sustainable, strong, and committed workforce. Every employee should have the opportunity to fully develop their personal and professional ambitions. To underpin this, Northern Data is currently developing a recognition strategy. As part of this strategy, Northern Data already offers competitive salaries and flexible working hours and supports professional development. In 2021, Northern Data paid every full-time employee a Covid 19 bonus.

Array

Northern Data strictly opposes the discrimination on gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, or religion. The company provides the following statistics on workforce: age, nationality, and gender. In 2021 50% of the workforce was between 30 and 50 years of age, 20% under 30 years, and 7% 50 or older. 23% of the workforce is not registered with birth date due to data privacy laws of individual countries. In regard to the workforce gender breakdown group-wide, 33% female and 67% male were reported. Northern Data currently employs a workforce from 20 different nationalities, coming from five continents. Most of them are German with 41%, Canadian with 21%, US-American with 16%, Norwegian with 6%, Swedish with 3%, and British with 3%. 7% of the workforce have other nationalities and 3% of the nationality could not be examined due to data privacy laws in individual countries.

Array

In 2021, Northern Data rolled out Proliance 360 Data Privacy Training to ensure that every employee is trained on the basics of data protection. This was completed by 100% of the workforce in 2021 and will be repeated yearly. In addition, the Haufe Academy, a leading provider of flexible development programs, has been integrated into Northern Data. From 2022 onward, the platform is providing flexible development programs of all kinds to employees. Northern Data promotes individual further education, in line with our specialist capability requirements.

Array

The way Northern Data advocates human rights is recorded in the company’s Human Rights Policy. The policy is guided by international human rights principles encompassed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization’s Declaration, the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the United Nationals Global Compact, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It applies to Northern Data on a group-wide level and covers the subjects of anti-discrimination, freedom of association and collective bargaining, safe and healthy workplace, forced labor, human trafficking, child labor, and working hours.

Governance Reporting 2021

Array

 In 2021, Northern Data focused in particular on establishing resilient processes and creating and implementing guidelines and policies, including a risk management system. In 2021, Nicole Schwoch was appointed Head of Compliance, Risk and Internal Audit to centrally manage and work on this area. 

Array

Northern Data is committed to the highest values and morals. These are presented in the Code of Conduct. In 2021, Northern Data’s Code of Conduct was further developed and finalized. The “Code of Business Conduct & Ethics” applies to all employees, suppliers, customers, and partners.  It provides guidelines that must under any circumstances be followed. The code covers important topics such as health and safety, equality and anti-discrimination, conflicts of interest, the confidentiality of information, intellectual property, competition and anti-trust, risk management and awareness, money laundering, and insider trading. The code is centrally placed in the Northern Data intranet and translated into three languages covering all first languages our employees and main partners speak. To ensure consent and compliance, all employees are required to complete a course, that teaches the basics of the Code of Conduct and confirm that they agree with and follow it. 

In 2021 we had a special focus on establishing and developing corporate structure. As a globally growing and developing company, processes must be implemented, and responsibilities defined. Therefore, in 2021 we established a department, that exclusively deals with the implementation of sufficient procedures and working infrastructures that will provide the foundation of an organized, global work environment in the long term.

Array

Northern Data does not tolerate any form of corrupt practices including, but not limited to, extortion, fraud, or bribery. Northern Data encourages employees who suspect that serious issues exist within the company to report them through a whistleblowing form without fearing any kind of disadvantage. Normally, suspected irregularities must be reported to the related manager, who will observe the matter and seek a solution. If an employee, for whatever reason, does not feel comfortable with reporting the issue to the manager, the Compliance or People Team may be directly addressed. Whistleblowing, however, does not only relate to employees. To offer the opportunity of reporting any sort of wrongdoing to everyone, Northern Data provides a whistleblowing form on the corporate website. In 2021, there was no case reported. 

Array

The responsibility of the topic of data privacy is embedded in group-wide Risk and Compliance Management. It is specially considered, when it comes to hiring freelancers, implementing new software, making changes in processing personal data, incoming questions of clients, business partners, or suppliers, video surveillance, and when personal data is transferred outside the EEA. To ensure company-wide data privacy, all our employees go through a data privacy training that is completed with a test once a year. The requirements in regard to data privacy are recorded in Northern Data’s privacy policies, which are all third-party audited. They cover all GDPR-relevant procedures and apply to the entire operations including suppliers. In 2021 there have been no data protection breaches and we are working towards maintaining this result. 

Array

Cyber security is embedded in the departments, that are directly connected with IT activities, since the matter principally concerns information technology-based processes. In 2021, these departments included the internal IT, the team responsible for the data center infrastructure, and the team responsible for Steiger, Northern Data’s software for the management of data centers and mining. 

 

For the group-wide workforce, Northern Data provides a cyber security guideline that offers recommendations and sets rules in the fields of email security, password protection, and multi-factor authentication. To ensure compliance, all employees are obliged to assess a data privacy training once a year. In addition, newly hired employees are receiving an IT guide during onboarding, and training materials and information are provided on the intranet and via IT newsletters regularly. For the employees working with Steiger Software, Northern Data provides additional guidelines covering the matters of network security (ensuring security in internal networks), 2-factor authentication, penetration-testing, and SSL (securing Internet connections and protecting sensitive data transferred between two systems). Besides, the Steiger Team meets quarterly to discuss developments in the fields of data center network infrastructure and security. 

 

To manage incidents and breaches in the internal IT, several security mechanisms (Defender for Endpoint, Defender for O365, Identity Security), that all report to one central location are applied. Depending on the incident, the management system automatically executes actions or calls for a manually executed action. In addition, every installed software is analyzed frequently for possible vulnerabilities and outdated versions. Steiger Software has its own management system, that performs regular tests, and automatically provides notifications in case of internal or external cyber security threats. Therefore, in the case of a pool change, that implicates crypto rewards running into another wallet, the management system would directly alarm. In 2021, Northern Data reported 0 cyber security breaches, whereas a breach is defined as a case of an unimplicated pool change.

ESG Management

Array

The responsibility for ESG issues lies with the Executive Board, which wants to ensure that sustainability with all its facets is being implemented in group-wide processes. The overall operative management and the reporting process of ESG issues are led by the Investor Relations department that works together with the other business divisions to develop and implement sustainable management processes.