Legal

Supply Chain Integrity

Introduction

HASH, Ltd. ("HASH UK") and HASH, Inc. ("HASH US"), collectively "HASH", take steps to assure the integrity of our supply chains through a variety of means, and to a number of different ends.

Goals

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Slavery elimination: ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in our supply chains or in any part of our business;
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Environmental impact: eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts of our activities;
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Social impact: work towards guaranteeing that our contracts impact the individuals and communities around them positively.

Policies

HASH requires that all newly onboarded suppliers agree to adhere to the policies on this page, or alternatively submit evidence of equivalent policies for HASH's review and acceptance prior to onboarding. New suppliers must in addition agree to abide by our Trade & Export Policy, subjecting themselves to the same restrictions on trade outlined therein and contributing to the efficacy of those sanctions regimes, should they wish to provide services to HASH. We view these downstream commitments as a necessary part of securing the integrity and credibility of our supply chain.

Modern Slavery

Last updated 3 January 2025

Introduction

In this section we outline the steps that HASH has taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in our supply chains or in any part of our business. This "Statement" is in respect of HASH’s financial year ended 31 December 2024 and was approved by the HASH UK Board of Directors on 3 January 2025. HASH UK is a private company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales. Each HASH group company is responsible for the services or activities it directly provides, and bears no responsibility for those provided by other members of the group.

HASH predominantly uses professionally qualified people employed directly by HASH group companies, or seconded from a partner organization in a limited number of countries. Our people policies ensure fair treatment of our people around the world. Our external suppliers are mostly UK and US based companies in low-risk sectors (such as technology and professional services), with a smaller but still notable level of interaction with suppliers in potentially higher-risk sectors such as events and travel.

HASH operates a zero-tolerance position on violations to UK and international anti-human trafficking and anti-modern slavery laws. If we find breaches of these laws within our supply chain, we will look to support companies in their efforts to comply with the legislation.

Our company values are pillars of our culture, and they embody everything that we do at HASH as well as how we do business. They outline the expectation of our people’s behaviour with colleagues, users, vendors and people around the world. We seek to treat everyone fairly and consistently, creating a high-trust workplace and business environment. Our policies and procedures relating to the UK's Modern Slavery Act ("the Act") are in line with our culture and values.

Processes

Our specific procedures to address modern slavery risk include:

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An internal "Modern Slavery Policy", which sets out the key issues and how we should respond, including a process for raising concerns internally, as well as a process for handling complaints raised by people outside of HASH;
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An anonymous form that allows for reports to be submitted by our people safely and securely;
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Employment policies that protect our people from unfair treatment around the world, and promote a fair and inclusive workplace;
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Robust recruitment processes in line with relevant employment laws;
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Market-related pay and rewards reviewed annually;
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Wellbeing strategy and initiatives to support our people’s physical and mental wellbeing and lifestyle choice;
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An internal "Procurement Policy" for how we deal with suppliers; and
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A publicly available supplier code of conduct (the "Supply Chain Integrity Policy" of which this Statement forms a part) making clear the standards we expect from those we work with.

Monitoring

The implementation of our policies and procedures includes due diligence on suppliers that we engage with, in accordance with our procurement policy. A heightened risk area is the use of hotel and conference facilities. To mitigate against this risk, we assess the companies that we deal with as part of the decision making process for events and travel.

When we contract with a new supplier, a due diligence process is undertaken to ensure that the firm has a good reputation with appropriate practices in relevant areas, including with respect to people and culture. Once onboarded as suppliers, compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct is a condition of supply.

We log complaints received via our ethics hotline system or through other sources, together with the actions taken. To the date of this statement, HASH has had no identified instances of modern slavery.

Training

HASH provides periodic training to our people on the subject of modern slavery and our policies to address the risks to help increase education and awareness.

More information

If you would like to find out more about HASH's approach to modern slavery, contact us via our website or email [email protected]

HASH takes responsibility for this Statement and its related objectives and will review and update it in accordance with the Act.

Signed by Dei Vilkinsons (David Wilkinson) on behalf of the HASH UK Board of Directors.

Environmental Impact

As employees of HASH (hashists), we care about life. This means respecting and protecting the natural environment around us, as well as defending and encouraging biodiversity. While our primary mission is to help everybody make the right decisions and overcome information failure, we pursue this in line with HASH's values and our policies. This Environmental Impact Policy outlines the principles, commitments, and actions we take to address our environmental impacts in alignment with these core values, self-imposed constraints, and legal obligations. We aim to fulfil our mission in an efficient, responsible, high-integrity and high-quality way, with minimal negative environmental footprint, ideally going beyond and positively contributing to the natural environment around us.

