ESG Training

What is ESG?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and is a framework designed to be embedded into an organization’s strategy and considers the ways in which the organization can generate value for all of its stakeholders such as team members, customers, suppliers, and investors. An ESG strategy identifies which environmental, social and governance issues are most important to the company and its stakeholders and informs how the organization can minimize related risks and seize related opportunities to create shared value.

• Watch What is ESG training module from LinkedIn Learning

Examples of ESG Issues:

• Enviornmental: Environmental: The ‘E’ takes into account a company’s use of natural resources and the impact of the company’s operations on the environment, both in its direct operations and its supply chain. Examples of specific environmental issues include greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water use, waste management and the environmental impact of the company’s products and services.

• Social: The ‘S’ takes into account how a company manages its relationships with its employees and the communities in which it operates, both in its direct operations and its supply chain. Examples of specific social issues include diversity of its workforce and its suppliers, employee work/life balance, employee pay equity, talent management and engagement, community engagement and the social impact of the company’s products and services.

• Governance: The ‘G’ takes into account the governance structures set up to manage ESG-related risks and opportunities. Specific examples of governance issues include C-suite oversight and accountability for ESG related risks and opportunities, Board of Director independence, skill sets and experience, board diversity, compensation practices, board oversight of ESG practices, cybersecurity and data privacy and business ethics/compliance.

Why GitLab Cares

By ensuring that good ESG practices are embedded into the organization, this will help us advance our mission to make it so that everyone can contribute. ESG allows us to understand what our stakeholders care about, meet their expectations and to make progress to advance social and environmental goals while minimizing risk and creating value for the organization.

• Investors
  • 93% of U.S. investors expect the companies they invest in to increase their prioritization of ESG initiatives.
  • According to a report from Georgeson, there was a record-breaking volume of shareholder proposal submissions on ESG matters in 2022 for Russell 3000 companies. Shareholders submitted 924 ESG shareholder proposals at Russell 3000 companies between July 1, 2021 and May 16, 2022, compared to 837 during the 2021 season and 754 in 2020.
• Customers
  • 84% of global consumers consider sustainability important when choosing a brand.
  • 66% of Americans believe it’s good for business when companies address social justice issues – and perhaps that is because individuals are prepared to put their power behind brands that align with them on important issues. Six-in-10 (61%) said they will reward companies that actively address social justice issues.
• Team Members
  • Over the past three years, the trends show that more than half of all employees are open to leaving their current company for new roles, but this drops to less than 12% if they believe that their company is positively impacting the world.
  • 72% of employees are more likely to apply for a job at an organization they consider to be socially responsible.
  • 43% of employees are reconsidering their current job because their company is not doing enough to address social justice issues externally.
• Regulators
  • New ESG disclosure requirements in the EU (CSRD) and proposed requirements from the SEC will require public companies to disclose information on how companies manage ESG risks in addition to ESG metrics, such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Many EU companies already require GHG data from their vendors, including GitLab, and for this reason, providing accurate and complete data is a priority. This will ensure that GitLab is in compliance with local regulations and continues to be easy to buy from.

GitLab’s Key ESG Topics

Materiality Assessment Overview

• GitLab completed its first double materiality assessment in January 2023. The assessment considered the perspectives of all of GitLab’s stakeholders including team members, senior leadership, customers, community members, board members, investors. The assessment involved speaking with GitLab’s stakeholders to understand the key topics they believe have the biggest impact on the success of the business and where GitLab has the biggest impact on the environment, society and people. We also considered ESG regulation, our peers, competitors and nonprofit organizations.The materiality assessment was the first step in developing the company’s first ESG strategy.

GitLab’s 6 Key Topcs

• Environment
  • Greenhouse gas emissions
    • Measurement and reduction of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
    • Greenhouse gas reduction targets, goals and commitments
• Social
  • Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB)
    • Diverse hiring and recruitment of underrepresented groups
    • Culture of DIB (events, TMRGs, courses, etc.)
    • Pay and promotion equity and inclusive benefits
    • Board, leadership and workforce diversity KPIs
    • Product accessibility
  • Talent Management and Engagement
    • Talent attraction and recruitment
    • Team member learning and development
    • Leadership programs
    • Succession planning
    • Talent retention
    • Workplace culture and remote work
    • Comp and benefits
• Governance
  • Information Security and Data Privacy
    • Data, system and network breaches
    • Monitoring of emerging threats
    • Information security training
    • Customer data use transparency
    • Data processing and storage
    • PII
  • Responsible Product Development
    • Open source
    • Ethical AI
    • Human rights issues from product use
    • Environmental impact considerations for product
    • Data processing and storage
  • Business Ethics
    • Up to date code of conduct, anti-corruption, anti-bribery policies
    • Regulatory compliance
    • Legal proceedings and monetary losses
    • Internal compliance
    • Oversight and ethics training
    • Human rights policies, risk assessments and due diligence

Developing an ESG Strategy

• In collaboration with teams across the company, the ESG team uses the results of the materiality assessment to develop an ESG strategy. The goal of the strategy is to identify 1) areas where we are already aligned with best practice, 2) areas of improvement, 3) meaningful metrics for tracking performance, and 4) issues where we can demonstrate our commitment to improving our ESG performance in the short and long term by setting quantifiable and time bound goals.
  • For example, in 2023, GitLab took the first step in developing a climate action plan to address the company’s GHG emissions. We completed the company’s first GHG inventory. The ESG team will collaborate with teams across the company to leverage the results of the inventory to identify areas where the company can reduce its carbon footprint.

GitLab’s ESG Disclosures

• Watch ESG Reporting module from LinkedIn Learning
• Every year, GitLab will publish an ESG report in the Handbook, which will describe key accomplishments for the year, include descriptions of how we manage relevant ESG risks and opportunities, highlight new programs and policies and report metrics across our material ESG topics to hold ourselves accountable year over year for improving our performance.
• As you’ll see in GitLab’s first ESG report we use two best practice ESG reporting frameworks to guide our disclosures:
  • GRI
  • SASB

GitLab Philanthropy

In 2023, GitLab launched its first philanthropy policy. The goal of this policy is to provide guidance for GitLab’s philanthropic giving and activities to Registered Nonprofit Organizations that align with GitLab’s Values, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy, and help advance GitLab’s mission to make it so that everyone can contribute.

To learn more about how GitLab supports and encourages team members to support Nonprofit Organizations, please review our policy and program information, including how to request support.

Responding to customer requests for ESG information

• If a customer reaches out to you for information on our ESG practices, please direct them to our handbook page or provide them with our report. Please also advise them that we utilize EcoVadis for ESG reporting and they can request a full copy of our ESG report.

Responding to ESG questions in RFPs

• Please follow the steps outlined in the RFP process. Frequently asked questions and answers are available in AnswerBase.

Responding to Investor Questions

• If an investor contacts you regarding ESG, please advise them to reach out via the IR page.

Where to get more info

• Learn more about GitLab’s current progress on ESG initiatives and read our first ESG report here. Follow #ESG on slack.