Planting Trees for a Healthy Triple Bottom Line
Every business works to keep its financial bottom line in the black.
We count ourselves among a growing number of businesses who believe in not just one, but three bottom lines—social, environmental, and financial.
This Triple Bottom Line, sometimes referred to as the 3 P’s of People, Planet, and Profit, informs everything we do at AnswerConnect. All three measures are important, and all are interconnected.
One of the ways we keep our social and environmental bottom lines positive is to connect with the many communities across the country in which our remote teams live and work. While we all love the freedom and flexibility that working remotely offers, it’s also fun and rewarding to meet up in person from time to time.
On Saturday, a group of AnswerConnect employees and family members met up on the banks of Johnson Creek near Powell Butte Nature Park. This urban watershed is one of the Portland metropolitan area’s most important natural refuges. For one thing, it’s the only stream in the city of Portland in which salmon run. These salmon are protected by the Endangered Species Act, so keeping their habitat healthy is a must!
Friends of Trees and AnswerConnect
Our remote team jumped at the chance to do good while also meeting up face-to-face for some valuable togetherness time. We partnered with local nonprofit Friends of Trees to plant twenty baby hawthorne trees and more than a hundred swamp roses. Tree-planting with Friends of Trees was a great opportunity for our remote team to get together and give back. Friends of Trees’ representative, Conan (in the yellow vest) showed us how to do it.
For Jewel, our Client Experience Operations Manager, the tree planting was an opportunity to get involved with her community and to model volunteerism for her daughter, Scout (in the ladybug raincoat). “Native animals require native plants to flourish,” she says. “I do not want my daughter to grow up thinking that squirrels and the occasional raccoon are the only undomesticated animals that live in the area.”
Teaching and Learning About Healthy Communities
Jewel and Scout learned that a major killer of freshly planted trees and shrubs is planting them too deep. “You should not bury the tops of their roots,” Jewel says. Also, “tires spinning in mud on the side of a country road can coat the side of a Kia Rio5 in less than ten seconds.” Live and learn!
“I grew up with a dad that loves the outdoors and fishing. He gave me an appreciation for our natural areas and taught me that we should always leave a natural area better than we found it. Protecting and conserving our natural areas has so many benefits because everything is connected. The work we did today will help the salmon that live in that stream, which will in turn provide a food source for other animals like bears, bald eagles, and blue heron.” –Andrea, CX Team Coach
The Story of Our Natural Areas
“Natural areas are important to me because they tell a story about the land and its history, separate from the story of human progress that towns and cities tell. So much of what we do is influenced by our environment that I think it’s vital to have beautiful, sacred spaces where nature is just allowed to do her own thing like we humans do ours. Now part of the story for the swampland at Powell Butte Nature Park is that a bunch of humans got together from all over and worked as a unit to care for it and bring it new life.” –Tabitha, Connections Director
“Planting trees this past weekend was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a company event, throughout my entire working history. Not only were there plenty of coffee and snacks, but also we got to get down in the dirt and plant some trees. We worked with really cool staff members who had planned the whole thing out in advance, and I felt like I was doing something constructive and actually giving something back to the planet. Also, now I know what a swamp rose is!” –Shaw, training content producer
Stay tuned for more stories of volunteer connections in all the communities where our people live and work. From Oregon to Idaho to Utah to Texas to North Carolina to the UK to Chennai, India, our teams are working to connect our clients and their customers to each other and the world.
Together, we can keep a positive Triple Bottom Line and have a powerful impact on the social, environmental, and financial well-being of our communities. Join us!
