By Marion de Robillard - Global Marketing and Comms Director, Marjorie Boruel - TA Director and Alexia Delahousse - VP Legal & Public Affairs at Qonto.
A better world is everyone’s business. A fairer society and a more sustainable environment, where responsibility and opportunity go hand in hand. At Qonto, we want to help make this happen — and that starts by holding up a mirror.
In this article, Qonto’s Marjorie Boruel (Talent Acquisition Director), Alexia Delahousse (VP Legal), and Marion de Robillard (Global Marketing & Comms Director) describe what we want to see when we look in that mirror: a company that maximizes its positive impact on communities and minimizes its impact on the environment.
Why is this pledge important and meaningful for a company like Qonto?
Alexia Delahousse — VP Legal & Public Affairs
Qonto is a prominent tech company with real influence and therefore needs to act as a role model and figurehead in its ecosystem.
On these grounds, Qonto has a social responsibility. Despite the strides our ecosystem is taking from a tech point of view, it’s still lagging behind on social and environmental commitments. Qonto has an opportunity to double down and pave the way for other tech companies — as well as our partners and customers — to do the same.
Here are just a few of the challenges the tech industry is facing:
Women make up just 19.1% of the workforce in the European tech sector, and even less when it comes to leadership roles.
The whole ecosystem relies on fundraising, and all-male founder teams have raised 90% of the funds propelling the industry forward. These men are almost always from privileged social backgrounds.
Digital technologies are responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions. As the sector grows, these emissions are increasing exponentially.
We believe that Qonto has a social responsibility and is in the best position to be part of the solution to these challenges.
What do you mean by “social responsibility”?
Marjorie Boruel — Talent Acquisition Director
Social responsibility is about recognizing Qonto’s impact on society. As a company, it’s up to us to ensure that this impact is both positive and sustainable. We’ve therefore based our social responsibility commitment on 2 pillars:
Environmental sustainability
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Today, in 2023, DEI shouldn’t even be an issue. Unfortunately it is — so we’ve decided to make it a priority for Qonto and create more opportunities for employee-led initiatives.
Our ultimate goal is to make sure that everything we’re doing, from HR policy to events and hiring processes, is inclusive by design. That means anyone with an interest in Qonto must feel comfortable applying for open roles and welcome to work here on a daily basis.
We’ve also been working to make our product even more accessible for our customers. As part of our ‘inclusive by design’ approach, we’re aiming to increase accessibility to banking services and company creation for under-represented groups.
How did you build a social responsibility strategy at Qonto and what makes it specific to your company and its culture?
Marion de Robillard — Global Marketing & Comms Director
Committed as company, we established a new governance framework with dedicated internal teams. Our ‘Impact community’ brings together employees who are passionate and knowledgeable about DEI and sustainability issues — all on a voluntary basis.
With 15 active committee members guiding the roadmap and 30 flying representatives offering project support, our set-up is well and truly Qonto-esque: organized, efficient, and engaged.
Our goal to build an even fairer and more sustainable company became one of Qonto’s OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for 2023, and now features in almost every team’s roadmap.
Completing a greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment was also a significant milestone for us. Of course, this is only the beginning, but it helped us to establish a clear vision for the year ahead and develop a roadmap outlining the emissions we want to reduce.
What is your sustainability policy in more detail?
Marion de Robillard — Global Marketing & Comms Director
There are 2 key methods for building a sustainability policy: reduction and offsetting.
At Qonto, we chose reduction because we believe can make a more immediate impact this way. Once we’ve defined our long-term trajectory, however, we’ll explore how we can contribute to carbon-offsetting projects and net-zero initiatives.
We’re aiming to reduce our emissions by 5% relative to our growth by the end of 2023, in each of our 3 scopes:
Scope 1: Greenhouse gas emissions generated directly by Qonto and its business.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions, such as those caused by Qonto’s use of electricity.
Scope 3: All other indirect emissions occurring upstream or downstream of Qonto’s value chain.
We set a 5% reduction target for the end of 2023 because this aligns with the Paris Climate Agreement and other companies at a similar stage of growth. Many of these companies have set targets between 3–5%, so we’ve opted for the high end of that range. There’s no point in doing this at all if we’re not ambitious. After this initial, short-term milestone, we’ll be better placed to define a trajectory for the medium term.
