Throughout the month of April and our first quarter of FY17, Symantec employees joined more than 1 billion people[1] worldwide to celebrate the 46th annual Earth Day.
From cleaning up beaches in Cape Town, to engaging youth in India, to preserving the wetlands of San Francisco Bay, today we bring you a round up of our collective and individual efforts to protect our environment on Earth Day and every day:
- Our Pune office hosted an Earth Day art competition where employees’ children submitted paintings and drawings related to the theme of water conservation. The event was very successful with nearly 40 entries, a sample of which can be seen below.
Children of Pune office employees submit artwork on the theme of "water conservation." Nearly 40 pieces were submitted and displayed throughout the office for employees to see.
- In Cape Town, we held our third beach clean up with partner CleanC. Employees contributed a total of 34 volunteer hours and were joined by underprivileged youth from a local settlement Joe Slovo whom CleanC supports through its programs.
Cape Town partners with CleanC for their third annual beach clean up.
- Another successful beach clean up took place in Culver City, where our office came together with Heal the Bay and in two hours clearednearly 42 lbs of waste and over 700 cigarette butts from Santa Monica beach in Southern California.
Culver City employees and Heal the Bay clean up at Santa Monica beach in Southern California.
- In Dublin, employees from Symantec's EMEA Human Resources team partnered with OWLS– "the children's nature charity"– to build a secret community garden for local children. Additionally, nearly 20 Dublin employees donated over 100 hours collectively to build a Conservation Garden with The National Trust for Ireland, An Taisce, to help provide a resource for environmental education on native habitats close to Dublin city center.
The HR EMEA team enjoying their time out in nature together to help build a community garden for children through partner OWLS.
Symantec volunteers help create a Conservation Garden close to Dublin city center that will serve as a resource for environmental education on native habitats.
- In our Reading office, employees supported a variety of environmental initiatives such as planting, weeding, and upkeep for the Trunkwell Garden Project of nonprofit Thrive. Thrive uses gardening to empower and impact the lives of disabled people through therapy, skills building and occupational training.
- Our Herndon, Virginia office partnered with local nonprofit Fairfax Re-Leaf to plant nearly 50 trees in the community as well as providing a grant to the organization. Symantec's support and funding was crucial to the organization as they rely on community donations and a small portion of government funding.
- And lastly, at our corporate headquarters in Mountain View, employees volunteered on campus with Save The Bay, which has been protecting, restoring and celebrating San Francisco Bay since 1961. Employees were educated on the organization's mission and helped transfer native seedlings so they can be planted in key areas around the Bay to help restore the wetlands.
We are always impressed by the passion and dedication of our employees – it is their initiative that enables us to have both a global and local philanthropic impact and target the causes that mean the most to our employees and communities.
We look forward to bringing you more highlights next quarter on how we are making an impact around the world!
Lora Phillips is Symantec’s Director, Corporate Responsibility