Spotlight stories
Our journey towards green offices: a step towards sustainability and employee wellbeing
During 2024, SoftwareOne France moved into a new space located in the innovative SoPop building. This move reflects our unwavering commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility, as highlighted by the environmental certifications of our new space: BREEAM Excellent, HQE, Osmoz, and R2S.
From carpets made of recycled fibres to recyclable bricks, every detail embodies our dedication to sustainability. Even our worktops are crafted from recycled plastics, and the walls are painted with Ecolabel-certified paint.
This commitment to sustainable design extends beyond construction. By reducing waste, maximising energy efficiency while using 100% renewable energy, and using responsible resources, we’ve created an office that aligns with our Green Office Initiative. Additionally, the office is located in a well-connected area, offering excellent public transport and bicycle access. This ensures that our employees and visitors can enjoy a low-emission commute. Our new French office is more than a workspace; it’s a statement of our sustainability values. We look forward to continuing our journey toward a sustainable future in other locations, creating more workplaces where innovation, responsibility, and well-being converge.
A pioneering solution for natural disaster prevention
In response to severe weather events exacerbated by climate change, the State Secretariat for Social Development (SEDESE) in Minas Gerais, Brazil, launched “Mapeia Minas”, the nation’s first project aimed at predicting natural disasters to mitigate their impact. This initiative, developed in collaboration with SoftwareOne and Amazon Web Services (AWS), focuses on monitoring climate events such as dam failures, floods, and droughts. It integrates data from government databases, particularly concerning vulnerable populations residing in high-risk areas.
Between 2021 and 2022, Minas Gerais faced intensified rainfall, leading to emergencies in over half of its 853 municipalities and displacing approximately 70,000 individuals. This situation highlighted the state’s lack of preparedness and the absence of preventive measures, especially for families in landslide-prone regions. Elder Gabrich, Special Advisor at SEDESE, noted the urgent need for proactive strategies to prevent severe impacts on these communities.
The development of Mapeia Minas utilised AWS’s “Working Backwards” methodology and was a collaborative effort between SoftwareOne and AWS, with both contributing resources at no cost. AWS provided cloud credits, while SoftwareOne dedicated over 600 service hours to creating the tool. Cleyton Leal, SoftwareOne’s Application Services Leader, prioritised the delivery of social benefits through the project, including assisting municipal management in planning and risk mitigation. The system employs various AWS services, such as EventBridge, Lambda, S3, AWS Glue, AirFlow, QuickSight, SNS, Amazon RDS, and Athena, to ensure robust data processing and real-time monitoring. By leveraging these technologies, Mapeia Minas aims to provide timely information to authorities, enabling them to take preventive actions and reduce the adverse effects of natural disasters on vulnerable populations. This pioneering approach not only enhances the state’s disaster response capabilities but also serves as a model for other regions facing similar challenges, demonstrating the potential of technology and collaboration in addressing complex social and environmental issues.