2018 was a tough year for our home state of California.
According to a recent CNN report, an estimated 18 million trees died here from issues such as drought, disease, invasive insect species and wildfires. In particular, the massive Thomas Fire affected Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties and impacted our employees and community directly, and the devastation it caused is still visible.
In response to this major environmental challenge, Service Objects has joined with 500 participating companies who have each promised to plant at least 2000 trees in California through One Tree Planted, with a goal of repopulating the state with over one million new trees. We have committed to plant 10 trees for each new customer and are already well on our way to exceeding our goal.
One Tree Planted is a unique organization. As their name suggests, they support reforestation efforts in regions around the globe, including North and South America, Latin America and Africa. They are very cost-efficient at what they do, and their entire focus is on planting trees. We particularly like partnering with them because they let you choose which geographic region your trees are planted in, allowing us to support the regrowth of forest land here in California.
Supporting environmental causes is nothing new for us at Service Objects. We were originally founded in 2001 with a goal of reducing the waste stream in the environment, by cleansing databases of bogus, fraudulent, and undeliverable customer records. In doing so, we estimate we have saved over one million trees, 400 million gallons of water, and prevented 30 million pounds of air pollution. Even as we have grown to become one of the world’s major players in contact data quality services, we remain true to our founding values to make the world a better place through data quality excellence.
This means that environmentalism isn’t just some faceless corporate contribution for us – it is part of our DNA. As a company, we are very thoughtful about our stewardship of the environment. We incentivize people for bicycling to work instead of driving, conserve energy, and encourage recycling and minimal use of resources wherever possible. And we will continue to support like-minded causes through corporate action.
This year we chose to focus our contributions on our company’s home state of California, because of all the devastation this state has faced as a result of recent wildfires and other environmental issues. We love living and working here and realize that we all need to pull together to help rebuild our community and our state. This is why our partnership with One Tree Planted was a natural fit for this pivotal time in California history.
If you would like to learn more about Service Objects’ corporate conservation efforts, we have a dedicated web page where you can check out more details. Above all, we would like to thank you – our customers – for being part of our efforts to create a better planet for all of us. Or as our state’s forests might say, “thanks a million!”
