Giving back to our communities is central to our business purpose. This is reflected in our company value of “Care,” one of the 5Cs of our culture, which promotes caring, not just about our own people, but also our communities and our place in the world at large. We believe we have a special social responsibility, and our employees value the time and resources we collectively give to their local communities.
Employee Volunteering & Charitable Giving
We encourage our employees to play active roles in the growth and development of the communities in which they live and work. Our ESI Cares program allows them to participate in volunteering and giving opportunities with nearly two million charities around the world. Many of our facilities have Charitable Committees who work with not-for-profit organizations to raise funds and awareness for important, relevant causes. We also have funds dedicated to sponsoring our employees’ participation in global volunteering events and further encourage community engagement and volunteering by providing employees with a paid workday to volunteer with organizations they are passionate about. To further encourage giving back, we also implemented a volunteer rewards program whereby employees are eligible to earn donation rewards to spend with eligible charities. Some of our volunteering initiatives across the company have included working with vulnerable or at-risk children, cleaning up local beaches and parks, tree planting, setting bird feeders to encourage biodiversity, and collecting and serving food at local homeless shelters.
Colleagues in Panyu volunteering on Earth Day
ESI Foundation
The ESI Foundation is our charitable giving entity. Funded through contributions made by ESI, it provides grants to qualified charitable organizations in the communities where our employees live and work and funds to match employee donations. With the support of the ESI Foundation, our ESI Cares program has allowed our employees to give back to their communities in a meaningful way, benefitting 550 charitable organizations in 2023 alone.
The ESI Foundation focuses on causes important to the environmental and social well-being of our communities, such as The Canopy Project, which helped us celebrate Earth Day and the 150th and 100th anniversary of two of our legacy businesses with the planting of trees around the world as well as Equality Now, which protects and promotes the human rights of women.
Our Foundation also makes meaningful donations and grants to local charities selected by our employees as well as to global organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders USA, Save the Children, Amnesty International UK, the Everglades Foundation, EARTHDAY.ORG and Equality Now.