Davey Tree Flipbooks

About the Report 2 Our Corporate Responsibility History Responsible stewardship has been a part of our culture since we were founded. As corporate responsibility and sustainability gained more widespread understanding, we took the opportunity to connect with our clients, engage our employees, stimulate innovation, gain efficiencies and demonstrate industry leadership. We formalized a cross-functional Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) team in 2007 to oversee our sustainability efforts. The progress of the CER team informed the creation of Davey's environmental policy and our first public CER Executive Summary Report in May 2013 for the 2012 reporting year. Our first CER Executive Summary Report was a declaration of our commitment to responsibility and aspiration for continuous improvement. It provided an overview of Davey's policies and approach to environmental stewardship. It included internal and external stakeholder perspectives based on interviews with management, employee and client surveys, and industry perspectives. The CER Executive Summary Report gave us the opportunity to better understand our environmental impacts. For the 2013 reporting year, we have expanded our CER Executive Summary Report to follow the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the international standard in sustainability reporting. We use GRI to better manage our environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts. As a first step, we conducted a materiality assessment to expand our understanding of our ESG impacts. We compiled a list of potential issues and stakeholder concerns gathered from surveys and interviews with employees, clients, local communities, suppliers, industry associations and regulators. We assessed and ranked priority topics according to client satisfaction surveys and bidding questionnaires, peer GRI reports, client requirements, regulatory requirements, and trade association and industry research. Through the materiality assessment process, we recognized that our responsibilities encompass much more than the environment. Our people, our clients and our communities all intersect to increase our positive impacts and reduce our negative impacts. While our environmental impact remains a top priority, other material topics include employee ownership, client health and safety, employee health and safety, training and education, product stewardship, and product and service innovation. Report Scope and Boundary This report covers the 2013 reporting period, including survey response data from 106 Davey-owned and leased facilities throughout the United States and Canada, including our four largest facilities—Kent, Ohio corporate headquarters; Davey Tree Surgery in Livermore, California; Wolf Tree in Knoxville, Tennessee; and Davey Tree Ltd. in Ontario, Canada. We are especially proud to include our Canadian operations in this year's report as it expands the boundary of this report and the environmental, social and economic issues we are actively managing. We intend for the report to serve as the beginning of an open and ongoing dialogue on how we address and continuously improve the responsibility of our company. At the end of the report, you will find a GRI Content Index, which organizes our responses to the GRI G3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. GRI has verified that the report is prepared according to the GRI Guidelines at Application Level C. We invite you to provide feedback throughout the year at corporateresponsibility@davey.com.

• Cover