Davey Tree Flipbooks

4 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | May/June 2023 Q. WHAT IS DAVEY DOING TO ENSURE IT IS A LEADER IN THE GROWING CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY MOVEMENT? Our clients, rightly so, are asking us what our sustainability goals are, how we're calculating our carbon footprint, and other important corporate responsibility questions. Some companies out there are promoting themselves as environmentally minded companies, and for some of them it's just a marketing campaign. At Davey, we can point to real, dramatic improvement we have tracked and reported over a long period of time. We work to balance our sustainability efforts with client service. Our mission is to exceed our clients' expectations, and if we put into place technology that is not in the best interests of providing our clients with exceptional service, then we're doing a disservice to them. We aren't going to mandate something if it's not a better solution, simply for the sake of saying we are sustainable. Battery-powered chainsaws are a good example of how we waited for the technology to evolve to the point it could meet our production needs, and now we use them daily in field operations, providing our employees with a safe and productive alternative to gas-powered tools. And our clients receive the same high quality and efficient service – with all of the sustainability benefits battery-powered tools provide. Every day our employees improve the environment of the communities in which they live and work. Beyond that, we're committed to community volunteerism, to reducing our carbon footprint, increasing our battery-powered equipment fleet, and more. Dating to the days of John Davey, the company has been committed to being a leader in environmental responsibility. That is a role we strive to fulfill every day through thoughtful and strategic practices, with accountability through our continued corporate responsibility measuring and reporting. A. It's important to note that we are not reinventing the wheel at Davey with regard to environmental awareness and sustainability. Environmental stewardship, being a good corporate citizen and adhering to legal and regulatory compliance are things that Davey has taken a leadership role in going all the way back to John Davey, who is known as the Father of Tree Surgery. Many companies today are forced to reinvent themselves to align with the goals and ideals associated with corporate sustainability efforts. These Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ideals may be new for some companies. But for Davey, they're not. Just because a social movement is given a new acronym shouldn't take away from the fact these concepts and practices have always been core to Davey's identity. Now, can we improve our sustainability efforts? Absolutely. Are there ways we can measure them more efficiently and effectively? Positively. Can we hold ourselves to a higher degree of accountability? We can, and we are. We are doing a better job of ensuring the efficacy of what we're reporting from a corporate responsibility standpoint. Our sustainability reporting is not just green washing. We're only reporting on projects that are meaningful and impact the company. Davey has been reporting on our governance, sustainable solutions, and sharing performance data measuring corporate environmental responsibility since 2012. We measure and track our wood waste recycling efforts, which show we recycled an average 89% of wood waste generated companywide annually. From 2017 through 2022, we have reduced our fuel use per labor hour by 21%. We're also listening more acutely to our clients, our employees, and prospective employees, all of whom have heightened awareness and expectations of what it means for Davey to conduct its business in environmentally responsible ways. ASK THE CEO Pat Covey Davey Chairman, President and CEO

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