Citizenship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development
“Managing complexity without costing the earth”
Bull's vision of the world is one where Information and Communications Technologies contribute to creating a better, safer and more open world. As a responsible corporate citizen, Bull has long been committed to effectively combining economic growth and sustainable development, to support the community as a whole. Bull's business is founded on strong ethical principles, which form a shared value-set for its entire workforce.
Bull is particularly committed to:
Implementing best practice in CSR and sustainable development.
As a company guided by string ethical principles, Bull has always endeavored to combine economic growth (profit) with the development of its workforce (people) and protection of the environment (planet). The launch of a number of ambitious initiatives such as 'L'esprit d'équipe' (Team Spirit), the not-for-profit Institut Frédérik Bull, and pioneering environmental programs have clearly demonstrated this since the 1980s, in a way which was ahead of the market. This has remained a constant concern for Bull. The company was one of the first 100 in France to develop an integrated Quality, Safety and Environmental (QSE) policy in the 1990s for its manufacturing and logisitics sites, obtaining full formal ISO certification in 2004.
2008 saw the appointment of a dedicated CSR Manager for the Group and the launch of an integrated approach to CSR aimed at structuring the company's numerous existing CSR initiatives by closely aligning them with corporate strategy. The aim is to maximize the impact of CSR, while at the same time ensuring that it genuinely contributes to creating value for the company, its workforce, customers, shareholders and all other stakeholders. By putting CSR at the heart of its business activities, Bull is demonstrating its commitment to develop best practice in managing people and the environment:
- People: at the heart of Bull's strategy for growth. Bull is well aware that a company's success depends on the success of its people. As 'Architect of an Open World', Bull has developed a corporate culture based on innovation, commitment, team spirit and ambition. As a multi-national company, with a presence in over 50 countries, the Group is committed to developing a culture that respects diversity, combining everyone's skills and energies for the benefit of all. Whether through its recruitment policies or its initiatives aimed at making the workplace accessible to those with disabilities (delivered on Bull's behalf by the Institut Frederik Bull, the Group has put a great deal of effort over a long period to fighting against the various forms of inequality and discrimination. More widely, Bull is playing an active part in reducing the 'digital divide' and in developing open technologies, through its numerous contributions to the world of Open Source, including the Linux Foundation and the OW2 consortium, which is help to establish and which is now the leading international middleware consortium with a presence in five continents.
- Products and services that respect the environment. From procurement right through to recycling, the environment is at the heart of Bull's concerns in manufacturing. Starting with its procurement policies, Bull takes a responsible approach, which is reflected most notably by the agreement signed by its main suppliers of a charter based on the UN Global Compact principles. In addition, Bull was one of the first 10 organizations in France to develop an integrated Quality, Safety and Environment (QSE) management system, at its production and logistics site at Angers.
This initiative, launched in 1990, when Bull first achieved ISO 9001 certification, was completed in September 24 with the award of OHSAS 18001 certification. This certification is based on recognized standards (ISO 9001 V2000, OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001) and has led to the signing of a charter underlining Bull's long-term commitment, in terms of resources and energy used, and waste. In particular, this agreement respects European directives aimed at reducing polluting substances, such as RoHS (Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances) and REACH (controlling the use of some 30,000 chemicals). The requirements for recycling – now officially set out in the European Union's WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive – were also included in advance, a long time ago.
As a result, 90% of obsolete hardware reclaimed each year at our production site, are successfully reworked or re-used in some way. The remaining 10% of this material is dismantled in a specialist workshop, which pays strict attention to eliminating hazardous substances. Finally, in October 2008, the Group's production and logistics chain also launched a 'sustainable development' program, aimed among other things at measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of its activities.
For the Group's customers, this guarantees that the products and services it offers are created under good environmental and quality conditions.
