Sustainability & ethics.
A living document. We don't claim a perfect record — we describe what we actually do and where we're trying to do better.
Energy & hosting
- Production hosting on OVH, France — runs on a mix of nuclear and renewable, certified ISO 50001. PUE around 1.18 — among the lowest in the EU.
- We default to static or low-compute renders. PHP + SQLite on shared hosting beats serverless cold starts for our profile.
- No video autoplay on hero. No bloated SDKs. Average homepage payload < 250 KB.
- Fonts subset where licence allows;
display=swapto avoid blocking renders.
Hardware
- We extend hardware lifecycles — most team laptops run 5+ years.
- VR / AR devices are reused across projects and sold or donated when retired, never shredded.
- Capture gear (cameras, drones) is rented for one-off shoots rather than bought and depreciated.
Travel
- Default to remote. We meet in person quarterly + when client work demands it.
- Train within Iberia where it's a real option. We don't fly Lisbon ↔ Porto.
- We track and offset team flight emissions through atmosfair.
AI usage
- We use AI tools (LLMs, image, audio) where they meaningfully improve speed or quality.
- Client-facing copy, code and design are reviewed and signed off by humans before delivery. AI is a draft tool, not a delivery tool.
- We disclose AI use in projects when it's material. Generative imagery in client deliverables is flagged.
- We do not train models on client data. Vendors are required to honour zero-data-retention modes where available.
Work we say no to
- Surveillance products built against the people they observe.
- Predatory financial products targeting vulnerable users.
- Defence work outside democratic oversight. (We work with the Portuguese Army on training and recruitment, openly.)
- Anything we'd be embarrassed to ship to our own family.
Team
- Senior-only team by design. Fewer people, paid well, kept long.
- Four-day weeks available for senior team after one year.
- Profit-share for permanent team members.
- We hire from referral and inbound; never via cold-recruiter spam funnels.
Where we want to do better
- Quantify and publish full-stack carbon footprint (devices + travel + hosting + cloud).
- Publish team diversity numbers when team is large enough for the numbers to mean anything.
- Move to Website Carbon AAA rating across all pages.
Tell us we're wrong
If something here looks like greenwash, write to [email protected]. We'd rather be corrected than coast.