Scope

This policy applies across HASH, covering all hashists, business units, and operational aspects of our work. We prioritize:

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Sustainability: actively seeking out ways to reduce waste, conserve resources, and adopt renewable energy sources in our operations.
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Efficiency: striving to optimize our products and infrastructure to minimize the computational, energy and other resource intensity of our services.
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Transparency: once we have meaningful operations in a particular area, committing to regularly reporting and communicating our environmental performance and progress toward our sustainability goals.
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Collaboration: recognizing the importance of collective action. We collaborate with vendors, partners, and customers to drive positive environmental impact throughout our value chain.

Guiding Principles

Wherever possible, we will consider environmental factors in:

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The design and development of our AI-powered platform, e.g.:
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  Responsible AI compute: refine our AI algorithms to ensure maximum efficiency, balancing model complexity with resource consumption to reduce carbon emissions.
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  Scalable architecture: design our hosted platform (SaaS offering) for scalability and elasticity to handle changing workloads without unnecessarily expanding resource usage.
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  Regular reviews: routinely assess our systems to find new ways to cut energy consumption, refine compute-intensive processes, and adopt best practices in green software engineering.
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Data center and cloud infrastructure usage, e.g.:
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  Infrastructure optimization: strive to optimize compute loads and server utilization to minimize idle or underused resources, ensuring our operations consume only the energy that is necessary.
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  Energy-efficient operations: work with cloud service providers that have strong commitments to sustainability, such as using renewable energy sources or carbon offsets.
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  Green data centers: explore partnerships with data centers that implement cooling and power management solutions designed to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.
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Sustainable procurement, e.g.:
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  Eco-friendly suppliers: seek out suppliers and partners who share our commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical business conduct.
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Utilization of hardware and physical assets, e.g.:
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  Hardware lifecycle management: prioritize hardware that offers energy efficiency and seek to recycle all equipment at the end of its operational life to reduce e-waste.
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  Office supplies: minimize paper usage and choose recyclable, sustainably sourced office materials when needed.
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Business travel, built offices, and offline work spaces, e.g.:
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  Eco-conscious commuting: we believe that teams perform better when physically together in person and encourage environmentally-friendly transportation such as public transport, carpooling, biking, or walking to work — including through the operation of location-dependent "cycle to work" and other reimbursement schemes.
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  Sustainable business travel: carefully evaluate the necessity of air or long-distance travel and offset emissions where possible.
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Vendor and partner engagements, e.g.:
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  Stakeholder collaboration: engage in dialogues with industry partners, nonprofits, and academic institutions to share best practices and stay updated on emerging sustainability innovations.
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  Community outreach: encourage hashist and user actions that improve environmental outcomes beyond merely improving awareness, aiming to make a positive impact beyond our immediate operations.
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  Thought Leadership: over the long-term seek to leverage our expertise in AI to research, develop, and share tools or methodologies that can help organizations understand and reduce their carbon footprint.

Monitoring & Continuous Improvement

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Measuring impact: we will set and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) around our environmental impact (e.g. energy consumption, carbon emissions, and resource use) and measure our progress against these targets.
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Feedback and improvement: we welcome feedback from hashists, customers, other platform users, and additional stakeholders to identify opportunities for greater environmental stewardship.
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Metrics reporting and review: we will regularly review our sustainability efforts and achievements (e.g. data on energy use, emissions, and reduction strategies), with a view to publicly reporting these in the future.
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Annual policy review: this Environmental Impact Policy will be reviewed at least annually by HASH’s leadership team to assess performance and identify areas for further improvement. Revisions or updates will be communicated as appropriate to hashists, platform users, customers, partners, and other stakeholders, ensuring the policy remains effective, relevant, and aligned with our evolving business priorities.

We believe that the using and improving technology is vital to enabling humans and nature to co-exist in harmony. Malthusianism and "degrowthers" are wrong. Understanding, developing, and implementing new technology is not only something we do in service of our mission, but ultimately is something that our mission itself facilitates. By helping people make the right decisions, we hope to see more of the right kinds of research and development, as well as technological adoption, for the good of our natural world.

At HASH, our responsibility is not just to our customers and shareholders, but also to the broader communities where we operate and the people we directly and indirectly impact. Our Social Impact Policy defines our company commitments to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and supportive environment for our people, partners, and the societies in which we work, both directly and through our supply chain.

Scope

This policy applies across HASH and to all hashists (including to employees, contractors, and any third parties acting on our behalf). It covers practices in human rights, diversity and inclusion, community engagement, philanthropy, and individual well-being.

HASH's suppliers must agree to, and/or otherwise demostrate alignment with our Social Impact Policy as part of our overall supply chain assurance program.