Contributing to research into the design of more environmentally-friendly technologies
As 'Architect of an Open World', Bull is one of the key players in the development of 'greener', more environmentally-friendly technologies. Along with its partners including Intel, Bull contributes to research into tomorrow's green technologies. Bull is one of the main players involved in the 'Climate Savers Computing Initiative', which aims to halve the energy consumption of servers by 2010. Bull has also a particularly innovative research program with SAP, to align the energy consumption of large-scale Data Centers with corporate strategy. Developed jointly by Bull and SAP in Europe and the USA, this three-year strategic program is aimed at designing tomorrow's 'green' Data Centers, focusing on three main areas of research: optimizing energy expenditure ratios per transaction, optimizing synergies between hardware infrastructures and software solutions, and the development of best practice in virtualized architectures.
Guiding IT Departments in how to optimize the environmental and energy footprints of their information systems
As a technology supplier and integration, Bull also helps IT Departments optimize their information systems and, most notably, reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint. Although IT is a significant source of progress – which benefits the economy as a whole – it also accounts for a measurable proportion of the world's CO2 emissions, estimated today to be around 2%, or almost equivalent to the aviation industry. Bull is making efforts to help its customers reduce this consumption. The services that Bull offers are already helping organizations to move towards European recommendations in terms of Data Center management and to improve their existing facilities, delivering better energy management performance, lower consumption, and a smaller carbon footprint...
To help ensure that Data Centers progress even further, Bull has developed a pioneering new offering, along with some of its main partners: the BioDataCenter. The result of a pragmatic approach, enriched by Bull's own experience, the BioDacaCenter is based on three fundamental principles: meeting the required service levels for users (SLAs) thanks to a more professional, structured approach to operational processes; optimizing Data Center topology to free up available power and further enhance flexibility; and more effectively managing heterogeneous systems in order to reduce the carbon footprint.
Managed according to these fundamental rules, the Bio Data Center integrates more naturally into its business and physical environment, and it is capable of evolving in the same way as a living organism: continuously, according to needs, with each element contributing to the overall growth of the system while respecting the core need for balance between functional effectiveness and energy consumption. Also in this area, Bull is one of the pioneering companies in energy auditing and consulting, and has developed an advanced 'intelligent energy management' offering with its partner Schneider Electric.
Helping decision-makers ensure that IT makes a positive contribution to meeting their own CSR targets
Finally, Bull's vision and mission is built on a core belief, that information technologies are a formidable driver for progress, for the economy, people and the environment as a whole. Through solutions including digital services and computer simulation, IT assists innovation and supports economic growth, while at the same time reducing the energy footprint and guaranteeing trust. As a responsible and committed company, Bull is working to develop this vision for tomorrow, and to help businesses use technology to extend their own CSR activities. This approach is brought to life through major initiatives instigated by Bull, including:
- Increasingly widespread availability of High-Performance Computing (HPC). From oceanographic research to climatology predictions, from industrial modeling to healthcare, Bull's HPC solutions support fundamental and applied research to expand scientific knowledge and develop tomorrow's, more environmentally-friendly technologies. For example, the use of HPC opens up new possibilities for investigation and simulation that are useful in information processing, finance, aeronautics... but also in energy, climatology and bio-sciences… Bull is one of the world's leading integrators of these technologies, and the largest European supplier.
- Developing tomorrow's large-scale digital services. As an important player in the delivery of telecoms and e-government infrastructures (e-democracy, healthcare, etc.), Bull contributes to the development of the infrastructures that are vital to tomorrow's digital world. Bull is also helping to reduce the digital divide through its innovative approachs of 'VirtualShore' and Open Source, to benefit the entire community.
- Developing IT security technologies that help ensure a safer world and guarantee individual freedoms. With the launch of globull, Bull has developed a revolutionary solution that combines mobility and protection of personal data in a digital world. And with the launch of StoreWay DPA, Bull is also putting data protection available to branch offices and enterprise functions to protect their data beyond the confines of the Data Center.
As a designer and integrator of open technologies, Bull helps public and private sector organizations to enhance their business activities, while at the same time guaranteeing sustainable development and contributing to the development of society as a whole. With this in mind, most notably, Bull set up the Institut Frederik Bull to analyze and predict the future impact of technologies through multi-disciplinary research, bringing together recognized experts from the worlds of research, media, medicine, law, banking and hi-tech.
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