What are Qonto’s commitments?
Alexia Delahousse — VP Legal & Public Affairs
Qonto is a results-driven company. Our actions will speak louder than our words, so we’ve pledged to meet:
Our DEI commitments
Ensure 48% of Qonto’s workforce are women by the end of 2023, with 45% of leadership roles held by women.
Create 3 Employee Resource Groups (ERG) to help us better support under-represented groups by December 2023 (such as LGBTQIA+, parents, people with disabilities, BIPoC and any other community seeking representation).
Implement a disability inclusion policy.
Offer a digital solution that facilitates company creation for under-represented groups.
Our sustainability commitments
Disclose our carbon footprint assessment on a yearly basis.
Reduce our carbon footprint in each of the 3 scopes, and therefore including all direct and indirect emissions.
Evaluate all our external providers from an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standpoint, acting hand in hand with them to improve this score every year.
Help our customers on their own path to more sustainable practices.
What concrete actions are you taking to reach Qonto’s DEI goals?
Marjorie Boruel — Talent Acquisition Director
Building a diverse team is key to fostering a culture of trust, cohesion, and employee empowerment, and being recognized as a truly ethical company.
Here are just some of the ways in which we’re working toward our DEI goals:
We’re aligned on company-wide objectives, which we monitor closely and regularly follow up on. For example, one of Qonto’s OKRs is to build a sustainable and inclusive organization.
We’re constantly training on diversity issues, particularly through the Diversity Fresco workshop created by ESSEC and Belugames — a tool designed to raise awareness about discrimination and to challenge preconceptions surrounding these issues within organizations.
We’re raising awareness internally and externally about diversity through our blog, various events and meet-ups on diversity topics, and also through key partners.
We’re creating job ads with inclusion in mind to encourage applications from a diverse pool of candidates. We also offer a range of perks to provide a well-rounded experience for Qontoers, in the best and most inclusive working conditions.
And to meet your sustainability commitments?
Marion de Robillard — Global Marketing & Comms Director
First, we needed to measure our current impact on the environment. It’s this information that allows us to define a consistent climate strategy and take data-informed decisions to reduce our emissions. Then, we’ll disclose our carbon footprint assessment on a yearly basis.
In terms of our actions, we’ll be looking to reduce emissions across everything we do. That means collecting as many ‘quick wins’ as we can, but also making deeper, structural changes in specific areas we’ve identified as having a greater impact. They are:
The placement of our clients’ funds. We will include ESG criteria when assessing how and where we safeguard our clients’ funds, and we commit to reporting publicly on that matter.
Our suppliers. We’ll evaluate all our providers from an ESG perspective and work alongside them to improve this score.
Cards and packaging. We’ll revamp our card lineup to ensure our production process minimizes waste.
Our workplace, events, and travel by adapting our internal policies.
Marketing ads by optimizing our process for media and creatives.
How can tech companies be more innovative in how they approach inclusivity?
Marjorie Boruel — Talent Acquisition Director
Tech companies should shift their focus from compliance to commitment, and from reaction to innovation, recognizing that they have an active role to play in creating a fairer society.
To expand their talent pool, engage and retain their employees, and win over their customers, tech companies must prioritize inclusivity and innovation from the very beginning. Here are 4 best practices to get started:
Nurture a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion that aligns with the company’s business goals and meets employees’ needs, including benefits, offering mentorship and career development programs, and providing tools for employee feedback. This is crucial to building an impactful DEI strategy that brings people together and encourages engagement.
Encourage diverse perspectives. Employees from different backgrounds should always be encouraged to share their perspectives and ideas. Roundtables, workshops, and safe spaces allow all employees to contribute, while ERGs inspire creativity and innovation by serving as a direct link between employees, the HR team, and the executive team.
Collaborate with specialist partners, such as non-profits and social-impact organizations, to develop solutions for addressing social and environmental challenges, while encouraging employees to support the causes they care about.
Leverage technology to build inclusive products and services that are accessible to everyone, regardless of their background.
Let’s get on with it
Qonto wants to be a genuine driver of positive change. Although we’ve already made some important first steps, we’re still learning how we can best fulfill our social commitments.
If you have something to share that you think will help us get there faster, we’d love to hear from you at impact@qonto.com.
Championing people, protecting the planet. Let’s get on with it.
