Davey Tree Flipbooks

8 6 CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS In 2014, we established the following corporate responsibility goals based on our corporate responsibility pillars: We will establish environmental, social and governance (ESG) guidelines. Davey Tree has over 150 facilities in the United States and Canada. In the past, we reported data obtained from facility surveys, reporting approximately 48 percent of our facility footprint in 2014. This year, we improved our existing data management processes to ease reporting and add rigor to our facility data. As a result, we identified field water use and fleet energy use as significant topics to manage going forward. We will establish strategic plan goals tied to each of our corporate responsibility pillars. As we continue to implement the GRI G4 framework, we will update our materiality assessment to validate what ESG topics are most critical, both internally and for our external stakeholders. Upon updating material topics, we will revise our goals and associated metrics as part of our management and reporting process. These goals will complement Davey Tree's strategic plan and align with our corporate responsibility pillars. Our updated materiality assessment will be complete for the 2016 report. We will review our supply chain procedures to ensure consideration of ESG issues. We understand our supply chain, from business travel to vehicle fleet, and we are striving to improve it for the better. We aspire to work with suppliers that share our level of dedication to corporate responsibility and are currently in the process of identifying key suppliers with which we can collaborate. Our largest purchasing categories include equipment, insurance, fuel, chemicals and miscellaneous supplies. This year, we created a company-wide chemical inventory (based on purchases) to better understand our global chemical footprint. In future years, we plan to use this data to inform purchasing decisions. Read more about our chemical footprint in the Chemical Use section of this report. In addition, we plan to develop a procurement policy, which will codify our interest in working with partners who have formal corporate responsibility programs. Items included in the procurement policy will be finalized on the basis of the updated materiality assessment. 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 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. Our fleet energy use remains material to our environmental footprint and we continue to focus on innovating new mechanisms to achieve fuel reductions.

• Cover