Innovation

Davey Tree’s Fleet 2020 program, which is the main innovation of discussion, stems from the organization's mission of conservation and care. According to Davey Tree’s website, goals are established and tracked in order to reduce costs and the amount of fuel in the air when completing its services across North America (“Energy & Emissions,” 2018). With this program, there is a focus on emissions and safety through tracking the usage of vehicles and fuel specifically. According to Ina, fuels are a main concern of this initiative: “...Fleet 2020 is all about experimenting with alternative fuels and it’s all about experimenting with GPS and telematics, it’s all about optimizing routes and it’s also about introducing innovative design issues, as well as process efficiencies.” Ina used the weight of a truck as an example to explain how this works. He mentions not utilizing two engines in a truck, but finding “lightweight” alternatives that would essentially take away an engine, with one engine powering the drive and the Power Take Off (PTO). Not only do these small yet simple innovations within the Fleet 2020 save the organization money in the long-term, but allows for healthier air quality in the areas in which work is done through reducing pollution and enabling fewer restrictions when it comes to commercial licenses of drivers/trucks. Driving behavior is involved in this as well to reduce the most emissions as possible, all while still being able to provide the company’s services (“Energy & Emissions,” 2018). Ina says, “...our goal is to reduce consumption by 35% by labor hour by 2023.”

During the origination and implementation of this innovation, stakeholders served a significant purpose. This is something that thoroughly aligns with their missions and keeps current stakeholders and potential future stakeholders engaged in their practices. Ina says this and the desire to be efficient led to “...the process of materiality and the process around identifying what’s most meaningful to our business and to our stakeholders,” which included gearing corporate responsibility initiatives around their delivery, truck use, and anything associated with this.

This innovation aids in SDG seven of Affordable and Clean Energy, as less resources are being used in order to benefit the business and the environment. This also applies to Goal twelve of Responsible Production and Consumption, as reducing the use of fuel is allowing for higher quality air, benefiting the communities the company works in. Goal eight (Decent Work and Economic Growth) is also considered, as this, along with other aspects helps to engage employees and stakeholders in sustainable practices. Along with this, Goal nine (Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure) is involved, as the company is utilizing technology such as GPS and telematics to reach their goals, along with providing the information to the public on their website about this effort and others. This allows many people to be aware of their practices, which can increase overall appreciation and use of their services (United Nations, n.d.).

Inspiration

Since the start, Davey Tree has been a company that has maintained sustainability and environmental well-being within its core. During our interview, Ina expertly describes how the company’s values have been engrained since the very beginning, that is environmental stewardship and natural resource conservation. In initiating their Fleet 2020 program, Davey Tree is staying true to these core values. The Fleet 2020 program was an initiative that got its start from its roots; the company’s mission statement, core values, and shared employee attitudes. Ina describes the company’s humble beginnings: “[Davey Tree] our founder was a scientist, a guy that was not a business person, but he was committed to a really strong workforce and a science based approach to tree care. It wasn’t until his son took over the business that Davey really took off and we started on the trajectory we maintained but… natural resource conservation, environmental stewardship, it’s in our DNA”.

Being an employee-owned company, Davey Tree is a business that truly draws inspiration from its employees, which allows for complete employee commitment and engagement. Ina continues, “We’re making positive change and we’re engaging with employees… It’s in our corporate ethos”. Ina mentions the start of a “green team” which truly led this innovation taking an effect. “We brought in people from finance, we brought in people from operations, people from safety, people from facilities…we brought in people with all different perspectives and areas of expertise within the company and started to address these intersection points and what’s most meaningful.” It is very apparent that stakeholders along with the mission has been a very significant reason behind the uprising of this innovation.

Overall impact

The implementation of this program has been extremely beneficial to the company and communities in which services are performed. When Davey Tree conducted their materiality assessment, they unveiled that meaningful strategies for corporate social responsibility can be implemented beyond just facility based improvements. As stated by Ina, “What we found is that we’re much better off as an organization focusing on our fleet because we have over 8,000 units throughout North America and we have maybe 100 company-owned facilities, so the point of differentiation was we can do all these things to impact our facilities or we can impact one of the biggest assets on the books, our biggest item of depreciation, our biggest capital expenditure.”

It is because of this that Davey Tree has managed to experiment with fuels, GPS and telematics, routes, and design details in order to truly make positive effects within the company’s operations and cities in which the business works in. Due to tactics implemented with the Fleet 2020 program, Davey Tree is reducing their impact to the environment through truck usage. “I would say between the idling studies and policy, telematics, and innovation around product design and truck design, those are three great examples of how we’re impacting our fleet in a positive way, and again these are all solutions that are impacting our cost of fuel, impacting our emissions and also impacting engagement. So those are when these projects really work,” said Ina.

Business benefit

Davey Tree started out as a small family owned business, just the “tree doctor” and his son (“The Davey Tree Legacy: Since 1880,” 2018). As John Davey’s business continued to grow he made sure his values stayed at the core of his now billion dollar company, as the mission at Davey Tree is to “deliver unmatched excellence in client experience, employee strength, safety and financial sustainability as we advance the green industry” (“About Davey Tree,” 2018, p.1). Through ensuring employee involvement within these strategies, Davey Tree is aligning their business goals with favorable change and are able to spread knowledge in order to gain and retain the best employees. Ina said “...we asked employees and external shareholders what was most important and things we found to be most important...when you talk about emissions and safety and innovation this all manifests in our Fleet 2020 and our focus to reduce water consumption and our other goals.” Davey Tree is a company that embraces their shareholders values. When asked if Davey ultimately does this to drive its bottom-line, Ina responded “No we didn’t commit to corporate responsibility to make money so it’s not directly driven by the bottom line but it is driven by that intersection.”

Although money is not the motivator, Davey Tree benefits from the small changes they make every day; they are attracting the right employees and shareholders whose personal values align with the morals of Davey Tree. The direct impacts that have been noticed at the executive level are cost and fuel savings, safety and vehicle recovery. Overall the main benefits Davey Tree has seen is staying true to John’s core morals and drawing in employees that are reliable and serious about creating change. The savings are just an added bonus.

Social and environmental benefit

As mentioned, this is not only something that allows for less cost, but allows the company to “...significantly reduce our emissions” according to Ina. Due to this, healthier air quality is being provided within any area that Davey Tree operates and serves in. This can potentially not only inspire employees, but potential consumers and surrounding communities. By promoting this and utilizing features that aid in this effort, consumers may be more likely to use the company’s services and increase their knowledge about fuel usage, to feel as if they are a making a difference in their community. By efficiently cutting down fuel use and carbon emissions, this company is still able to provide the services needed involving the beneficial use of trees, without causing as much harm to local environments.

Overall, through sticking to the company’s original mission and values, Davey Tree is able to help put less emissions and pollution in the air, allowing for healthier air by reducing the exposure of fuel used. This program and other sustainable initiatives overall help to create lasting beneficial effects to not only the business through stakeholder and employee motivation, but allows the company to carry out its tree services in an efficient way that lessens the harm to surrounding environments and biodiversity.

References

About Davey Tree. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.davey.com/about/

Energy & Emissions. (2018). Retrieved from https://responsibility.davey.com/sustainable-environment/energy-emissions/

Our Approach. (2018). Retrieved from https://responsibility.davey.com/our-approach/

The Davey Tree Expert Company. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.davey.com/

The Davey Tree Legacy: Since 1880. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.davey.com/about/the-davey-tree-legacy/

United Nations. (n.d.). About the Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

Interview

Gregory Ina, Executive Vice President