Our commitment
As a remote-first technology firm our direct footprint is small, but the systems we design and run for clients consume real energy — increasingly so with AI. We take responsibility for both: our own operations, and the efficiency of what we build. Rothian commits to achieving net zero emissions by 2040, with an interim target of a 50% reduction in operational emissions per employee by 2030.
Our operations
- Remote-first working avoids office energy use and daily commuting.
- Travel: we meet online by default, travel only where being in the room genuinely changes the outcome, and choose rail over short-haul flights where practical.
- Devices: we buy durable equipment, keep it in use for longer, and refurbish, reuse or recycle it through certified e-waste processors.
- Suppliers: we prefer cloud and SaaS providers with published science-based targets and high renewable energy use.
- Measurement: we measure our Scope 1, 2 and material Scope 3 emissions each year, following the GHG Protocol, and use the results to set reduction actions. We will publish a Carbon Reduction Plan in the format required by UK public sector procurement (PPN 006).
The services we build
This is where we can make the biggest difference:
- Efficient cloud architecture. Rightsizing, autoscaling and switching off idle resources reduce emissions as well as cost. Our FinOps work reports both.
- Region choice. Where sovereignty and latency allow, we recommend lower-carbon cloud regions.
- Proportionate AI. We match model size to the task, cache and batch where possible, and measure the energy and cost of AI workloads rather than defaulting to the largest model.
- Lean digital services. Fast, lightweight websites and applications use less energy on servers and on users’ devices, and we design to sustainable web design guidelines.
- Data minimisation. Storing only the data we need, for as long as we need it, reduces storage energy as well as privacy risk.
Compliance
We comply with all applicable environmental legislation, including the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations.
Responsibility and review
A director is accountable for this policy and for reporting progress to the board annually. Everyone who works with us is expected to follow it. We review the policy and our targets at least once a year.