In our ongoing commitment to advancing sustainability, we have developed a strategy with 20 Goals for 2020 that align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In addition, as a participant in the United Nations’ Global Compact, we have incorporated into our business operations an approach based on 10 principles that meet fundamental responsibilities in terms of the environment, human rights, labor and anti-corruption. Our yearly participation in the Earth Day Challenge further underscores our commitment to sustainability and the environment.
As part of it, our sites carried out extraordinary initiatives including cleaning up a turtle conservation center beach in Malaysia, releasing 10,000 seeds of Crotolaria (a flower that attracts dragonflies which are natural predators of mosquitoes that can spread diseases like Zika or dengue in Brazil), hiking and picking up trash on the Obawski Stone mountains in Ukraine, and planting trees in China, among many others.
The Power of One: making a difference locally on a global scale
For the second year in a row, our Earth Day Challenge received staggeringly enthusiastic support from our sites around the globe. From April 2nd through the 13th, 71 sites across 3 regions in 20 countries carried out around 320 activities, in many of which the families of our employees participated.
71 sites from 20 countries participated
This monumental effort included participation from more than 53,000 employees who cleaned more than 366,000 square meters of land and planted more than 4,300 trees.
Training our employees in ways they can contribute to concrete actions that have an impact remains an important part of fostering a sustainability-focused culture. We have trained more than 19,500 employees on diverse topics including environmental awareness, forest preservation, waste classification, and recycling and marine conservation among many others.
We imparted training on environmental awareness, forest preservation, waste classification, recycling, and marine conservation.
Driving sustainability in our communities
Approximately 3,600 of our volunteers gave more than 16,000 hours of their time to carry out community activities that drove environmental awareness at a local level, benefiting more than 50 non-profit organizations.
2018 Earth Day challenge winners
Americas
Sorocaba, Brazil
More than 2,700 employees in our Sorocaba, Brazil site participated in the Earth Day Challenge. Their contributions included donating and installing four solar panels to power a computer lab; renovating the Genny Kallil Milego school grounds; and participating in a Flex Community Event that offered an animal adoption fair, lectures on environmental conservation, and a sustainable toys workshop.
These initiatives had a positive environmental and social impact on employees, students in the community, and the society at large. This site’s initiative explored the strong relationship between the environment and a population’s quality of life and provided valuable services to its community.
The Cebu Team worked on improving the site’s vertical garden
While our Cebu Design Center in the Philippines is small compared to other regional operations, their extraordinary efforts and results in this challenge earned them the top spot in the challenge for the second year in a row.
Specifically, this site reduced their overall water consumption costs by 40.43% by replacing broken fixtures, initiating a water use awareness campaign (including signage that reminded people of their usage), setting up an honest shop that resold used and recycled items, and implementing a no-vehicle day. Our Cebu site remains a true inspiration to all our operations around the world.
EMEA
Lodz, Poland
Our Lodz, Poland site focused its efforts on water-related initiatives. They named their efforts “Big Eco Gulp: Saving Oceans from Plastic.”
Participants collected 2,000 Kgs of waste from the Pisia Gongolina River. On site, the team collected empty PET bottles and pledged a commitment to stop drinking water from plastic bottles. In the spirit of reducing and eliminating the use of PET bottles, we donated a water distributor to a local primary school.
Words of Encouragement
These remarkable stories represent just a sampling of the amazing initiatives that our sites implemented around the globe this year. We are proud of their tremendous accomplishments and look forward to new achievements in the years to come.
