The 7,000+ ways we celebrated Earth Day at ION

Established in 1970, Earth Day marked the birth of the modern environmental movement. Every 22 April since then, people around the world have worked together to support and promote environmental protection and sustainability. Earth Day is now celebrated by more than 1 billion people in 195 countries, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

Through ContributION, our corporate social responsibility program, we organized a global Earth Day campaign to help express our commitment to making the world a better place by making positive environmental changes in our local communities and around the world.

At the global level, we partnered with the Earth Day Network to support their Canopy Project, which works worldwide to strengthen communities and boost reforestation through tree planting. We’ve already sponsored the planting of more than 7,000 new trees through donations made by individuals staff members, on behalf of some local offices, and by the entire company.

“It’s important for successful businesses to use their leadership to promote sustainability as a culture,” said Denise Schwarz of the Productivity Support team in Vancouver. Schwarz was instrumental in driving ION’s Earth Day campaign this year. “As a leader in our industry, we need to educate and support our local community, not only as a key part of our strategy, but because it’s the right thing to do.   Our commitment and determination for the environment can empower our employees and customers to play a key role in changing the world.”

What’s more, many of our local offices have been participating in various initiatives and events to further support our overall campaign:

• In Chicago, we posted facts around the office to help teach everyone to become more mindful of how our choices affect the environment.
• The Horsham team volunteered at the Temple University Ambler Arboretum to help prepare for their Earth Day celebration, EarthFest.
• The Mexico City office celebrated Earth Day with two initiatives, adopting a local endangered plant, and making a list of daily habits that affect the environment, so we can improve some or many of them.
• The Munich team decided to save energy by not using electrical lighting for a week, instead using natural lighting throughout the office.
• A group of volunteers from our New York office celebrated Earth Day by weeding and mulching newly planted trees and picking up trash and leaves at Franz Seigal Park in the Bronx. We worked with Partnership for Parks, who help maintain New York City’s 2000 parks.
• In the Pisa offices, we started by giving each team a small plant to care for. Then we gave everyone reusable aluminum bottles to reduce the plastic waste we produce. Finally, we helped finance the planting of a new tree in front of ION offices.
• The Tokyo team continued a campaign of innovative waste sorting in their office.
• In Vancouver, we partnered with Tree Canada to plant nearly 70 trees and shrubs to support native bird species.

We’re very proud of our success during this year’s campaign, but we know that environmental sustainability is a long-term commitment. We’re already planning our initiatives for next year’s campaign, so we can continue working towards carbon neutrality and full environmental sustainability. Together, we can thrive in our environment while our environment thrives.