Planting trees and growing community

ServiceNow and One Tree Planted have an important thing in common: We're both committed to making the world work better. When we at ServiceNow decided to honor Earth Day every day in 2022, partnering with One Tree Planted, an organization focused on global reforestation, made perfect sense.

Together, we coordinated 12 tree-planting and plant restoration projects around the world. We then encouraged employees to get into their communities and get their hands dirty.

Already, ServiceNow employees have planted a whopping 1,921 trees this year. For every new hire in 2022, we'll plant an additional tree-thousands of trees, countless memories. Our grant to One Tree Planted will ensure another 340,000 are planted this year to support large-scale reforestation projects in Canada, Costa Rica, India, Ireland, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Finding common ground

Jane P., director of strategic events at ServiceNow, found the plant restoration experience humbling. "Even senior VPs were out there on their hands and knees in the dirt-everyone on the same level achieving something as a team," she says. "You can do all these swanky team-building activities, but this actually means something. And we got to meet colleagues we've never met."

Jane's team spruced up plants and trees-pruning, watering, etc.-at a popular park in the UK.

Team members in Sydney had a similar experience. After a week delay due to torrential storms and flooding, nine employees went out and planted 180 trees.

"It was really amazing, especially after the last two years, seeing new faces and meeting new colleagues," says Chelsea O., a senior people partner. "That was a big thing for the volunteers, just having that connection again, but also feeling satisfied with that sense of achievement in helping the community. People came up to us during the day to thank us, which was really nice. Some older people told us they've watched the park flourish because of volunteer work like this."

Making a difference

Krista F., senior staff product inbound manager, got involved in the project because of her role in ServiceNow's global impact council in San Diego. Krista helped organize a group of 20 employees from the San Diego office to plant a few hundred shrubs, plants, and trees for a large community garden.

"I appreciate that I work for a company that's willing to put time and money into this sort of activity to give back," she says. "Whether it's sustainability, other social impact efforts, or diversity and inclusion, it's putting your money where your mouth is and showing your values."

Krista found great fulfillment in the event. "It means a lot that I had the opportunity to get involved even as an employee, that I could carve out time in my workday, and that the company did a matching donation to multiply my impact," she says.

Thousands of miles away in India, Gurupada D., manager of engineering, and Aravind R., a staff software developer, helped their team plant 200 trees on land once occupied by railroad tracks.

"One Tree Planted taught us a Japanese growing technique called 'Miyawaki' so that we could plant certain compatible trees next to each other and create a mini forest," Gurupada says. "I'd like to take my wife and kids back there to show them the progress and get them involved, too."

Aravind agrees. "It shouldn't be a one-day thing. Activities like this should be ongoing, so I'm forming a team to keep it up." he says.

Taking care of nature

No matter their location or environment, ServiceNow employees praised the expertise and professionalism of the One Tree Planted partners.

"A lot of us learned so many fun facts about planting in general," Krista says. "I learned that California poppies should be planted in a cluster. They showed us how to properly transfer something out of a growing pot into the ground without hurting the plant. And they showed us the local willowy plant I'd never seen before, native to San Diego. I can transfer this into my own plant knowledge and gardening."

Jane encourages everyone to "get out there and take care of lovely nature. Get involved. It's really important, and there are so many benefits: physical health, mental health, building relationships. All of that is super good."

We agree. The world will be a better place for generations to come if we all listen to Jane and do our part.

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