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Corporate Social Responsibility Statement

1) Overview

Caribou is a remote-first, knowledge-focused consultancy with a minimal direct environmental footprint. We operate without physical offices and do not engage in resource-intensive production. Our primary environmental impact is air travel, which we keep under constant review and actively reduce through remote collaboration wherever possible. All of our business travel is economy class, and we only undertake travel where it adds demonstrable value for clients, funders, and communities — for example, through immersive learning and in-country programme delivery.

Our contribution to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is reflected not only in how we run our organisation, but also in the knowledge and insight we bring to the design, evaluation, and improvement of programmes that deliver lasting impact. We align our approach with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development.

2) Environmental responsibility

  • Minimising our footprint: As a remote-first organisation, our emissions are already relatively low. We avoid travel wherever possible, prioritise virtual collaboration, and use economy class for necessary travel. We continue to explore credible ways of addressing unavoidable emissions, while prioritising emissions avoidance over offsetting to ensure our actions are meaningful and not tokenistic.
  • Programme impact: Through our projects, we contribute to climate resilience and environmental sustainability. This includes supporting climate-smart agriculture, sustainable forest management, clean energy transitions, and disaster preparedness initiatives.
  • Knowledge-driven sustainability: Rather than treating sustainability as an add-on, we embed climate and environmental considerations in how we design research, evaluate programmes, and advise clients.

3) Social responsibility

  • Equity and inclusion at the centre: We support clients in advancing women’s economic empowerment, enabling digital access, improving labour conditions, and strengthening social protection systems for youth, displaced communities, and informal workers.
  • Living our values internally: Our globally distributed team represents people from over 20 countries, and 72% of our leadership team are women, reflecting our commitment to equity and inclusion in both our work and internal practices.
  • Safeguarding and ethics: We apply strong safeguarding principles and ethical review processes across all our work, particularly where programmes involve vulnerable groups.

4) Economic responsibility

  • Locally led approaches: We collaborate with partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America through subcontracting, joint research, and technical support. We prioritise partnerships that build local capacity and enable sustainable growth.
  • Strengthening ecosystems: We help digital ecosystems flourish by supporting small businesses, local researchers, and innovation fund grantees to generate and apply evidence of impact.
  • Inclusive economic development: We ensure that our work contributes to building systems where small businesses, informal workers, and underrepresented groups can participate and benefit.

5) Governance and operations

  • Responsible procurement: We prioritise suppliers and partners who share our commitment to sustainability, diversity, and ethical practices.
  • Internal accountability: We periodically review our own ways of working to ensure continued alignment with our sustainability principles.
  • Governance oversight: CSR and sustainability considerations are reviewed annually by Caribou’s senior leadership, with input from relevant committees (e.g. our Data Committee for data ethics and compliance).

6) Our commitment

Our commitment to corporate social responsibility is visible in the way we work, the partners we support, and the impact we help shape. While our direct footprint is small, our leverage is large: we contribute to systems change that advances environmental responsibility, social equity, and inclusive economic growth.