Guiding Principles

In all of our work, we will demonstrate:

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Respect for human rights
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  Support fundamental human rights as defined by international standards, ensuring dignity, fairness, and mutual respect in all our interactions.
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  Zero-tolerance for discrimination, harassment, or abuse within our operations or external relationships.
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Diversity of thought and inclusiveness
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  A workforce (including leadership team) that exhibits diversity of thought, often disagreeing with each other, in the service of our shared mission.
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  A wide range of backgrounds and experiences must necessarily be considered to develop the best solutions, and contribute towards this diversity of thought.
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  Disparate perspectives are likely to be most effectively represented by including individuals who hold them within the firm. To this end, we value the participation of individuals from a range of economic, racial, sex, sexual orientation, and other backgrounds (including those with characterists which may be defined as "protected" under the law as well as those which may not).
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Meritocracy
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  Provide equal opportunities, fair compensation, and career advancement pathways for all.
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  Recognize and reward talent that is applied in the highest-impact way.
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Safe and supportive workplace
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  Prioritize health, safety, and mental well-being, providing resources and policies to maintain a positive work environment.
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  Encourage open communication and regularly conduct surveys to gauge and improve hashist satisfaction.
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  Invest in continuous learning, mentoring, and leadership development programs to develop hashists' skills and advance their professional accomplishments.
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  Support flexible work arrangements, where feasible, to accommodate diverse needs and promote overall health, wellbeing, and productivity.
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  Maintain clear, confidential reporting mechanisms for hashists to raise concerns about workplace practices, harassment, or any ethics violations without fear of retaliation.
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Community engagement
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  Foster partnerships with nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, communities, and governments (including at a local level) that align with our values and areas of expertise, striving to build meaningful relationships through dialogue, volunteerism, partnerships, and financial or in-kind support. This includes utilizing our capabilities and resources to both advance our values on a global level, as well as to improve the lives of our local neighbors around us.
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  Encourage hashists to take part in community service and where possible seek to offer programs that support local initiatives, reinforcing a culture of civic engagement and facilitating volunteer activities in and around work.
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  Use regular surveys and other forms of consultation to inform our policies and continuously improve our social impact strategies. Through these we engage with hashists, customers, users, community leaders, and advocacy groups to gather feedback, identify challenges, and collaborate on solutions.
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Ethical use of AI
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  Recognize the potential societal impact of AI and commit to responsible AI development that respects privacy, fairness, and transparency.
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  Actively engage with stakeholders to understand and address concerns related to AI bias, data privacy, and ethical deployment of our technology.
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Transparent engagement
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  A commitment to transparent public reporting about our social impact initiatives, sharing both successes and areas in need of improvement.
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  Ensure all marketing and communications respect the dignity and rights of every individual or community referenced.
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  A policy of sharing our technology in an open-source fashion, helping underserved communities access opportunities in the digital economy.
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  Openly welcome feedback from underrepresented groups on how we can improve our services, operations, and local/environmental impacts.

Monitoring & Continuous Improvement

When measuring "social impact" we believe that Goodhart's Law may be especially prone to apply ("when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure"). As such, we are extremely careful when setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) around things such as "diversity targets" (which may undermine other principles such as meritocracy), and "dollars spent" or "hours volunteered" (which measure inputs and not outputs).

As such, the KPIs we monitor in relation to our social impact are designed to track our overall effect on the world, while our policies with respect to things like hiring and people management ensure individual acts and decisions made on a day-to-day basis do not contravene our values or the guiding principles herein.

For example, it is oft-remarked that there are "diversity problems" in the technology industry (of which we are part), particularly within specific functions such as software engineering. Our meritocratic principles mean that we would never weight an inferior applicant more highly for a role because they help us "check a box", however we might look to address downstream problems relating to the preponderance of certain kinds of people studying computer science in the first place, by supporting a nonprofit organization or launching a targeted advertising campaign to encourage participation. In this way, while we may not operate our own "workforce quotas" or specific numerical "hiring targets", we contribute towards addressing the actual underlying problem in a way that zero-sum competition to recruit a small number of "qualifying candidates" does not. Social impact investments of this kind may not yield visible results for longer periods of time, and when they finally pay off their impacts may not accrue to us as a firm individually, but the "industry" as a whole. However, we believe these kinds of activities are often a more worthwhile use of our time and resources, and we will measure and assess the impact of specific initiatives such as this on a case-by-case basis.

A designated leadership team is responsible for reviewing policy effectiveness and ensuring alignment with corporate strategy. Periodic audits of our social programs are undertaken to maintain integrity, transparency, learning, and to faciltate continuous improvement. These reviews also help to ensure resources are allocated effectively and in line with community needs.

This policy is reviewed at least annually to reflect evolving social norms, stakeholder feedback, and new opportunities for meaningful impact.

We believe that by cultivating an inclusive workplace, responsibly deploying AI, and engaging with communities through meaningful partnerships, we can create sustainable social value alongside our business goals. Alongside our Environmental Impact Policy and Modern Slavery Policy, this Social Impact Policy forms part of our overall Supply Chain Integrity Policy.

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