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As someone who works in the data center industry, I never imagined that planting trees and maintaining orchards could be a part of my job description.
But this Earth Day, my company launched cooperation with a nonprofit organization to restore wildfire-damaged areas near our campuses. We are also working with a foundation to plant orchards in many of our U.S. markets with the goal of providing fruit to local food banks.
Is all this fun? Sure. But it also makes business sense.
In my industry, being a good neighbor isn’t an aspirational, check-off task. It’s a necessity—not only to gain access to the communities where we do business, but also to ensure we retain local employees and protect our investment. This is key for data center providers, who typically build facilities that can last 30 to 40 years.
This physical presence and long-term horizon make our sector somewhat unique. But irrespective of what your organization does, the advantages of building strong relationships with local stakeholders add up, often far outweighing the costs. In fact, corporations practicing Corporate Social Responsibility can increase their market value by up to 6% and revenues by up to 20%.
Here’s why being a good neighbor is necessary and how it will probably contribute to your business’s long-term success.
What makes someone a good neighbor?
Think about the type of neighbors you desire to to have right round the corner. They maintain their property, are caring, and community-minded. When it comes to being a corporate neighbor, the same rules apply.
Over the past decade, my company has arrange shop in nearly 20 communities. Not only do we offer good, well-paying jobs by using local labor at any time when possible, we also strive to provide respect.
One way is to make sure that the campuses we build enrich the community, not destroy it. Many of them are built on long-abandoned brownfield sites, which we repair and restore to life in line with our commitment to Sustainable DevelopmentDesigned to operate quietly and cleanly, our campuses are attractive buildings that attract attention.
Not building a latest facility? Factors like noise and aesthetics still affect your neighbors, whether you’re renovating a latest office or moving into a shared space.
Listen – and deliver value where it matters
One of the most impactful ways to build positive relationships? Listen. Instead of pretending you have all the answers, get on the market and ask your community what matters to them. Companies like ours will assign stakeholder engagement teams to discover what is most helpful.
Here, continuity is key. In our experience, people don’t ask for the moon. For example, if a community tells us it lacks green space, we are able to adjust our landscaping to also function as a park.
Find local organizations you may partner with
Another way to be a good neighbor: Find partners in the nonprofit sector who share your corporate values. Research shows that customers and employees want community involvement. Almost nine out of ten Americans we consider that corporations should address social and environmental issues, the same variety of employees we consider that corporations that sponsor volunteer activities provide a higher working environment.
Encouraging team members to support initiatives of their selecting will be a powerful motivator. Take software giant Atlassian, for example, which provides its employees five days of paid vacation each yr to volunteer for causes that matter to them. Or Nike, which runs a global Community Impact Fund which allows local groups to apply for grants, and volunteers are responsible for verifying the applications.
At each of our data centers, we try to give back on a quarterly basis, whether it’s planning gardens to increase Virginia’s bee population, or partnering with a school in an underserved Phoenix neighborhood to sponsor a teacher day or raise donations for families in need.
While it might appear to be large organizations have more capital and resources to do their part, smaller corporations also can have a big impact.About three quarters of them say they provide their employees the opportunity to engage in volunteering or community service.
Don’t Overlook Educational Partnerships
Finally, educational partnerships can have a huge impact, creating a critical source of employment for organizations struggling with talent shortages while also broadening the horizons of local students.
We recently saw the impact of this phenomenon first-hand when we worked with staff at a highschool in one of our markets to support their vocational program and then partnered with foundation for a presentation on careers in the data center industry and beyond.
Return on Investment (ROI) for Being a Good Neighbor
When you show your community that you just are serious about working with them to meet their needs, great things occur.
First, it is easier to hire and retain employees. Most people I need to work in the company that cares about the community. When employees are proud to be a a part of the business—and when other community members praise its efforts—they have a tendency to stick around. Six out of 10 Employees say their employer’s mission is one of the essential reasons they stay with their company, and employees are 12 times more likely to recommend mission-driven corporations to others.
The result is a vicious cycle. Satisfied employees and higher retention mean higher outcomes for customers, which increases shareholder returns and increases the tax base for the host jurisdiction. In our case, it also opens the door to further expansion and innovation in this market.
There will also be a ripple effect for corporations with an anchor presence. Think of Starbucks or Whole Foods coming to town. We’ve found that when a campus revitalizes the surrounding region, it attracts local corporations that want to be close by. More local jobs and tax revenues follow.
In fact, the economic spillover effect of our sector is enormous. For every direct job in the U.S., data centers support greater than six other peopleMuch of this work is happening in places like Virginia, where the total employment impact of information centers grew 32% between 2017 and 2021, to about 86,000 jobs.
The halo effect on customers is one other profit. Many of our customers are socially conscious and want to know that we are doing our part to do good in the community. They are not alone: Nearly eight out of ten consumers prefer to buy from corporations whose goal is to make the world a higher place.
At first glance, it might appear to be being a good neighbor has no direct impact on a company’s balance sheet. However, failing to respect and listen to the area people will cost the company time, money, employees, or customers, compared to driving value by investing in the things that underpin long-term success.
Ultimately, everyone wants to feel good about themselves in their workplace. But what is the real reward for being a good neighbor? Building a business that can last as long as the trees we plant.