Cargill employees worldwide celebrate “Earth Day Every Day”

Every year, Cargill employees, their families and members of their communities come together to participate in the company’s largest environment-focused volunteer program. To encourage a sustainability mindset year-round, Cargill employees are encouraged to practice “Earth Day Every Day.”

From Earth Day in April to World Environment Day in June, more than 8,316 employees in 39 countries logged over 11,000 volunteer hours. Here are just a few examples:

• Bangalore, India: 1,000 employees made over 27,000 paper bags out of old newspapers in a record time of 40 minutes in an attempt to enter the Limca Book of Records. In partnership with United Way of Bengaluru, the paper bags will be distributed to street vendors throughout the city in an effort to combat the rise of plastic use in the country. 
• France: Volunteers from our Saint Nazaire, Nantes, Trégueux and Yffiniac sites participated in beach clean ups. In Saint Nazaire alone, the team collected more than 40 pounds of waste along the beach.
• Johannesburg, South Africa: Cargill expanded its partnership with Africa Food for Thought by supporting the installation of growpods. Growpods are off-grid farming systems being installed in childhood development centers in low-income communities to help provide them with a sustainable source of fresh produce.
• Campinas, Brazil: Employee volunteers planted beds of vegetable seedlings and spices with children from a local school to educate them on the food chain, the environment, and healthy eating.

At Cargill headquarters in Minnesota, volunteers planted wildflowers and helped remove invasive plant species from the Big Woods Preserve public park. Cargill partnered with the city of Wayzata, community members and the Wayzata High School football team for the project. Watch the video below to learn more about the effort.