Vianova’s Code of Ethics provides ethical and responsible guidelines that we use to run our company and guide our work with clients, community, our team, and other stakeholders.
If you are a potential client, partner or employee, researching our company, this information might also help you better understand what working with Vianvoa is like.
We have pulled inspiration from organizations we admire and respect to create this Code of Ethics:
- The UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles
- The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, which serve as a framework to ground our work and our company overall
Please feel free to use or modify this Code of Ethics for your own organization.
How We Use Business for Good
As a Certified B Corp, Vianova is committed to using our business as a force for good. The B Impact Assessment is an objective, third-party toolkit that ensures our company meets the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
When we first became a Certified B Corp in 2008, we signed the community’s Declaration of Interdependence:
- We envision a global economy that uses business as a force for good.
- This economy is comprised of a new type of corporation – the B Corporation –
- which is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
- As B Corporations and leaders of this emerging economy, we believe:
- That we must be the change we seek in the world.
- That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered.
- That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all.
- To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.
Corporate Governance
Ethical corporate governance practices are the cornerstone of our company’s commitment to using business for good. To honor this commitment, Vianova will:
- Use our skills to benefit society and human well-being: we acknowledge that all people are stakeholders in technology
- Pursue returns for all stakeholders, not just shareholders: we will create multiple forms of value and share this value with our networks
- Avoid harm and negative consequences in our work, including unjust physical or mental injury, destruction or disclosure of information, or damage to property, reputation, and the environment
- Be honest, trustworthy, and transparent as well as fair and actionable
- Respect the work required to produce new ideas and give credit where it is due
- Respect privacy and honor confidentiality for all stakeholders
- Strive for the highest quality in everything we do
- Maintain high standards of professional competence, conduct, and ethical practice
- Prioritize collaboration: utilize peer and stakeholder review in our work, processes, and internal practices
- Embrace principles of continuous learning, organizational agility, and design thinking
- Evaluate systems and their impacts for potential risks
- Articulate, encourage acceptance of, and evaluate fulfillment of environmental and social responsibilities by all team members
Benefit Corporation Governance
Additionally, Vianova has been a California Benefit Corporation since 2013. We make good on our legal commitment to benefit society in the following ways:
- Ensure the public good remains at the heart of all professional work through B Corp certification, 1% for the Planet membership, and other means
- Produce an annual benefit report outlining our legal commitment to benefit society
Environment
Without a healthy environment, it is impossible to create a just society or shared prosperity for members of that society. Everyone has a responsibility to care for and nurture the planet we call home. This is not a responsibility we take lightly. To honor our ecological commitment, Vianova will:
- Apply sustainability principles to our work
- Strive for net-zero emissions in our company operations
- Promote positive systems change when possible
- When possible, apply regenerative and circular economy principles to our work: restore ecosystems rather than simply “do less harm”
Customers
We greatly value our customer relationships. Our clients are, after all, the reason we exist. We commit to working with clients who share our values as a Certified B Corp and mission-driven organization. The company seeks out projects that improve social and environmental standards, enhance quality of life, and actively contribute to a better future. We screen prospects on a case-by-case basis.
Here is how we incorporate clear ethics into our customer relationships:
Privacy and Security
To honor stakeholder privacy and the security, Vianova will:
- Respect the privacy of client and user data by adhering to guidelines set forth by GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and others
- Maintain a baseline hardening against security attacks by identifying potential risks, keeping software up-to-date, and alerting clients whenever we discover a known threat
- Access private computing and communication resources only when authorized or compelled by the public good
Collaboration and Transparency
To maintain great customer relationships that are mutually beneficial and based on trust and transparency, Vianova will:
- Prioritize honesty and transparency in all communications
- Value collaboration and co-creation to more efficiently execute projects
- Measure success and value: quantifiable solutions are easy to understand. We strive to create value across the spectrum
JEDI Principles
Justice, equity, diversity, inclusion. We commit to incorporating these principles into all our work.
- We are an anti-racist organization. We also acknowledge that there is much work to do in this area.
- We will not tolerate discrimination in any form.
- We will support civil rights and JEDI-forward legislation and, when company resources allow, actively campaign against violations of these rights.
- Our shared values will guide decision-making and stakeholder goals supersede individual interests and agendas.
Emerging Technologies
We will always assess the potential ethical, social, environmental, and legal challenges of all emerging technologies as they relate to our industry, our work with clients, and our business overall. This includes generative AI, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and any other technologies or practices that could potentially affect customers, communities, workers, or the environment in an adverse manner.
We will only recommend these tools and create practices for how best to use them when it is the interest of all organizational stakeholders. While we can’t predict the future, we can ground our emerging technology work with a strong ethical foundation.
Ethical Marketing & Advertising
Honesty is our guide in all sales, marketing, and advertising. We will make only complete, factual, and truthful statements about our company and its services. We will also work with our clients to ensure information integrity in the communications and technology which we create on their behalf.
All advertising and marketing claims must be substantiated and must include all information and disclosures necessary to make them accurate and complete.
- We must take care to ensure all disclosures are written in a manner that is easily understood by the intended audience.
- We must never make disparaging remarks about our competitors or make unfair comparisons between a competitor’s services and our own.
- With new laws and regulations, as well as increased political and media focus, it is critical to know the latest requirements on disclosures, privacy, and other legal constraints in this area.
We welcome feedback or suggestions to improve our Code of Ethics. Please share your thoughts via our contact form.