Doing the Right Thing—Thousands of Trees at a Time
Below is an article originally written by Laura Goldberg, the Head of Talent Acquisition and Retention at PowerToFly Partner Logikcull, and published on August 28, 2018. Go to Logikcull's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
The Logikcull team is driven by our four core values, one of them being "do the right thing." This value has inspired many different corporate social responsibility initiatives including our most recent tree-planting initiative. As part of "doing the right thing," we've partnered with the National Forest Foundation so that, for every 100,000 pages of data uploaded by our users, Logikcull sponsors the planting of one new tree. Already, Logikcull users have planted thousands of trees and reforested hundreds of acres of land.
Here's a look into this this new initiative, with the Talent Acquisition Specialist who first proposed the idea, Tamara Okyere.
Logikcull: How did the tree-planting initiative and reforestation campaign begin?
Tamara Okyere: The idea grew out of a discussion with the entire office during our regular "All Hands" meetings, as we brainstormed possible events for Earth Day. Logikcull co-founder and CEO, Andy Wilson, asked everyone to guess how many trees we have saved as a company, based on the amount of pages uploaded into Logikcull, which, not too long ago, would have been printed out for review by most involved in the legal field.
Truthfully, I forget the exact number [Editor's note: about 200,000 trees this month alone.] but we were all blown away by the answer. It really gave us a tangible idea of the difference we had made. I made a crack to the room about Andy loving trees and half-jokingly turned to Andy and said, "You know, we should plant a tree on behalf of our users." Andy fired back with "You know, that's a great idea!" I love that Andy instinctively knew my half-joke was not a joke at all, but an idea couched in humor. I felt very heard and we moved forward from there.
Logikcull: What impact will this initiative create?
Okyere: We started in April, with the goal of planting one tree for every 100,000 pages uploaded into Logikcull. As of now, we've planted several thousand. We're hoping that number will increase to thousands of trees or more every month and hundreds of acres reforested by the end of the year.
Logikcull: Why is Logikcull focusing on trees?
Okyere: Well, Logikcull has always been eco-friendly and, as we grow, I think we all want to bring that way of thinking along with us. Earth Day was the beginning of a more extensive conversation. I think this initiative is going to be one of the many projects that we take on to benefit the environment.
Logikcull: How does this initiative fit into Logikcull's larger values and company culture?
Okyere: We have four core values: start with the why, do the right thing, put the customer first, and pursue powerful simplicity. This initiative definitely fits in with 'do the right thing'.
Logikcull: How did you make the decision to partner with National Forest Foundation?
Okyere: We did some research and went with the National Forest Foundation because they expressed a scientific approach to tree planting. They target areas where not only is there the greatest need, but also areas that are most hospitable to reforestation. The organization also focuses all of their work on National Forests—they're the official non-profit partner of the U.S. Forest Service—so the trees planted won't just be helping the global environment, they'll be accessible to everyone as part of our national forestlands.
Logikcull: What would you like Logikcull customers to know about this new initiative?
Okyere: It's not just because of Logikcull that we're able to do this, it's our customers as well. They are choosing to create a modern legal practice; they are choosing to use Logikcull. It's because of their choice that we are able to save as many pages and plant so many trees. So, cheers to our customers.
Logikcull is hiring! To learn more about our company culture and see open positions, visit our PowerToFly page.
