To our stakeholders:

I proudly confirm that ACS audiovisual solutions reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Anti-Corruption, and Environment. In order to accelerate our transformation to a industry wide leader in terms of Environmental Sustainability we hired a Project Manager Sustainability. He is responsible for identifying and implementing improvements in terms of our environmental impact. Examples of this will be highlighted further in this COP. In the annual communication on our progress, we describe our continues efforts to apply the Global Compact principles in our companies DNA.

Sincerely yours,  

Drs. Jessica Ylstra 

Managing Director ACS audiovisual solutions 

21 July 2022

ACS audiovisual solutions respects and supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; ACS is committed to respecting human rights as stated in the human declaration of human rights. We endeavour to ensure that we do not infringe on human rights and comply with the laws of the countries in which we operate. Both internally and externally. 

ACS audiovisual solutions has drawn up internal rules and guidelines (personnel guide book) which describe rights and obligations of employees and management. These guidelines are provided internally and can be consulted any moment. These are documented at our local drives. Every new employee receives this document with guidelines at his/her career start at ACS.  Our business partners need to confirm our policy to adhere to the principles on Human Rights, these are implemented within our general terms, which are always submitted when it comes to business. 

- ACS works in full compliance with the directives of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. We also go beyond these directives: ACS has been fully VCA-certified since 2006. VCA is a programme which assesses and certifies service providers with respect to safety, health and the environment (www.vca.nl). This means that ACS works responsibly with respect to safety, health and the environment. This provides our customers with added security concerning the quality we promise. Yearly we have an unannounced VCA audit, the last audit took place the 17h of February 2022. We have passed this audit.  

- ACS protects workers from workplace harassment, including physical, verbal, sexual or psychological harassment, abuse or threats via our working council and complaint committee. This committee exists of our HRM consultant/ internal counsellor and our external labour specialist. (who is also responsible for reintegration etc. during long term sick leave). In the reported period we have zero cases of registered complaints. In 2021 no cases of any form of workplace harassment have been reported. Though this is no guarantee that there have been no actual cases, we do take it as a positive sign towards the healthy culture at ACS.

-ACS takes measures to eliminate ingredients, materials, designs, defects or side-effects that could harm or threaten human life and health during manufacturing, usage or disposal of products. These ingredients are implemented within the directives of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and our VCA certification. We have employees trained for in-house or external emergency training in general we keep a avg. on 1 per 3 team members. They are officially certified and must take yearly training to stay updated and certified. 

ACS audiovisual solutions respects the labour rights stated in the International Labor Organization’s Declaration as well as all relevant legislation and regulations, including the local content of the countries in which it operates. ACS expects its business partners, customers and suppliers, to do the same. ACS does not tolerate any form of forced (labour) and stands for equal and fair rights within our HR policy. 

ACS audiovisual solutions implemented labour rights within her Human Resource policy and contracts with employees, which describe required rights and employer obligations (e.g. safety and health, non-discrimination/equal chances, working hours, wages etc.). This is done according to Dutch Law. ACS has also implemented these rights within her personnel guidebook, which every new employee receives at the start of their career. These documents are always available and accessible via our local drives and cloud services. 

In order to maintain a high-quality service and give all our employees the opportunity to develop and gain knowledge we organise several trainings, for example sales training, technical training, safety training etc. Besides we implemented a new program called Goodhabitzs, which is an online environment were employees can follow courses according to their personal interests.

- In 2021 ACS had 9 female employees of 60 employees in total: one female is managing director, and 2 other females managers are part of the management.  

- In 2021 ACS had three different ethnical backgrounds within the workforce.

- 10 employees were hired, and 16 employees left the company which has to do with the aftermath of Covid

- ACS scored 0,14% on her absence rate in 2021.  This is extremely low in general and within ACS. 

- ACS registered zero accidents in 2021 on the job.

As ACS audiovisual solutions her main activity involves the provision of services, its impacts on the environment are more indirect than direct. Even so, to strengthen its approach to environment protection ACS is working on defining good-practices related to resource consumption, waste management and global environment friendly behaviour. When operating on a client’s premises ACS complies with that client’s environmental standards. 

As ACS audiovisual solutions her main activity involves the provision of services, its impacts on the environment are more indirect than direct. Even so, to strengthen its approach to environment protection ACS is working on defining good-practices related to resource consumption, waste management and global environment friendly behaviour. When operating on a client’s premises ACS complies with that client’s environmental standards. 

ACS works with a range of objectives with respect to sustainability:

- Hired a Project Manager Sustainability
We created a new role within the company to ensure that our sSustainability strategy gets the priority it deserves. Not only are we looking at internal practices on how ACS can reduce its C02 footprint, but also are we constantly looking for external partnerships to strengthen our activities in terms of sustainability.

- Baseline measurement
This year we have started with carbon footprint analysis according to the greenhouse protocol. We have done this assessment with the guidance of Climate Neutral Group. With the acquired insights we were able to identify exactly in what part of our service the majority of our C02 emissions are embedded. For example, we learned that that the two biggest contributors towards our emissions are the transportation of materials and people. With these numbers we aim to achieve a reduction in emissions by working more with local material suppliers. When making the cost benefit analysis of these services we now can see a direct reduction of transportation emissions. This is an important topic for our decision making process.

