Success from Sustainability: Purpose Challenges for Earth Day 2022

As the world faces numerous geopolitical issues, there is no challenge more dire than climate change. We’ve all witnessed the devastating and life-threatening effects of floods, hurricanes, wildfires, unexpected freezes, and many others — with disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities, such as indigenous populations. There is no better time than now for individuals, businesses, and communities to come together in collective climate action.

With Success from Sustainability as one of our core company values and our key pillar in our Environmental, Social, Governance strategy, we consider environmental impact just as we do our software — as an aspect of business in which we must strive for continuous improvement. That is why we want to celebrate today through action, from day-to-day habits we can all take to reduce our own personal environmental impact to spotlighting environmental justice nonprofits who we’ve had the honor of supporting.

Earth Day Purpose Challenges

One way we’ve celebrated Earth Day this week is by utilizing Alaya, our powerful employee impact platform, where Medallians globally have joined our “purpose challenges.” These challenges encourage everyone to take small habit-building acts so we can collectively increase our sustainability.

Here are the five purpose challenges Medallians are taking part in — we hope you join us.

1. Calculate your environmental footprint.

Have you ever wondered about the ecological impact of your daily habits? Find out with the Ecological Footprint Calculator developed by the Global Footprint Network.

Did you know? Humanity consumes the equivalent of 1.75 planets, which implies that the Earth needs one year and 8 months to regenerate what has been used in one year by humankind.

2. Learn about the environment.

There are so many incredible documentaries, podcasts, books, and more that showcase how we can all take action to support the fight against climate change.

Did you know? One of the best ways to create awareness is education. Here are some resources to help you with this challenge.

3. Unplug your devices when not in use.

Devices suck up energy just by being plugged in. Turn off and unplug your electronic devices like mobile phone chargers, coffee machines, or water boilers when not in use. Tip: Make it easier to turn off devices by using a single power strip.

Did you know? UK households spend between 9%-16% of their annual electricity bills on standby energy. In the United States, vampire energy consumption contributes to nearly 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution annually.

4. Delete 200 emails over two weeks for an “inbox detox.”

Declutter your inbox to calm your mind and save CO2. Just one email corresponds to 10g of CO2, which is the same consumption as a dimly lit light bulb for 20 minutes.

Did you know? If every email user in the UK sent 1 less unnecessary email each day, it would reduce CO2 emissions by 16.433 tons each day — which is the same as 81.152 flights between London and Madrid.

5. Raid your fridge and do not throw any food away for a month.

Reduce your food waste with a fun weekly exercise: raid your fridge on a Friday and challenge yourself to cook up a meal with only what is left in the fridge.

Did you know? Just one quarter of all wasted food could feed the 795 million undernourished people around the world who suffer from hunger.

Environmental Justice Community Service

In addition to Earth Day, we also want to recognize Community Service Month and spotlight the environmental justice nonprofits we’ve had the pleasure of supporting. One of these organizations is Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), dedicated to ensuring every person has the right to a clean and healthy environment in which their communities can live, work, learn, play and thrive.

Their work focuses on Asian immigrant and refugee communities, and members of our Asian Pacific Islander ERG volunteered their time and wisdom to design APEN’s 2021 Annual Impact Report. This partnership began during Global Week of Giving and continued through the passion and dedication of An Nguyen, Tom Nguyen, Erin Luan, and Jonathan Yen.

“For grassroots nonprofit organizations like APEN, being able to share our work in a visually appealing and accessible format makes it possible for us to grow our donor base and motivate more people to support our mission.

This is why having support from Medallia volunteers in creating our 2021 Annual Report this year was so crucial. We’ve already seen a sizable uptick in donations since the report’s release, and have had excellent feedback from our donors and partner organizations. Working with An, Tom, Erin, and Jonathan was an easy and collaborative process, and we couldn’t be happier with the result.” – Clio Soiffer (they, them), digital manager at APEN

We hope you can support your favorite environmental justice organizations like APEN today by donating, volunteering, or amplifying their voices.

To successfully deliver against our purpose as a business that can — and should — be a force for good, we are grateful that Medallians globally are dedicated to leaving the world better than we found it by participating in day-to-day actions to minimize the impact of our activities on the environment, while empowering others to do the same. We hope you can join us, and we wish everyone an impactful Earth Day.

Medallia is growing and dedicated to “hiring the whole person.” Head over to our careers page and apply today!