CGI is one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms on the planet. It has been going strong since 1976, including establishing a strong presence in Australia, and currently employs around 78,000 people. One of CGI’s strengths is in thinking globally while acting locally. Just as CGI brings its collective international expertise to provide quality service to individual clients in Australia, so it looks for ways to offset its environmental impact that make a real-life difference.

 

CGI has partnered with Fifteen Trees this year to plant 500 trees as part of the Westgate biodiversity project. The plan was to let the employees get down and dirty with the seedlings, part of CGI’s culture of encouraging sustainable thinking across its operations. Unfortunately, for covid reasons, this wasn’t possible in the end. Instead, Westgate Park volunteers made sure the trees were bedded down securely over the winter and just last week got out to plant the trees.

 

CGI also covered the cost of tree guards for all its trees, which was a huge help. Establishing young trees takes more than leaning on a shovel and crossing your fingers. To weather their first summer, seedlings usually need tree guards. The staked plastic sleeves provide protection from grazing wildlife, harsh winds, and more. The microclimate created by the plastic gives the seedling the best possible opportunity to establish a strong tap root, which exponentially increases their chances of long-term survival.

In 2020, for the third consecutive year, CGI was awarded an EcoVadis Gold rating for corporate social responsibility, including for leadership in environmental stewardship. The planet desperately needs global companies to step up when it comes to the environment. We’re proud to partner with CGI, and we’re confident their trees will prosper just as long as it has.