Impact report 2023

Section 1 – Governance 

Letter from the founder

In 2020, Hertech was established as a female-led digital agency with a focus on positive change for both people and the planet. In the midst of the world’s increasing embrace of digital transformation, we acknowledge the significant responsibility that web developers hold in crafting a sustainable and resilient future.

Embedded in our values is a commitment to environmental stewardship, guiding us as we deliver top-quality digital products. Our aim extends to minimising environmental impact, ensuring product longevity, and fostering social change in all our endeavours.

This year, we are excited to kick off our application to attain B Corp certification, aspiring to join a community of like-minded businesses sharing our vision for a greener and more ethical future. Achieving all our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the year fills us with pride, and our dedication to sustaining this success in the years to come remains unwavering.

For a small company like ours, reaching these milestones establishes a robust foundation for future growth. Our commitment continues as we strive to transition into a 100% purpose-driven business.

Mission statement 

Our mission is to champion sustainable web design practices that harmonise digital innovation with environmental responsibility.

Hertech is a sustainability focused company. Our key objective is to build sustainable and accessible websites with longevity and exceptional user experience. 

We achieve this by implementing sustainable design and efficient coding practices, offering green hosting and subscribing to sustainable enterprises who actively promote positive change in the world. Our team is committed to staying up-to-date with the latest sustainability practices and incorporating them into all aspects of our work.

Company values 

Knowledge – Learning from like-minded companies, we are dedicated to continuing our journey of sustainability and seeking guidance from leaders to learn more.

Community – Fostering collaboration with clients and external teams, we invest in community and support women in tech. We align ourselves with companies that share our values.

Environment – strive to continuously evolve in creating a greener and more sustainable internet. 

KPIs

We are proud to have reached all our KPIs for 2023. 

Environmental KPIs

• Improve and monitor Hertech business website sustainability 
• 100% of all clients on green hosting. 
• Reduce web development clients in the fiscal year CO2 emissions to below 0.5g 
• Attain verification for green hosting for all clients 

Community and social impact KPIs

• Apply to become a trustee for a charity. 
• Diversify development team. 
• Ensure we continue to work with clients who have direct benefit to women. 

Section 2 – Community

Diversity and inclusion

While hertech is owned and led by a woman from a minority background and with a women focused partnership team we decided to focus on diversifying our development partnerships. We were proud to collaborate with a new development partner in Bangladesh for our Website sustainability project. 

We also screen our collaborators for social and environmental impact. We are proud to collaborate with other B Corp businesses like Sail Creative and Pretty Clever. All our design partners are focused on positive mission led clients some of which include: Care International, Rape Crisis and Oxfam.

Banking 

We are proud to use Starling bank as our sole bank for all of Hertech business. 

Starling bank is an independently owned bank committed to serving the community. By banking with Starling we support the following initiatives: 

• 40 leadership by women
• They are committed to gender equality,
•  have a carbon reduction plan and a
•  modern slavery policy. 
• Their charity partners are Action for Children and Smart Works. 

Volunteering

In 2023, our goal was to identify a cornerstone charity to support in order to dedicate more time to volunteering. Hertech’s director applied, and was accepted, to become a trustee for The Line, an ambitious art project in East London with an outdoor exhibition programme that offers a journey through a dynamic urban landscape where everyone can explore art, nature and heritage for free.

We also joined Climate action.tech, a group of people that meet to discuss, learn and take climate action together. 

Section 3 – Environment 

Environmental business model

In 2023, we transitioned our business model to prioritize sustainability, as reflected in our mission statement and two key initiatives for the year. Going forward, Hertech is fully dedicated to developing sustainable websites powered entirely by renewable energy. Our commitment extends beyond internal energy reduction, as we recognize our measurable environmental impact through our clients, contributing to broad and positive change.

The first initiative was to start at home by working to Improve and monitor own website’s sustainability

Result:

• In 2023 we migrated the business site to a green hosting server. 
• Optimised site code to increase performance and decrease CO2 emissions.
• Redesigned the site for more efficient UX. 
• On websitecarbon.com The site now scores an A, up from B. 

The second, a much larger initiative, was to move 100% of our clients to green hosting

Result:

• In 2023 We migrated all clients to green hosting. Moving forward all hosting will be on renewable energy servers. 
• Hertech is now verified by The Green Web Foundation as a green hosting supplier. All client servers are now verified as well.

Benefits of our environmental product

Building sustainable websites that are 100% hosted on green energy has the following benefits:

• Fully run on renewable energy. No more fossil fuels in hosting.
• Websites are built to be more robust, high performing and longer lasting reducing energy consumption overall. 
• Websites are build to be more accessible allowing for a wider audience and aid to those with disability
• Our websites generate more than 50% less co2 per page than the global average. 
• Actively monitor and reduce carbon emissions over time. 
• Clients get sustainability statistics that show improvements and reduction of carbon emissions

Resource conservation calculations

Section 4 – Clients 

List of our clients that have a direct impact on social and economic problems that are faced by client beneficiaries. 

Benefits of services supplied to our clients to aid them in reaching their goals:

• Transform donation platform
• Made websites more accessible
• Improved user journeys and experiences to allow better use of resources to the wider community
• Optimised website with low data to reach underserved communities
• Customer stewardship
• Robust data policy