With back-to-school on our mind, Green Living asked our local companies, “What are you doing to enhance environmental education in the community and/or within your company?” 

Henkel of America, Inc.

Melissa Matthews, Corporate Communications Coordinator

Sustainability is one of our core company values, and we believe it’s important to lead by example by incorporating efforts in every aspect of our business.  The Scottsdale office obtained LEED certification by incorporating sustainable features, such as solar panels, a gray water system and recycling programs.  Our internal program, ecommittment™, engages employees to support our local community.  For example, employees pledge to carpool, shut off lights and computers, and reduce printing and disposable cup usage.  In addition, on Earth Day this year, information about sustainability efforts at Henkel, as well as information on how employees could do their part were on display.

Henkel also collaborates with local partners to further environmental education.  Employees volunteer to clean parks, host community events, and once a year they take a day to volunteer at charitable organizations.  Additionally, Henkel partners with local schools, enabling employees to impact Arizona’s education system by teaching in classrooms and sponsoring science fairs.  Henkel is also a research partner with the Global Institute of Sustainability and Institute of Bio-Design at Arizona State University (ASU).  Employees collaborate on sustainability measurement and reporting standards with ASU, furthering their education and influencing the industry.

Republic Services

Susan David, Communications Director

Two years ago, we established the Republic Services Sustainability Team to identify and share environmental best practices throughout the company.  To be as effective as possible, the team’s members represent a wide variety of geographies and functions.

This year we are excited to be putting the power of interns behind the establishment of a sustainability library.  They are helping us go even deeper to mine information on innovative environmental projects and actions that are taking place throughout the company.  We are plotting those based on cost and benefit and housing details on the projects within a searchable database accessible throughout the company.  Projects range from fuel efficiency to renewable energy – including using landfill gas to power vehicles, solar projects and even a windmill.

Our environmental education spans much further than our company’s operations.  Since we are focused on recycling and waste reduction, we make it a point to spread information on those topics to our customers and the communities we serve.

We have a recycling curriculum guide for middle school students and are very excited to be the primary sponsor of a new website just for kids and their teachers called Earth Preservers Extra.  It will feature a newspaper all about what kids are doing to protect the environment, and will also include videos, games and countless activities all related to environmental issues.  It’s about being part of the solution.

Cox Communications

Ivan Johnson, Vice President of Public Affairs, Cox Arizona

At Cox we educate by example and provide opportunities for our employees to contribute to the effort. We apply green thinking to business decisions that benefit our bottom line as well as challenge our employees to recycle in the office, support company-wide campaigns to collect recyclables and provide employees the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint via telecommuting or participating in the “Home Start” program.  This program allows field employees to take their company vehicles home at night and to start their work day from home and work in their own neighborhoods to serve our customers.

We hope that our commitment to our own green business practices will serve as an example to our employees and we strive to find ways for our employees to do their own part to contribute both on and off the job.

Cox is also helping to educate our customers about how to design and create outdoor landscapes that respect our desert environment and protect our precious resources.  We create and air a local show on Cox Channel 7 called “Step Outside”, which provides an insider’s look at outdoor landscaping projects right here in Arizona.