How We're Built
What We're Committed To
These aren't aspirational values statements. They're structural decisions made at incorporation. Commitments built into how the company is governed.
I spent my career in healthcare because the work matters. When I started Viga, I wanted that to be visible in how the company is structured, not just in the work it delivers.
So we made choices at the foundation level that lock these commitments in. The mission is written into the articles of incorporation. The environmental contribution is a percentage of gross revenue, not profit. It runs every year regardless of whether the year was good. The pro bono work is calendared, not donated when it's convenient.
I believe a company can be structured to serve a purpose beyond profit. Viga is my attempt to prove that out.
Structure
Public Benefit Corporation
Viga Analytics is incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) with a specific benefit purpose written into the articles of incorporation:
“To improve the quality and integrity of healthcare data used in clinical decision-making, with particular focus on underserved communities and behavioral health populations, while minimizing the environmental footprint of data infrastructure.”
In plain language: the mission is legally embedded. It isn't a marketing statement or a policy that a future leadership team can reverse when inconvenient. If the company grows, takes investment, or changes hands, the mission is protected by the corporate structure itself.
This matters because most mission statements evaporate under financial pressure. A PBC structure makes the mission a legal obligation, not a preference.
Environmental Commitment
1% for the Planet
One percent of Viga's gross revenue goes to environmental organizations through the 1% for the Planet network. Gross revenue, not profit. It runs every year, regardless of whether the year was profitable.
The 1% for the Planet commitment is a structural discipline, not a charitable impulse. It comes off the top before expenses, which means it happens even in hard years. That's the only version of an environmental commitment that means anything.
Community
Pro Bono Work
Forty hours per year of data analytics work, donated to organizations serving behavioral health populations or environmental causes.
This is the same expertise we bring to paying clients, applied where it's needed most. Not simplified versions, not student work. The real thing.
The behavioral health sector has the most acute data problems and the fewest resources to address them. Directing pro bono work there closes a gap that commercial incentives alone will never fill.
Technical Practice
Sustainable Data Engineering
Good data engineering is, by nature, more sustainable than bad data engineering. Optimized queries consume less compute. Lean pipelines use less storage. Durable infrastructure doesn't need to be replaced every two years. We build lean systems because it's better engineering. It also happens to be better for the planet.
Cloud region selection
Infrastructure deployed to regions with the highest renewable energy percentages, all else being equal.
Efficiency as an environmental discipline
Query optimization and pipeline efficiency are also environmental decisions. Every unnecessary query burns compute. We optimize accordingly.
Data minimalism
Collect what you need, retain what you must, delete what you don't. Less storage means less energy. It also means less liability.
Durable infrastructure
We build systems to last. Infrastructure that needs to be replaced every cycle has a higher environmental cost and a higher cost to clients.
Client Alignment
Who We Work With
We choose to work with organizations whose missions make communities healthier:
- Health systems planning for climate-related health impacts
- Public health departments integrating environmental data
- Advocacy organizations working on environmental health equity
- Community behavioral health centers and safety-net health systems
- Organizations serving underserved populations
That's not a constraint. It's the whole point.
The stakes are highest where resources are thinnest — and where environmental risk converges with provider shortages and disease burden. That's where Viga's work has the most impact, and that's where it's most personally meaningful.
Questions About How We Work?
If you're evaluating whether Viga is the right partner for your organization, we're happy to talk through what any of this means in practice.