Additionally, with these insights ACS is well on its way to become Net Carbon Zero by 2030. In 2022 we signed the Net Carbon Zero events pledge. This pledge provides a roadmap to all stakeholders how to be in line with the Paris Agreement goals. At ACS however, we desire to be ahead of the 2050 net carbon zero pledge by at least 20 years.

- Justdiggit Collaboration
We recently partnered with Justdiggit. Justdiggit is an organization that fights climate change through regenerative agriculture practices in Kenya and Tanzania. With the help of local farmers they transform completely eroded land into thriving ecosystems. This achieved by digging through the hard and almost impenetrable top soil so that rainwater can reach the underlying seeds and root systems. Once this process is started, the natural ecosystems return and biodiversity is increased.

It is our goal to regreen 5 times the amount of international events surface area that we provide on a yearly basis. This means that this year alone we helped to regreen 463.000 m2.

Justdiggit is an internationally recognized organization and with their efforts they contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals formulated by the United Nations:

1.No Poverty

2. No Hunger

5. Gender Equality

6. Clean water and Sanitation

8. Good Jobs and Economic Growth

13. Climate Action

15. Life On Land

18. Partnerships for the goals.

Additionally ACS looks at the following environmnetal topics:

- Energy 
Measurement criterion: 
We assess our energy consumption with the Facility department annually to determine where we can apply energy-saving changes. 

- Waste 
Measurement criterion: 
We only work with companies that assess waste separation structurally and review whether current suppliers meet our requirements. 

-Mobility 
Measurement criterion:
Assessment of the leased trucks/busses used at the end of each lease period. ACS is constantly looking for ways to switch to electric vehicles. Currently we are still using combustion engines due to the following factors:

We need vehicles with towing capabilities. The specific model we use does not come with this option yet. The moment this feature is available we will re evaluate.

The lack of charging capabilities at our current facilities. We discussed with our landlord the possibility to place at least two charging stations. However, due to the legal constraints we could not reserves the necessary space for ourselves and therefore jeopardizing our transportation needs.

ACS operates in accordance with an Environmental Management System. The general aim of the EMS within ACS is:

- Compliance with legislation and regulations and the management of environmental risks.  

- To pursue permanent improvement in your organisation's environmental performance.  

ACS uses the following savings programmes within the EMS:

Waste processing 
All ACS offices work with waste collection services that separate waste and collect and process it separately. 

For example the ACS Amsterdam office works with the company named Renewi.

They provide various containers so that waste can be separated. With  focus on extracting value from waste, total waste handled by Renewi is 89% recycled or used for energy recovery. 

 
Cleaning 
ACS's cleaning company, 1nergiek, operates a CSR policy which is assessed throughout the entire year. Sustainability is high on the agenda at 1nergiek and plays an important role in mobility, purchasing, service provision, energy and HR policy, among others. 

1nergiek is iso90001 and iso14001 certified.  

 
Electricity
 
- At all locations, the lights stay off in rooms that are not in use. 

- We use natural light as much as possible. 

- Transitioning from HF- TL to energy-saving lighting (LED) in the main warehouse. 

- For both of our main locations (Amsterdam, and Utrecht) we are using green electricity

Heating 

- A time switch in all the offices turns down the thermostat one hour before the end of the working day. 

- The radiators in rooms that are not in use are kept on low to ensure equal distribution across the site, which prevents the thermostat from coming back on the whole day. 

- All rooms are insulated. 

- The door between the front warehouse and the rest of the site remains closed. When the roller blinds are opened, the heat does not escape from the site. 

Paper use 

- Paper is collected separately from other waste. 

- Black/white printing is recommended and this is the standard printer setting. 

- The sales process in particular makes use of digital brochures and price lists instead of printed copies. 

- We are looking for ways to reduce paper usage by implementing digital options.

Membership of STIBAT (batteries foundation):

- Stibat collects batteries from the collection points and ensures that they are sorted and recycled. Stibat takes the batteries it has collected to the national depot/sorting centre. After sorting, Stibat ensures that the batteries are recycled by recognised recycling companies in Western Europe. 
 

Membership of foundation AAP: 

- AAP gives primates and other exotic mammals a better future. AAP rescues animals and makes the case for better animal legislation in Europe. 

- AAP collects old cell phones, for every cell phone that can be refurbished AAP receives a reimbursement of 3 euro’s.  Every reimbursement will be donated to the animals adopted by AAP. In addition, recycling your cell phone also helps saving the environment. 

- For the baseline C02 footprint measurement we aim to increase the use of local materials by 5% over the next period.

- Any employee journey to an international event that falls within a 600 km radius should be done by train.

- For our collaboration with Justdiggit we aim to regreen 460.000 m2 this year alone with the potential of extra square meters through collaboration with our clients

- In terms of paper use we will see how much paper can be saved through automation of the office.

ACS audiovisual solutions supports the UNGC principles on anti-corruption. We work strongly against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery. 

Our CSR guidelines and Code of Conduct (personnel guide book) include our policies on anti-corruption and respond to incidents. We have a system in place for any CSR guideline violation, this is managed via our counsellor and complaint committee.  

ACS also implemented ethical behaviour within her general terms towards suppliers. 

- No incidents of violation have been reported in 2021