Culture Commitments: Putting Our Values into Action
The events of the past year have been tough on many of us, but they’ve also provided an opportunity to reflect and reexamine some things we take for granted. We have taken advantage of this in many areas of our business, but recently we took the opportunity to reflect on our culture and values, and how we’re putting those values into action.
Throughout 2021, we’re inviting our team to make a pledge to convert Adept Group’s ideals into tangible activities that positively impact ourselves, our environments and our communities.
Improving Our Impact on Our Environment
While it may take some time to truly assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment, we do know several industries relied heavily on single-use plastics to ease consumers’ concerns about product safety or create in-demand PPE products. While some of those plastics are recyclable, many are not. Additionally, the pandemic-driven fall in oil prices widened the gap between the prices of virgin plastic and PCR plastic. Regardless of the driving factors, the result is the same – more plastic in landfills and more plastic pollution on land and in waterways – and we’re challenging our team to leave the planet better than we found it.
We encourage each of the associates who take this pledge to find their own meaningful way to impact the environment, and we suggested a handful of options to help our team get started. We recommend our team members participate in community cleanup events or find their own way to remove some of the trash that accumulates in public spaces. We encourage our team to find opportunities to volunteer with community recycling programs or spring planting events. For those who are not comfortable with participating in community events, we also provided a suggestion for our associates to reduce their year-over-year home electricity consumption.
As a company, we’re also making our environmental values tangible through our continued partnership with OneTreePlanted. For each new project we take on, we donate a percentage of our profit to help plant trees in forests identified by the United States Forest Service as having the greatest need. We also plan to contribute to reforestation in other parts of the world.
Improving the Lives of People within Our Communities
The events of 2020 highlighted a variety of areas in which we can create positive change in our communities, whether through diversity and inclusion initiatives, helping to feed and shelter people whose income was affected by the pandemic or helping students who are falling behind because of the limitations of distance learning.
Another pillar of our pledge calls on our associates to make a positive impact on their local community. We provided a variety of suggestions to help our team fulfill this aspect of the pledge, including volunteering at shelters that serve vulnerable people in our communities. We encourage our team to contribute to local food drives and seek opportunities to help organizations that aide local veterans. We also suggested our teams seek out equity, diversity and inclusion trainings to learn more about the differences that make our communities vibrant. Because the majority of the Adept team have earned degrees and advanced degrees in STEM fields, we also encourage them to find opportunities to tutor or mentor local students and help prepare the next generation of leaders in STEM occupations.
Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Our Associates
While the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted many areas for us to help causes outside our own homes, it’s also important that we each focus on taking care of ourselves. Social distancing spurred by the pandemic has prevented many people from connecting in person with friends and family, leading to a separate epidemic of loneliness. The constant barrage of bad news throughout 2020 was enough to induce anxiety among as much as 62% of Americans. Gyms that closed during lockdown cut many people off from a key part of their physical fitness routine. For these reasons, making time for self-care is more important than ever.
The third pillar of our value-driven pledge calls on employees to make time for improving their mental and physical health. While this type of self-care is deeply personal and different for everyone, we offered a variety of suggestions to help our team find an activity that works for them. We encourage employees to work on their physical fitness by training for and participating in events like a virtual 5K. For our employees who enjoy cooking, we encourage them to share healthy recipes for the team or host a virtual cooking demo to show how to prepare a nutritious meal. As the weather warms up across the northern parts of the country, we encourage our team to plan for walking meetings to combine physical activity with productivity or to take a break by participating in our monthly virtual trivia meetings. We also encourage our team to seek out mental wellness trainings.
By contributing to these initiatives, our team is taking steps toward a more positive and healthy future and we can’t wait to see the results. Join us and pledge to make a positive impact today!