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Policy

Sustainability & Sustainable Purchasing

Stoa Works is a fully remote, digital-only software studio. We manufacture no physical products, run no warehouse or fleet, and ship our work entirely over the internet. Our footprint lives in three places — the electricity behind our computers, the cloud infrastructure that runs the sites we build, and the small amount of hardware and travel a one-person studio needs. This policy governs each.

Stoa Works LLC · Campbell, California · Effective June 2026

Operations

How we keep our own footprint small.

Remote-first, zero commute

Stoa keeps no commercial office. Work is done remotely, which removes daily commuting emissions and the energy load of a dedicated workspace.

Paperless by default

Proposals, deliverables, contracts, and documentation are produced and delivered digitally. We print only when a client or solicitation requires a physical copy.

Efficient cloud hosting

We host on major providers that run high-efficiency data centers and match their usage with renewable energy. We right-size infrastructure and lean on caching and static delivery to cut the compute and energy spent per page served.

Lean, long-lived hardware

We run a small number of energy-efficient, ENERGY STAR / EPEAT-registered devices, keep them in service for their full useful life, and recycle retired electronics through certified e-waste channels.

Minimal travel

Meetings, training, and support happen virtually by default. We propose in-person travel only when a client specifically asks for it.

Purchasing

What we buy, and how.

When Stoa purchases goods and services, these preferences guide the decision.

  • Prefer digital over physical — cloud services over on-premise hardware, electronic delivery over print and shipping.
  • Prefer certified-efficient hardware — ENERGY STAR-qualified and EPEAT-registered equipment when a purchase is needed.
  • Prefer durable, repairable goods over disposable ones, and buy only what the work requires.
  • Favor vendors with published environmental commitments — providers reporting renewable-energy matching, carbon neutrality, or science-based emissions targets.
  • Dispose responsibly — route retired electronics, batteries, and packaging to certified recycling.

For the governments we serve

The website is itself a sustainability lever.

Where a client has a green procurement policy, Stoa reviews it and agrees to comply, including any applicable municipal-code provisions for on-site work.

And the product we deliver pays its own way: lightweight, cached pages lower the energy cost of every visit, and a paperless, self-service site cuts the printing and driving residents would otherwise do to transact with their government. Building it well is the most sustainable thing we ship.