Green IMPACT Week: Supporting a More Sustainable Future

Environmental impact and sustainability have always been at the core of DocuSign’s mission. Since our founding, we’ve sought to build technology that simplifies paper-based processes while reducing the overall environmental footprint of doing business.

That’s why we started the DocuSign for Forests initiative in 2019, including support for nonprofit organizations protecting the world’s forests and an environmental impact calculator in our core eSignature product. To date, our customers have saved over 38 billion sheets of paper, 4 billion gallons of water and over 225 million pounds of waste by using DocuSign eSignature.

This past week, we celebrated our third annual Green IMPACT Week, an opportunity for the DocuSign community to take action in their communities to create a more sustainable future, beginning with the UN’s International Day of Forests (March 21). The week featured employee-led activities, lunch-and-learns with DocuSign’s nonprofit partners and volunteer opportunities to showcase the important work of organizations fighting for the world’s forests.

Around the world, over 300 DocuSign employees came together to volunteer in 25 activities throughout the week. Here’s a look at just a few of them:

Learning how to drive climate advocacy with Greenbelt Alliance (Virtual)

As wildfires intensify, temperatures rise, and flood risk increases, communities throughout the world are facing the overlapping impacts of a changing climate. Climate change is a complex, global problem that requires bold action from government leaders. However, we as community members have the power to impact decisions at the local level—affecting everything from building resilience to disasters, greenhouse gas reduction and environmental justice.

We all have the opportunity to influence climate action where we live through land-use planning by getting involved in city and county general plan updates, climate action plans, and master planning for development.

During a Green IMPACT Week virtual workshop with Greenbelt Alliance, a group of SF Bay Area advocacy and community engagement experts, DocuSign employees learned how to influence policy and how to ensure cities and counties adopt equitable and environmentally-responsible plans. After the interactive 45-minute session led by environmental policy experts, employees left with an advocacy toolkit full of best practices, talking points and sample statements to help in their advocacy efforts.

"I was not aware that each city has a climate action plan and city council meetings are one way to learn and influence climate policy, “ said CD Venkatesh, Sr. Director, Corporate Data Solutions. “After learning so much about how I can make a difference for climate at a city level, I am committed to join next month's city council meeting."

Restoring gardening and farming facilities at Slide Ranch (Marin County, California)

Slide Ranch is a non-profit teaching farm located at a historic coastal dairy perched above the ocean (photo above) in the Marin Headlands. Organic gardens, goats, sheep, chickens and ducks, along with numerous coastal trails, tide pools and pocket beaches, provide an ideal outdoor venue for teaching about healthy foods, healthy living and environmental awareness.

Annually, over 10,000 Bay Area youth and families participate in Slide Ranch programs. This week, DocuSign employees volunteered at Slide Ranch by gardening (weeding, pruning, composting, maintaining trails and beach access) and restoring farm facilities.

Setting up treatment gardens in Geha Mental Health Center (Petah Tivka, Israel)

Located in Petach Tikvah, Israel, the Geha Mental Health Center is one of the country's leading centers for treatment, research and teaching in mental health. Their staff of 300 — including 50 psychiatrists, 35 psychologists, 100 nurses and 20 physical and occupational therapists — treats a wide range of mental health patients.

DocuSign employees in Israel volunteered at Geha and were tasked with helping to set up brand new “treatment gardens” at the hospital, including plowing land, building flower beds and planters, creating pathways through the new gardens, and planting trees, herbs and flowers.

Planting trees with Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife (Sydney, Australia)

After two successful volunteer opportunities with the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife last year, employees in Sydney, Australia supported the organization’s bushfire regeneration project. This project plans to plant one million trees in bushfire affected areas to restore natural habitats.

Employees got their hands dirty, helping the team seed native plants, of which there are shortages, ready for the tree planting season in Autumn. These seeds, seedlings and small plants will be planted in the target areas and looked after for years to come.

We can all make an IMPACT

In addition to the activities highlighted above, employees in San Francisco, Austin, Tokyo and Melbourne came together for community clean-ups, while our Singapore team learned about the importance of reducing plastic usage and distributed reusable DocuSign tote bags to use while shopping locally. 

Other employees in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Paris and Sao Paulo volunteered at habitat restoration, wildlife protection, gardening, and planting events with local nonprofit partners including Forterra, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, Save Mount Diablo, Garden for the Environment, Presidio Trust, GrowNYC, Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, Faune Alfort, BENAA Foundation, and VeNatata. Our Mexico City team convened virtually for a presentation from Reforestamos Mexico, while the team in Toronto volunteered online via the Zooniverse platform as citizen scientists in support of a project protecting giraffes in rural Kenya, and US-based team members joined a virtual vegan cooking class. 

Lastly, we wanted to take some time this Green IMPACT Week to share advice on how anyone can make a difference for the environment in their daily lives. Here are 10 tips from the UN Action Guide:

• Save energy at home
• Walk, bike or take public transportation
• Eat more vegetables
• Consider the environmental impact of your travel
• Throw away less food
• Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle
• Change your home’s source of energy
• Switch to an electric or hybrid vehicle
• Choose eco-friendly products
• Speak up - have conversations about waste and your environmental impact

Learn more about DocuSign IMPACT.