Stone, A Converge Company, joins the UN Global Compact

We have proudly joined the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, which spans 20,000 companies in 160 countries.

Sustainability is like politics - it impacts all of us, whether we recognize it or not. It extends beyond our daily lives, businesses, and country, and has a global reach on our environments and communities.

At Stone, our sustainability work is governed by the Making a Digital Difference framework, which adheres to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals across ten different themes. The UN’s goals have helped us identify and improve our impact at both micro and macro levels.

And now, as a natural extension of our commitment, we are proud to announce that we have joined the UN Global Compact.

What is the UN Global Compact?

The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. It helps companies align their strategies and operations with the UN’s Ten Principles on human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption, and to take action that advances societal goals.

The Global Compact’s goals align closely with ours, and we are proud to join over 20,000 member organisations based in over 160 countries.

To join, prospective member companies must operate responsibly in alignment with the UN’s principles, take actions to support society, embed sustainability throughout their organisation and report annually on their efforts.

We’re happy to say that we do all of that here at Stone, A Converge Company, thanks to our robust reporting, responsible recycling, and community outreach.

We are delighted that we can now collaborate with other members to share best practices and emerging solutions.

Membership means we can network with other sustainability leaders of all sizes in over 160 countries, access partnerships with various stakeholders, and improve our sustainability knowledge with tools, resources, and training.

This means that we can also share the benefits of our newfound partnerships and knowledge to our customers.

That’s crucial because social and environmental sustainability has never been so important. In education, there’s evidence that pupils, students, and parents are more engaged with organisations that make genuine efforts on sustainability. In the public and private sectors, many procurement frameworks now include sustainability weighting.

Why is it important?

It’s not just about those operational impacts, either.

The UN predicts a global population of 9.8 billion by 2050. Unless things change, the UN also says that we’ll need the equivalent of three planets to provide the natural resources required.

In the technology sector, the demand for resources is expected to be even more acute as global societies become more digitised and software and artificial intelligence continue to develop.

There are signs that e-waste won’t slow down, either. The UN says that the worldwide creation of e-waste is accelerating by 2.6 million tonnes and that, by 2030, 82 million tonnes will be produced yearly.

As a leading provider of IT solutions in this climate, we take our responsibilities seriously, which is why we use the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other information sources as a reference framework for our operations.

The UN’s 17 goals cover a wide range of topics, and the nature of our business means we are keenly committed to responsible consumption and production, innovative industrial efforts, and affordable, clean energy.

Stone, A Converge Company, has provided fully circular IT for over a decade. We help customers choose the right products and services, we extend product lifecycles and reduce the resources required for new device production with device refurbishment and extended warranties, and our refurbishment and recycling close the loop.

Our values have consistently demonstrated our commitment to corporate responsibility, and we have backed up our intentions with action: we are CSRA Accredited, hold an EcoVadis Silver award, and have held ISO 14001 certification for over 17 years.

By aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and joining the UN Global Compact, we have committed to bringing the best environmental and societal sustainability practices to our business and suppliers, customers, and communities.

We’re proud to be part of the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, and we can’t wait to leverage our membership to help our customers develop their sustainability journeys, too.