Introduction
Data Privacy and Security
Ceva implements data privacy and security policies and procedures that strives to protect its employees, customers and partners. Ceva regularly reviews and updates it data protection policies and recently implemented the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Acts 1988-2018 in accordance with EU law. Ceva is committed to complying with its legal obligations in this regard.
Environmental Policy Statement
We operate environmentally responsible practices within our own business, recognizing our responsibility to our customers, shareholders, suppliers, employees and society at large. We are committed to protecting the environment and to operate our business sustainably. We strive to comply with strict regulatory and industry standards at all of our locations of business and expect all of our employees, vendors and visitors to act in an environmentally responsible manner and prevent pollution. We recognize that this is a constant commitment and we endeavor to improve our operations through constant assessment with the goal of environmental sustainability in mind.
By the very nature of our business as an IP developer and licensor of low-power signal processing technologies, our operations have a lower impact on the environment than traditional semiconductor businesses. We do not manufacture any products or purchase harmful chemicals that might have a negative impact on the environment, such as ozone-depleting chemicals (ODCs). Instead, we provide our customers with the blueprints required to develop chips that are smaller, cheaper, require less power (in some cases battery-free and even energy-harvesting) and have a positive impact on the wider environment. In fact, our technologies are energy-saving by design, always seeking to be lower power than the existing or alternative solutions in the market.
Nevertheless, we recognize that our operations do have an impact on the environment through our energy consumption and general day-to-day office operations which generate waste and require water. We will continue to measure and reduce our energy usage per capita at each of our sites and implement wasteful practices wherever possible.
The tenets of our environmental initiative are:
- People: Promoting and sustaining an employee culture that embraces environmental stewardship, including educating our employees on sustainability at home, work and in the community at large
- Environmental controls: Reducing energy usage and minimizing our impact on the environment
- Resource conservation measures: Eliminating wasteful practices wherever possible
- Recycling: Promoting and managing recycling programs to reduce waste
Compliance
Our environmental policy applies to our employees, contractors and suppliers with whom we conduct business. We evaluate the environmental and safety histories and practices of those with whom we partner and encourage, where appropriate, improvements in their practices.
Environmental controls
At Ceva, we believe the most effective way to control carbon dioxide emissions is by not producing them. By the nature of our business as a technology licensing company with no manufacturing facilities or business, our carbon footprint is limited to that created by our small team of 400 employees. We manage our greenhouse gas emissions in support of a low carbon future. We consider sustainability objectives when making business decisions – in our operations and in our dealings with customers and suppliers. To reduce carbon emission even further, Ceva has implemented a number of systems and processes to enable our employees work from home. These include the company-wide adoption of Zoom Video Conferencing and a dedicated VPN for our R&D engineers to streamline collaboration efforts. We also encourage our sales and marketing teams to utilize Zoom video conferencing to connect with customers where possible and reduce customer-related travel. Nevertheless, with hundreds of customers located around the world, it’s no surprise that air travel is the most significant part of our company’s carbon footprint.
We are committed to operate our facilities in the most efficient, environmentally responsible way possible. In our major offices in Israel, France, Ireland and the USA, our office spaces are fitted out with LED lighting and where possible, light sensors, thereby cutting the power consumption in each location.
In our Israel office, we retrofitted 4,800 square meters of office space with LED lighting, resulting in annual energy savings of 271,000 kilowatt hours.
We use environmentally friendly products whenever possible, and properly dispose of hazardous materials in accordance with regulatory requirements.
All of Ceva’s office space worldwide is leased. We request all our landlords to strive to work with energy service providers to find ways to reduce overall energy usage in our buildings and increase the use of energy generated from renewable sources. Our office spaces exist within larger buildings and complexes that are graded for their energy ratings by various agencies around the world. Some of the building rated include:
- The building in Rockville, MD where our Hillcrest Labs Sensor Fusion business operates from has been Energy Star Certified since 2013.
