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UPS Foundation Begins Global Volunteer Month Initiative
Green Technology Featured Articles
October 01, 2013

UPS Foundation Begins Global Volunteer Month Initiative

By Madhubanti Rudra
TMCnet Contributor

Committed to giving back to the community, the logistics giant, United Parcel Service (UPS), a package delivery and logistics company based in a Sandy Springs, Georgia, had created its philanthropic arm, The UPS Foundation back in 1951. Since then, the foundation has been involved in various corporate social responsibility initiatives and charities. The recent years found the UPS Foundation focusing on the initiatives relating to environmental improvements.


In 2011, the company launched a Global Forestry Initiative to help plant, protect and preserve trees in the U.S. and around the globe. Subsequently a large scale tree-planting initiative kicked off and to date, more than 1.3 million trees have been planted under this project. In the UPS 2012 annual Sustainability Report, the company announced its becoming one of only 10 U.S. corporations registered with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to have achieved A+ status for superior transparency.

In order to keep in sync with its previous green initiatives, GPS has decided to celebrate its 10th annual Global Volunteer Month (GVM) by pledging to plant another one million trees around the world.

During Global Volunteer Month, nearly 400,000 employees of UPS volunteer to work for various environment-focused community programs. They are encouraged to lend hands and logistics expertise to make their communities more environmentally conscientious. In 2012, UPS employees reportedly donated 1.8 million volunteer hours globally.

“Service and volunteerism are at the core of our UPS culture as our founder Jim Casey always stressed the importance of giving back to the local communities where we live and work. However in the month of October, UPSers will mobilize across all geographies to put our environmental sustainability values into action,” president of The UPS Foundation Eduardo Martinez noted in a statement.

In addition of actively participating in programs for planting and protecting trees around the globe, the UPS Foundation is also offering monetary supports to advance the environmental causes worldwide. The company said that it has awarded $2.3 million in grants to support various environmental programs and forestry-focused initiatives globally.

Earth Day Network, one of the recipients of the 2013 UPS environmental grants, is going to utilize the cash-award for its Trees for Communities project. The project involves planting 390,000 trees in five countries and the Boreal Forest in Canada.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc. received post-recovery tree planting grants and support of the 2014 Vision for America Awards.

Another recipient of UPS grant, National Arbor Day Foundation is going to offer a part of the grants in support of the UPS Employee Forest Program. The rest of the grant will be expended on reforestation efforts in priority areas throughout the United States and abroad.

The Nature Conservancy for the UPS Global Forestry Initiative was awarded for its reforestation efforts in the United States, Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti and China, forest conservation in Canada, climate policy in Europe and to support the Healthy Cities Healthy Trees initiative.

World Resources Institute was awarded for its efforts at reducing methane emissions from natural gas systems.

“Investing in tree planting and reforestation is strategic to our environmental sustainability program. It also builds resiliency in our communities and engages tens of thousands of UPSers who help plant these trees around the world,”

In this connection, it will be worthwhile to make a mention of Our Forests Aren’t Fuel, campaign that was launched last May with an aim to raise awareness and stop the wholesale demolition of vital natural resources. The New York City-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Asheville, N.C.-based Dogwood Alliance have partnered to launch this campaign. The campaign is aimed at both the burgeoning wood pellet industry and utilities practicing tree-burning biomass.




Edited by Ryan Sartor


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