Davey Tree Flipbooks

Davey 2014 Corporate Responsibility Report

The Davey Tree Expert Company provides residential and commercial tree service and landscape service throughout North America. Read our Flipbooks for helpful tips and information on proper tree and lawn care.

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We will promote environmentally conscious driving practices, such as low idling and routing technology, to improve fuel efficiency for our fleet vehicles. In 2012, we piloted a Global Positioning System (GPS) program in our U.S. Utility operations to improve fuel efficiency and reduce lost/stolen equipment. The pilot of approximately 325 devices in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New England quickly proved successful. A second pilot program took place in our Bay Area, California, operations. Through the new GPS system, we were able to eliminate unauthorized use of vehicles, reduce fuel theft and easily locate vehicles in our fleet. The success of both pilots led to the expansion of the GPS system throughout our North American operations. The program has been particularly useful in improving the efficiency of our fleet, and we are continuously identifying ways to improve the system. Because some of our equipment is powered by vehicle engines, idling our vehicles is sometimes necessary. We have since updated the GPS system to track engine idling with and without equipment in use, allowing us to minimize unnecessary idling and further conserve fuel. Additionally, our U.S. Utility operations will soon launch a new pilot to test a more robust GPS tracking system, enabling full integration of GPS tracking data into our management systems. The new system will include the use of tablets for the real-time entry of data in the field. More robust data and associated metrics will improve monitoring and facilitate the development of enhanced improvement plans. UPON DETERMINING MATERIAL TOPICS, WE WILL CREATE ROBUST GOALS AND ASSOCIATED METRICS AS PART OF OUR MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING PROCESS. We will identify a method by which to track community investment, employee volunteerism, speaking engagements and contributions. Historically, we tracked community investment at only the corporate level. In 2014, we launched our first community engagement survey, to determine how and to what extent our facilities invest in their communities. Questions included: In which types of community activity did your facility engage this year? How many hours were volunteered in total by employees at your facility? How many dollars were given in total by your facility? Would your facility like assistance from corporate in finding volunteer events in your area? Results of the 2014 survey will help shape our giving strategy moving forward. For example, through the survey, we learned our total giving was over 40 percent greater than our corporate giving, alone. Additionally, 45 percent of participating sites stated they would like assistance from Corporate Communications in finding further ways to give back to their community. This valuable feedback from the field assists us in determining how best to leverage our giving efforts. We plan to continue administering the survey annually to ensure our giving is effective and aligns with community needs. 06

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