bNamed is a niche player in the domain name market. However, its size has no effect on its efforts to follow Corporate Social Responsibility principles. bNamed has a rock-solid belief that small things can have a huge effect. Their main focus is on employee wellbeing and energy consumption at the office, explains Lieve De Kinder, marketing manager at bNamed.
What does bNamed do in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility?
Lieve: ‘bNamed is a small organisation which means resources are not unlimited. Our main investment in sustainability has been our newly built energy-efficient office building. The building has a heat pump, solar panels and a battery, the sanitary facilities are connected to rainwater and window films prevent heat escaping in the winter and help to keep rooms cool by reducing the heat from sunlight in the summer.’
‘In addition to power consumption, sustainable mobility is also important to us. All our cars are hybrid cars and anyone coming to work by bike receives a considerable bicycle allowance. Of course we also pay attention to employee wellbeing. We have very flexible working hours and provide the possibility to work from home. This is important for our employees' work-life balance.’
What was the reason to start doing this?
Lieve: ‘Organisations can't simply ignore the climate nowadays. Investing in an energy-efficient building is only natural. It's also a smart investment, it costs a lot of money at first but it pays off in the long run. After all, energy is expensive. And we have to think about the generations that come after us.’
‘It's not easy finding new employees as a small enterprise. We don't often hire new people, but we do try to make working at bNamed as attractive as possible. That's why we focus on the mental wellbeing of our people. We think it's important to help our people in case of any problems. And it seems to be working because we've all been here for years.’
Do you communicate about this?
Lieve: 'Not really. Sustainability isn't a selling point yet for us because very few customers ask about it. Presumably that's because we work in a niche market and solely offer domain names. I can imagine that hosting companies do get questions from customers about the energy consumption of data centres. But maybe we should mention our sustainability initiatives on our website.’
‘You need to see what impact you can have within your actual possibilities and with the resources at hand.’
Is there a strategy or grand scheme behind your sustainability initiatives?
Lieve: ‘No, we don't have a sustainability strategy. What we do stems more from a kind of awareness. Sustainability is something we always try to take into account and helps us with decisions and choices, but I wouldn't say it's a deliberate strategy.’
‘Also, there is no result evaluation currently. Because we only recently moved into our new building, it's difficult to compare results. At the end of this year, we'll analyse the results to see where we can fine-tune and what else we can do. The end goal is to be self-sufficient in terms of energy.’
Is it difficult for a small organisation?
Lieve: ‘As I already said, the resources in a small organisation are quite limited. That's just the way it is. But that's not a reason not to do anything. You need to see what impact you can have within your actual possibilities and with the resources at hand. This is something every organisation has to consider.’
‘And that's not always easy. For example, because we don't have our own data centres, we depend on our suppliers. These centres are spread all over the world, even in places where the ecological impact of our business is not yet a decisive factor. As a small player, it's not easy to convince a supplier on the other side of the world to address the energy consumption of data centres. However, you can try to have an impact in other ways, for example by helping to keep the internet secure or making it more secure.’
How do you achieve this?
Lieve: ‘Through innovative solutions such as the Registrant Verification by Registrar. We take care of the registrant verification of anyone registering a .be-domain name through us. We do that by checking whether the data of the person who made the payment corresponds with the data of the person who registered the domain name.’
‘We're constantly looking for solutions to make it as easy as possible for our customers For example, we regularly get requests for exotic extensions. Middle Eastern ones especially involve a lot of paperwork. We take care of this ourselves as much as we can and coordinate with the registries to simplify the process for our customers as much as possible.’
By making the domain name registration and validation as simple as possible for our customers and by doing it in a correct and secure way, we not only focus on customer friendliness, but also reduce the tendency to bypass validation.’
Would you have an even greater impact if bNamed were part of a larger ecosystem?
Lieve: ‘bNamed is not part of a network or a larger group. Also, we're not located on an industrial estate where we can organise major campaigns with neighbours. We do what we can, without partnerships. Small things can also have a huge effect.’
‘Our business manager Bart is on the Board of Directors of DNS Belgium, is chairman of Bereas and a board member of the Dutch Association of Registrars . In that way he does carry some clout. Sustainability is really important in those organisations.’
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With this article, we support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.