Volunteerism
Ameresco’s Volunteer Ambassadors group was established in 2021 to drive employee engagement companywide. These Ambassadors span job functions, business units, and geographies and plan local volunteer initiatives. Creating this employee-centric, company-sponsored group of passionate team members successfully championed opportunities to give back throughout the year. Employees were encouraged to utilize 16 paid hours to devote to projects in their local communities.
The Ameresco team truly embraced our mantra of “doing well by doing good” in C.A.R.I.N.G. for our communities. In 2022, we dedicated 2,500+ hours to organizations and causes in local communities.
Some of the initiatives where teams spent their volunteerism hours in 2022 include:
- Building a playhouse for Veteran families in need as well as completing landscaping and irrigation for a Habitat for Humanity property;
- gathering orders of school supplies, books, clothes, shoes and personal care items to be distributed to children in need through Cradles to Crayons;
- working hands-on at a non-profit organic farm, Gaining Ground, an organization that harvests vegetables for local shelters and food banks;
- removing trash and debris from local shoreline and surrounding areas through the COASTSWEEP statewide beach cleanup;
- building a solar powered farmers’ station and assisting with the fall harvest and clean up at Aurelia’s Garden, a local non-profit organization run by volunteers who grow fresh produce to donate to local food banks;
- removing invasive plant species to help restore native landscapes through the Trinity River Audubon Center;
- combining meal donation kits and distributing to local families during the Thanksgiving holiday season through the United Way of Tri-County Holiday Meal Drive;
- fulfilling children’s wish lists items through United Way of Tri-County’s Hope for the Holidays;
- providing holiday gifts for the cancer and cardiac wards at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation and Trust in the UK;
- contributing a dolly full of food and personal hygiene items then sorting and packing boxes for those in need in the local community near our office in Canada;
- hosting a winter-clothing drive collecting seven large boxes of winter coats for Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre.
Charitable Giving
Employees are also encouraged to support meaningful personal causes, and Ameresco committed to matching their donations to non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations. In 2022, Ameresco donated approximately $243K to the organizations listed on page 68 and 69 of our 2022 ESG Report. This total includes both corporate and regional business unit donations, plus Ameresco’s match of employee donations.