Category: Sustainability

Operating Sustainably, Successfully

Kelli FletcherBlog, Case Studies, Sustainability

We always love the work we do and the clients for which we do it. And sometimes projects are extra-special. Last week, Clairemont helped client Ingersoll Rand wrap and publish its 2020 Sustainability Report.

The report is more than a labor of love for the company. It’s a year-long story that highlights the progress that Ingersoll Rand made in driving Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) leadership throughout 2020 – despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the Ingersoll Rand Industrials segment merged with Gardner Denver, Inc. in March 2020, the company committed to moving forward in its efforts and goals around sustainability. But Ingersoll Rand didn’t stop at that simple pledge. Instead, its leaders and employees worked to expand and surpass the promise, making sustainability the fuel to its future goals, growth, success and value.

We are proud of the meaningful work Ingersoll Rand does – internally and in the world – and we are proud to have the company as a client!

Ingersoll Rand Publishes 2020 Sustainability Report
Report demonstrates how company is driving Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) leadership as a competitive advantage
ESG and Sustainability Report Webcast Scheduled for August 6, 2021

DAVIDSON, N.C. – July 15, 2021 –  World-class recordable safety metrics, a 50% diverse Board of Directors, expanding stockholder rights and giving $150 million as one of the largest employee equity grants believed to ever be given from an industrial company are just a few of the highlights in the Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE: IR) 2020 Global Sustainability Report published this week.

This report marks the company’s second annual Sustainability Report and shines a spotlight on the Operate Sustainably strategic imperative, which is one of five strategic imperatives of Ingersoll Rand along with deploy talent, accelerate growth, expand margins and allocate capital effectively.

“This journey began with a simple commitment to sustainability and that commitment is now fueling our future goals, growth, success and value,” said Vicente Reynal, president and CEO, Ingersoll Rand. “Maximizing our Ingersoll Rand Execution Excellence (IRX) discipline to unlock our ESG potential positively impacts our employees, customers and communities. I am proud of the year-long story of progress this report shares and the employees who made it happen in spite of the challenges we collectively faced with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Highlights from this Sustainability Report include:

  • Inspired employees are the engine behind everything Ingersoll Rand achieves: Broad-based employee ownership and investment in employees through $150 million employee equity grant takes performance to a new level with employees as active participants in the journey to create long-term value. With thinking and acting like an owner as one of the company values, it changes the mindset from “this is the company I work for, to this is my company.”
  • Growing leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion: Ingersoll Rand’s newly announced ambitious 2025 goals in the areas of representation, advancement and experience.
  • Leveraging mission-critical products and services, and internal operations to positively impact our planet: Ingersoll Rand’s aggressive 2030 and 2050 goals for water, energy use and waste reduction.
  • Implementing governance best practices: Meaningful stockholder-empowering governance enhancements bring the same focus to governance as the company brings to the environmental and social aspects of the ESG journey.
  • Building resilient communities around the world: Ingersoll Rand’s principal partnership with Engineers Without Borders focuses on sustainable community development and infrastructure.
  • Creating shareholder value: Ingersoll Rand’s focus on strengthening the balance sheet and supporting the portfolio transformation and inorganic growth strategy through completed or proposed strategic acquisitions—such as Seepex, Maximus, Tuthill Vacuum and Blower Systems, and Albin Pump—is creating long-term value for stockholders.

ESG and Sustainability Report Investor Call and Presentation

Ingersoll Rand will host an investor conference call on Friday, August 6, 2021 at 8 a.m. (Eastern time) to discuss the company’s ESG progress, roadmap and 2020 Sustainability Report. To participate in the call, please dial 1-833-502-0496, domestically, or 1-778-560-2573, internationally, and use conference ID 9668554, or ask to be joined into the Ingersoll Rand call.

About Ingersoll Rand Inc.

Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE:IR), driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and ownership mindset, is dedicated to helping make life better for our employees, customers and communities. Customers lean on us for our technology-driven excellence in mission-critical flow creation and industrial solutions across 40+ respected brands where our products and services excel in the most complex and harsh conditions. Our employees develop customers for life through their daily commitment to expertise, productivity and efficiency. For more information, visit www.IRCO.com.

Read more about the amazing things that our clients are doing here.

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Go Green for St. Patrick’s Day

Clairemont InternBlog, Public Relations, Sustainability, , , ,

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and with it comes a cavalcade of parades, floats, shamrocks and people bedecked in green hats to celebrate.

