Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which focuses on highlighting business initiatives and practices that benefit our society, has been a recent topic of discussion in business headlines. Some news providers have identified CSR as a renewed and growing trend in the business world with not only larger companies taking part, but also smaller companies joining the ranks of those stepping up. The concept has a decades-long history and has previously taken form in philanthropic and environmental commitments made by very large corporations with expansive financial and influential reaches. In many instances, the goals were intended to effectively reduce carbon footprint, placing emphasis on directly contributing to social and environmental development.

In recent years that ideology has started to take root on a more widespread scale among business organizations of all sizes.

American Recovery Service has always been inspired to proactively engage in serving the community in which we operate. This has not been an “initiative” but rather an ideology of corporate citizenship that has simply always been the way we do business.

We strive to be a company that serves a social purpose; a company that understands its role in society and actively benefits the community in which we operate.

 

Why Is It Important To Us?

We believe that success is defined by so much more than just a bottom line. True success is found within the DNA of a company, its core integrity, the values under which it operates, and the effect it has not only on its immediate community, (its partners and employees) but also the outlying community.

Identifying the needs of others and making the conscious choice to run events that directly affect our community in a positive way has been woven into the fabric of our corporate culture and is an integral part of our ethical code and values.

We recognize that we can make a direct and positive impact, operating under the tenets of sustainability and social responsibility.

 

How Do We Make An Impact?

The Environment

Our daily operations run at near to 100% paperless, reducing our carbon footprint and saving environmental resources.

As a group we all take responsibility for ensuring our PC’s, monitors, and other office equipment are shut down at the end of each workday, actively eliminating unnecessary energy usage.

We support a campus-wide recycling program, the proceeds of which are invested back into local charities.

 

Staff Welfare

 We take great care to treat employees ethically and fairly. We understand that social responsibility starts with those we impact directly and on a daily basis.

We also recognize that our employees value participation. As such, we sponsor quarterly unity weeks which include theme days, raffles, luncheons, and charity events. We invite our team members to share their ideas surrounding these unity events. Giving them opportunities to decide which organizations we help and keeping the door open to their ideas and goals contributes to positive morale and engenders motivation and loyalty.

We strive to foster a corporate culture where employees have a sense of purpose and develop a sense of ownership in the promotion of positive change in our community.

 

 

Community

We recognize that we have a social responsibility to positively impact those around us. We consistently partner with other professionals to participate in charity events inclusive of food banks, children’s charities such as the Boys and Girls Club, Project Search, Feed the Children and many more non-profit organizations.

For the second year in a row the ARS team has pooled their efforts and successfully raised funds resulting in over 3000 pounds of turkey donated to our local food bank and victims of the Napa Wildfires.

We also participate in an annual Stocking Decoration and Stuffing event which provides gifts to dozens of teens and children in group homes and foster care. These organizations run on very limited funds and often receive little during the holiday season.

Letters to the Troops (Military Appreciation Letters) for the 2017 Holiday Season: Our teams pulled together to contribute 80 personal letters and thank you cards which were sent to troops deployed overseas in time for them to receive them for Thanksgiving.

The Boys and Girls Club in El Dorado County (BGC) provides support to hundreds of local children, focusing on academic success, character and citizenship development, healthy lifestyles and nutrition.

ARS has actively partnered with this non-profit organization for several years. In addition to participating in numerous fundraising events, we have been a major sponsor of BGC’s Heroes Night, the highest revenue generating event in the club history. This year we participated in the 20th anniversary of the event, maintaining our place as Hero Sponsor as a top contributor, doing our part to help ensure that BGC continues to positively impact hundreds of local children on a daily basis.

 

Our Choice

Corporate Social Responsibility has become a standard practice in the business world. A business like ARS can continue to grow with or without social responsibility, but knowing that we can and do make a difference, the choice is obvious. Social responsibility, as part of our business foundation, creates life-changing consequences for recipients of aid while instilling a sense of pride in our team members who support these endeavors.

 

It’s simply the way we choose to do business!