Our sustainability strategy solidifies our global commitment to create positive impact in our communities. By providing our team members with the opportunity to give back to their communities, we hope to foster a sense of purpose and connection amongst our employees.
In 2022, our sites largely organized their own community engagement efforts. For example, our employees in Alpharetta (GA, USA) donated time for important community initiatives including the Urban Tree Planting Plan in downtown Atlanta (GA, USA). In Huddersfield (UK), employees coordinated a community food drive in support of local food banks. In Salto (Brazil), we partnered with local schools and municipalities to develop a tree preservation program. The goal of this individualized approach is for each program to personally connect with our employees in a meaningful way, while uplifting the communities where we live and operate.
To increase our engagement and impact, our goal is to share 46,000 hours of paid volunteer time by 2030. The hours correspond to a day of volunteering every year for 20% of our current employee census. We expect this activity to expand over time as sites and employees detect needs, find ways to contribute and time allotment is increased.
The communications department will steer the efforts to build a robust community engagement policy and multiyear plan in 2023, in collaboration with the EHS team and our sites. It will rely on local employee resource groups to start implementing activities that matter to Arxada and to our communities.
Looking forward to 2023
In 2023, we will enhance these efforts as we launch our engagement and volunteering program. The program will empower employees to make a meaningful impact through hands on community involvement by volunteering with organizations in our respective communities where we live and work. The intent is to create and facilitate opportunities to have a meaningful influence in our communities locally, while aligning and supporting our purpose, values and strategy globally.
Downtown Atlanta urban tree planting – One Million Trees initiative
In 2020, the One Million Trees Initiative — a collaboration of ten metro Atlanta cities and ten local non-profits was launched to plant and conserve 1,000,000 trees in ten years. The initiative is seeking to address local climate effects and environmental stresses from urban growth, as well as improve the cities’ sustainability and better protect the health and wellbeing of people living and working in metro Atlanta (GA, USA).
As part of our corporate volunteering work, employees from three of our Atlanta based wood sites volunteered with the local non-profit Trees Atlanta which is part of the initiative. Our employees from the Conley Plant, Conley Technical Center and Alpharetta R&D site volunteered to plant trees at South Bend Park located close to the Conley facility in February 2022. Their efforts with Trees Atlanta contributed to the wider One Million Trees Initiative and the sites are looking forward to continue volunteering with Trees Atlanta and the One Million Trees Initiative on a regular basis.