At Clairemont, we love to celebrate in every shade of green while we search for the gold at the end of the rainbow. But we also use the occasion to reconnect with a different “green” side — the kind that decreases our footprint on the planet while bolstering a sustainable legacy.

Why Go Green? (From a PR Viewpoint)

As the impact on our environment is increasingly felt, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is taking on a deeper hue of green. Companies have redefined their CSR policies to prioritize sustainability, which until a few years ago was considered by many simply a “nice to have,” feel-good factor.

Authentic CSR efforts can support innovation, boost cost savings and increase brand differentiation as well as build authentic, transparent bonds with fans. As Freya Williams states in her book “Green Giants,” some of the most respected billion-dollar companies have achieved success from a business plan built on sustainability and social good. For example, Briar Chapel and Wendell Falls, two Clairemont Communications clients, were founded on principles of sustainability — from the initial land plan to the green-built homes. The foundational positioning and commitment to a long-term legacy, coupled with quality lifestyles and homes, have helped position these master-planned communities as the top-selling areas in the Triangle. Companies from all sectors have been integrating an authentic wider purpose into their brand which, in turn, supports an enriched relationship with their audiences and, on occasion, long-term profitability

Whether a small business, a large corporation or just you, there’s no better (or more color-appropriate) time to consider your sustainability commitment than St. Patricks Day. For fun, we gathered easy tips on how to celebrate your Irish side in the greenest of ways.

Here are four easy ways to encourage your business with a few green practices:

1. Make it Fun

Add a little extra encouragement for employees to go green by implementing an office challenge. Give “points” to those that walk, bike (or scoot!) to work, participate in a carpool, abandon the elevator for stairs and cut down on their printing. Each week, reward the employee with the most points with a treat such as a gift card to their favorite coffee shop or lunch on the company. Incentives work, and if the office is consistent about hosting and promoting the challenge throughout the year, these employee efforts – no matter how small – have the chance to become real habits which can make a big difference over time.

2. Flex Your Green Thumb

Encourage employees to bring in a desk plant. Not only is the greenery appealing to the eye, but it will purify the air and liven things up a bit around the office. Plus, it’s fun to watch something that you’re responsible for grow. There are many plants that thrive indoors easily, needing little to no care. Have even more space? How about grow some window tomatoes (yes, inside) or plant a small garden of herbs (even if only for the smell)? Have some outdoor space? Get crazy and plant a whole bed of seasonal veggies, which is sure to get a cluster of people involved. A bonus: offer up those “points” to those that help care for the garden.

3. Walk the Walk

It’s very important that owners, managers and senior staff set the example for the rest of the company. Make sure company-wide policies are in place that cover the basics, like keeping the thermostat at a certain temperature, initiating a recycling program, going paperless and turning off the lights when employees leave their offices.

4. Go Local

Try to find local suppliers to cut down on transportation time and greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately help your community. Browse business directories, attend small business meetups in your area and, if need be, ask your local officials for help.

To learn more about our CEO’s journey in launching Clairemont Communications as an agency that is sustainbly aware, read our blog “Doing Our Best at Doing our Part.”

Written by Clairemont Intern Ru Wolle, a senior at NCSU.
Photos from Canva

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Clients Who Care: Papa Spud’s

Tracy LathanBlog, Case Studies, Clairemont Client News, Sustainability, , ,

In the spirit of holiday giving, “Clients Who Care” is a blog series that recognizes some of the recent acts of kindness and caring demonstrated by Clairemont clients. We hope these stories inspire you to be charitable this holiday season and throughout 2015. Happy Holidays!

Having been a supporter of the CSA box delivery concept for years, I was thrilled when we got the opportunity to work with Papa Spud’s. For those of you not familiar, Papa Spud’s is a farm to fork delivery service that has been serving the Triangle since 2008. The team works with more than 50 local farmers and artisans to fill community supported agriculture (CSA) boxes each week. Unlike other CSA services, Papa Spud’s offers dairy, meat and an assortment of items along with a wide variety of fruits and veggies, so each box is completely customizable to meet the needs of individual families.

During our work together these past few months, we learned that Papa Spud’s believes in the importance of giving back not just during the holiday season, but all year long. In addition to serving Triangle residents and educating them about the importance of eating healthy and supporting local farmers, Papa Spud’s is giving back to our community in a significant way. Each week, Papa Spud’s donates an estimated 300 to 400 pounds of leftover food to the Interfaith Food Shuttle. Interfaith is an amazing organization and this donation, no doubt, has a huge impact on the programs and people they are able to support.