- Our Korean office is 2nd grade certified by Korean Energy Agency.
- Our office building in Bristol, England is classed as EPC Rating C (69) rating.
Resource conservation and recycling
E-waste Recycling and Disposal
Our IT teams in all our offices worldwide recycle unwanted electronic goods as required, using specialized local recycling companies in each region. Furthermore, in some locations we employ initiatives to recycle electronics in novel ways. In our Israel office for example, once a year, we invite our employees to take any old IT equipment for their personal use, reducing their need to buy similar equipment for their homes.
As technology gets more efficient, Ceva endeavors to replace and upgrade our old office equipment to ensure our energy footprint remains low. When Ceva invests in new hardware, we assess various power consumption options to enable us to purchase the best option to reduce our overall energy consumption. Most of our desktops and laptops are ENERGY Star compliant.
Office Recycling
Office recycling programs are in place in all of our major offices. For example, in our offices in Israel, Ireland, the U.K. and the U.S.A, all document waste is shredded and recycled through specialised local companies. All ink cartridges are similarly recycled using specialized local companies or returned to the manufacturers through their recycling programs.
Waste Management
In our facilities in Israel, Ireland, the U.K. and the U.S.A, we have dedicated recycling bins for paper, batteries, bottles and carton boxes. All of our offices have water dispensers to avoid plastic water bottle use.
Ceva is continually looking for ways to minimize waste wherever possible, including:
- Reducing print volume by encouraging online use
- Using online document storage
- Using online banking to conduct the majority of our business
Water Management
As a semiconductor IP licensing company, all of our water consumption is related to the buildings in which our business operates, with no manufacturing or other major uses. Nevertheless, we still believe every bit of water conservation helps and we strive to reduce our water usage where possible. We encourage our landlords to retrofit bathrooms and kitchens with low-flow fixtures and utilize weather-based irrigation controls in the office grounds to restrict the use of irrigation when not required.
Our people
Environmental stewardship begins at the individual level, in the community and at home. With that in mind, many of our efforts are aimed at helping employees better understand their individual impact on the environment and developing ways to make stewardship and conservation an easy choice.
Current activities include:
- Putting recycling containers in common workplace areas
- Soliciting environmental-related suggestions from employees
- Utilizing technology, in the form of virtual meeting capabilities and telecommuting, to help reduce roadway congestion, air pollution and fuel consumption
Environmental responsibility in action
At Ceva, we have many activities currently underway to bring our environmental commitment to life.
- At our U.K. and Ireland locations, we encourage employees to cycle to and from work through our participation in the Bike to Work scheme, which offers tax incentives for the purchase of a commuter bike.
- At our Israeli office, we have a special employee bike storage place and washrooms for the use of our employees cycling to work.
- Our China, Taiwan, French and Mountain View, California offices include charging stations for electric vehicles
Employees
The diversity of our employees is a tremendous asset. As outlined on our ‘Equal Opportunities Policy we are firmly committed to providing equal opportunity in all aspects of employment and will not tolerate any illegal discrimination or harassment of any kind. In addition, we strive to provide each employee with a safe and healthy work environment. Each employee has responsibility for maintaining a safe and healthy workplace for all employees by following health and safety rules and practices and reporting accidents, injuries and unsafe equipment, practices or conditions.
Diversity and equal opportunity
We believe a diverse, multi-cultural workforce fosters an inclusive working environment. We are committed to equal opportunity and strive to reflect the diversity of the communities where we do business. We invest in building diverse talent pools and providing training to improve skill levels, where appropriate.
We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, religious creed, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, mental and/or physical disability, medical condition as defined by applicable law, military service or veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, or any other category protected by applicable law.
The electronic engineering sector in general performs poorly in terms of gender diversity. At Ceva, we are actively trying to improve gender diversity, both at Board level and within the workforce. Female representation on our Board of Directors is 22% (2 out of 9 directors). Female representation in our workforce is 19% overall as of 31st December 2019 (73 out of 383 employees), in the last two years (2018 & 2019), more than 18% of new hires were female. We are committed to continuing to raise awareness amongst women, both inside and outside the Company, about the exciting opportunities available to them at Ceva and to encourage them to embark on a career with us.
