In 1972, the United Nations General Assembly designated June 5 as World Environment Day (WED). Today, climate-related mitigation and adaptation activities are a significant responsibility we all share. To support our commitment to ecosystem restoration, Western Union has several mitigation initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHD) emissions from our operations and business travel.
We love to work with people who are as passionate as we are about making the world a better place and value improving lives. Our Corporate Real Estate team leads our initiatives with support from local teams around the world. In addition, our Code of Conduct includes a commitment to responsible and respectful action to protect the environment.
Our headquarters in Denver, Colorado, has been awarded LEED Gold status by the U.S. Green Building Council, a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement. The regional operating center (ROC) in Santa Ana, Costa Rica, has received the Bandera Azul Ecológica (Blue Ecological Flag) award annually since 2016. It recognizes initiatives and volunteer work to conserve and protect Costa Rica’s natural resources, address climate change, and other related efforts. These prestigious awards reaffirm our constant commitment to improving our practices and processes for managing, measuring, and reducing our environmental impact on our facilities.
The Go Green empowerment team in Costa Rica has improved their recycling program by changing the trash containers inside the buildings for recycling stations to decrease garbage bags and ensure proper disposal of recyclable trash. More recently, they’ve supported initiatives to increase employees’ interest in sustainable homes, environmental education, household waste management, generating family conscience during our COVID-19 response efforts.
Western Union Foundation Lithuania inspires employees to donate time outside the office for environmental causes and support the local community. Giving back to the communities where we live and work is an essential part of our culture, so we offer all our employees paid time off to volunteer for causes they care about and show how much we value their contribution to their communities.
The Western Union Foundation also provides funding to communities impacted by weather-related crises through disaster relief and other humanitarian efforts, with a unique model that allows the Foundation to quickly mobilize support for non-profit organizations on the ground when disasters occur.
Western Union’s move to reduce our footprint also includes our data centers. In 2019, we announced a plan to move a significant portion of our infrastructure to the cloud, migrating from our own physical data centers.
We continually seek opportunities to positively impact the environment through our employees, products, services, and business innovation. If you want to join a company that believes in acting for better, check out our open opportunities worldwide at careers.westernunion.com. Together we can be #GenerationRestoration. #YOUandWU