In addition to the weekly Interfaith donations, Papa Spud’s also supports various organizations and charities with food donations throughout the year. We salute Rob and his team for all they do to serve their customers, educate Triangle residents about the importance of eating local foods and by giving back to those in need. Here’s to a bountiful 2015!

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What We’ve Learned About Healthy School Lunches from Martha Payne and the Chef Challenge

Josephine ButlerBlog, In Our Community, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Sustainability, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chef Greg Hamm of the Natural Chef Culinary Program at Central Carolina Community College shares his creations with the public at Briar Chapel’s Earth Day celebration.

We recently read an article from the News & Observer about 9-year-old Martha Payne, who posted images of “uninspiring school meals” on her blog, Never Seconds. The blog has gotten more than 2 million hits and gained attention of school officials and cafeteria staff. The story has drawn national and international media coverage, and we can’t help think of our client Briar Chapel and partner nonprofit, The Abundance Foundation, and their own stroke of genius: the Chatham County Chef Challenge.

In case you missed it, the Chef Challenge is an annual event that invites local celebrity chefs from well-known area restaurants (this year, we enjoyed working with the Fearrington House Restaurant, Crossroads at Carolina Inn and Central Carolina Community College) to create healthy and delicious school lunches. Each of the chef’s dishes competed head to head with traditional school lunch favorites – think chicken nuggets, pizza and nachos. And believe it or not, the chef’s dishes won! An overwhelming 85 percent of students agreed that the chef’s culinary creations were much tastier than the same-old, less healthy options.

To give you an idea of a dish the kids love, take Chef Colin Bedford of the Fearrington for example. He cooked up a tasty chocolate cake that was actually good for you. Healthy chocolate cake!? While this may sound a little oxymoronic, trust us when we say that Chef Colin snuck in hearty ingredients like spinach and carrots – the kids had no idea!

The goal behind each of the chef’s recipes was that cafeteria staff could easily duplicate it. The chefs held several training days through the school year to teaching team members how to use equipment found in their own kitchens, as well as locally grown ingredients, to recreate each of the dishes. Not only did the kids love the new menu items, but staff members also enjoyed learning something new!

And that’s why we love the story about this 9-year-old making a stand for better school lunches. She’s shedding light on a hot topic that our client Briar Chapel has also embraced. Together, parents and students can become more educated on making healthy school lunch choices, while keeping costs down!

In the meantime, we’re busy gearing up for the Chef Challenge in 2013 and can’t wait to see what the chefs will come up with this year!

P.S. Did you catch Tami Schwerin, executive director of the Abundance Foundation, and Kristy Yule, marketing director of Briar Chapel, on ABC 11? They give a big shout-out to the Chef Challenge!

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Green Thought Thursday: How to Recycle Old Magazines

Josephine ButlerBlog, In Our Community, Sustainability, , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Green Thought Thursday: How to Recycle Old Magazines

Today’s Green Thought Thursday is shared by Erica Amatori, our fabulous new summer intern who just graduated from Green Hope High School. Needless to say, we’re impressed by her ambition, writing skills and dedication to all things green!

Clairemont intern, Erin Kelley, helps organize a delivery of last year's magazines for Artspace!

Reading magazines may be fascinating the first few times, but the gossip gets old, fast. We are constantly buying more magazines and newspapers to feed our 24-hour news cycle, but, in the end, what do we do with all of these outdated magazines?

At Clairemont, we recently recycled our plethora of last year’s furniture and fashion magazines by donating them to Artspace in downtown Raleigh, where the recycled pages will be used for collages and other kid-friendly art projects.

Taking an easier approach, the city of Raleigh also approves magazines as acceptable recycling items.  So, dropping them off in the recycling bin is just fine, too.  But, if you’re feeling more creative than that, here are some original ways to reuse and recycle:

  • Turn magazine pages into stylish gift wrap
  • Donate them to a local school to use in a book sale
  • Shred the paper and make vibrant fillers or gift basket paper
  • Glue strips onto pieces of tile to create coasters
  • Produce funky jewelry or accessories, such as purses or beads
  • Donate them to a doctors office, nonprofit organization or hospital
  • Make homemade envelopes
  • Create handy and cute fridge magnets
  • And—something more ironic—use them to make your own trash can (or recycling can!)

Have fun this summer by starting a DIY project and turning something useless into something useful. Don’t be afraid to make a statement and convert old news into new projects. Did of any of these ideas strike your fancy? We’d love to hear how you plan to reuse your old magazines!

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