Harassment-free workplace
We are committed to a respectful work environment free of any manner of physical and verbal harassment, including bullying and sexual harassment. We maintain strong procedures to prevent such behaviors, including providing training to employees and managers. We expect good faith reporting and thorough investigation of all allegations. We take all violations of this policy seriously and have consequences for violations, including termination of employment.
Ceva Culture
Ceva’s organisation culture can be described as an open, interactive and team oriented work philosophy where everyone’s contribution is welcome and valued. The teamwork ethic comes with a responsibility to provide the best outcome for each goal and the complete satisfaction that comes when it is achieved. CEVA ensures that while all responsibilities are shared so are the rewards!
Ceva’s organisation culture recognises that our employees are vital to the company success and we openly encourage our employees to develop their skills while working with the company.
Ceva has four main company values and these were developed to help Ceva deliver commitments made to employees and clients.
- Respect for the individual: This means treating everyone with dignity and as individuals. Having an open atmosphere where communication gives everybody the opportunity to contribute. Ensuring all employees commit to the company policy on equality.
- Ethics and Professionalism: This means committing to an environment of trust and honesty. Ensuring our employees act with integrity in all aspects of business, understand company policies and procedures, and respect the values and culture of Ceva’s diverse workforce.
- Business and Customer Focus: Ceva’s engineering teams strive to achieve the highest quality designs and support success for themselves, CEVA as a whole and our customers. This success translates into technology leadership, employee satisfaction and business achievements, together with our customers.
Training, Development and Employee Engagement
Ceva has training policies and career development plans at all of our R&D locations. Each year, employees have the opportunity to go through Ceva’s review and planning process. This involves summarizing the previous year and setting objectives for the year ahead.
It also allows a structured and open dialog between managers and employees. It permits a time to express appreciation, present professional and social feedback and request for improvement when needed. The discussion of past objectives and setting new objectives for the future are also a very important part of this process. Together, the review process provides an opportunity for the employees to express openly how they feel about their work, personal roadmap & work experience and any other HR related issues and ideas.
Human Rights
Ceva is committed to the highest standard of business and ethical behaviour as well as ensuring compliance with the review process, application laws and regulations along with CEVA’s company policies and procedures.
Ceva respects internationally recognised Human Rights as established in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation’s Core Conventions. According to the UN, human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual orientation or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination. Our minimum standards for these principles are laid out in our Human Rights policy and are incorporated in our Code of Business.
Health & Safety Policy
Ceva Global Health and Safety Policy
Ceva endeavours to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all employees while at work, and to provide whatever information, training and supervision is necessary for this purpose. Ceva endeavours to protect persons not in our employment who may be affected by our activities, and minimize their exposure to risk. This will be accomplished by giving safety the same level of importance as other management activities.
All employees have the responsibility to co-operate with management to achieve a safe and healthy workplace, and to take reasonable care of themselves and others. It is the responsibility and duty of all employees to comply with this safety policy and to exercise due caution and care.
Employee well-being
Ceva is committed to the importance of the recognition of work life balance, managing job stress and overcoming and eliminating overwhelming job stress.
Ceva acknowledges that staff have responsibilities and commitments outside of work and will recognise these responsibilities and commitments, where reasonably practicable, to better enable staff to balance their work and home lives.
Some of the policy we have developed in order to promote work life balance and employee well-being are:
- Work Life Balance Policy
- Stress at Work Policy
- HR Employee Support Policy
- Equal Opportunities Policy
- Grievance Policy
All policies can be find on Ceva’s intranet and are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure Ceva is doing all it can to keep our employee’s happy and healthy. Ceva recognises that an investment in an employee’s well-being begins with having the above policies in place and promotes prevention rather than cure.