Following are descriptions of the winners
of the YPO Social Enterprise Networks
Corporate Social Responsibility Awards,
announced in March 2009

• Aramex International (Jordan)
Aramex is a publicly traded logistics and transportation company with 7,800 employees. Its success as a bottom-line corporation is undeniable, but the most remarkable things about the company are what it does beyond the profit targets. It has set an environmental goal of becoming the world’s first carbon neutral logistics provider. Already, Aramex has incorporated hybrid vehicles into its fleet, switched to electric forklifts, converted some of its fleet to non-petrol fuel, and switched all other fleet vehicles from leaded gas to unleaded. Aramex has converted all its express shipping pouches from plastic to biodegradable materials, introduced reusable bags for inter-office transport, began using paper made from recycled materials, and cut corporate paper usage through technology and recycling projects.

• Benchmark Assisted Living (U.S.A.)
Benchmark Assisted Living develops, owns and manages senior living communities in the United States. As part of its commitment to employees, the company established The Benchmark One Company Fund, a separate, non-profit organization for employees’ urgent financial needs. Employees can turn to this fund when they have an “unexpected, uncontrollable, extreme emergency” that puts them in perilous economic straits.

• Brandix Lanka Limited (Sri Lanka)
Brandix is a manufacturer of textiles and apparel, working with such well-known brands as Gap, Marks & Spencer, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor, and Tommy Hilfiger to provide “total solutions.” Under CEO Feroz Omar’s leadership, Brandix has the world’s first Platinum-rated Green Factory under LEED certifications and the U.S. Green Building Council. More than US$25 million is slated over the next four years to convert all of the company’s factories to Green manufacturing, reducing its carbon footprint by 65 percent. At the current Green-certified factory, Brandix’s 130,000-square foot facility reduced carbon emissions by 80 percent, achieved energy savings of 46 percent, reduced water consumption by 58 percent, and sends no – that’s zero – solid waste to landfills.

• Canadian Mountain Holidays, Inc. (Canada)
Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) is world's largest heli-skiing and heli-hiking company, hosting more than 10,000 guests each year. The potential for environmental impact is high, but CMH mitigates this through innovation. It educates guests and website visitors on multiple aspects of environmental sensitivity. CMH also has created a computer-based wildlife monitoring program that carefully tracks mountain caribou, mountain goats, wolverines, and other animals so that helicopter pilots do not
displace these fauna from their homes. CMH also has reduced its consumption of resources and managed its waste. For example, it minimizes overall use of fuel, reduces its environmental footprint by using progressive waste and food management systems, and works with suppliers to minimize packaging waste.

• Diageo (Asia-Pacific)
As one of the world’s largest premium alcoholic drinks businesses, Diageo supports efforts to encourage and enforce responsible, safe drinking. In 2008 alone, the company had 110 responsible drinking initiatives in 45 countries. It is known for efforts in three areas: combating alcohol misuse, including underage drinking and drunk driving; raising consumer awareness about the decision to drink alcohol or abstain; and responsible marketing and product innovation. Some of the actions that the company has taken include public education to increase awareness of drunk driving, server training to teach servers how to responsibly wait upon their customers, and strict standards for advertising and marketing — now known as the Diageo Marketing Code.

• GDF SUEZ Energy Brasil/ Tractebel Energia (Brazil)
GDF Suez Energy Brasil is the owner and manager of Tractebel Energia, the largest private energy producer in Brazil. Tractebel Energia conscientiously minimizes its hydroelectric plants’ impact on the environment, going above and beyond government requirements and even earning ISO Certifications for all its power plants. It created Lages Bioenergetica in 2003 to generate steam by burning the residual wood from a nearby furniture factory. The facility also reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 220,000 carbon dioxide-equivalent tons per year under normal operating conditions.

• Goodwill Industries International, Inc. (U.S.A.)
In the U.S., Goodwill Industries International is made up of 160 community-based organizations dedicated to providing education, training, and employment services and job placement for people with disabilities or disadvantages, including people who are welfare dependent, homeless or lack education or work experience. Every year, local Goodwills partner with commercial businesses, government agencies and other non-profits to provide meaningful business solutions and employment to people who need it most. Through innovative community enterprise opportunities, Goodwill’s collective goal is to improve the quality of life and economic self-sufficiency of 20 million people and their families by 2020.

• Ron Santa Teresa (Venezuela)
As CEO and president of Ron Santa Teresa, Alberto Vollmer has turned lemons into lemonade – or in his case, criminals into productive members of society. In 2003, one of the company’s security guards was attacked and mugged by three members of a local gang. Ron Santa Teresa gave the muggers a choice: prison time or three months of unpaid labor on the company’s grounds. The youths chose to work. This was the beginning of Proyecto Alcatraz – named for the infamous Californian jail but alluding to the fact that personal beliefs are self-limiting prisons. Proyecto Alcatraz takes entire gangs into its program of education, labor, service, self-analysis, and even rugby. To date, the program has disassembled five gangs and helped lower crime rates in Revenga County by 65 percent, with homicides falling from 67 in 2003 to less than 10 in 2008. Proyecto Alcatraz’s success has attracted attention from far and wide, including from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, the World Bank, General Motors, the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, and mass media.

• Saudi German Hospitals Group (Saudi Arabia)
Saudi German Hospitals Group CEO and President Eng. Sobhi Batterjee thinks on a grand scale. It all started when his family first brought medicine to Saudi Arabia in the 1940s. Forty-three years later, the family brought branded modern medicine to the country. In the late 1980s, the Batterjee family again stepped up medicine by forming a strategic relationship with key German medical universities and centers to bring the exacting German medical standards and knowledge to Saudi Arabia. This relationship continues to provide the latest innovations and high medical standards to doctors and staff in the Saudi German Hospitals (SGH) Group, which has resulted in serving more than 12 million patients and around 300,000 surgeries.

• TechTurn (U.S.A.)
TechTurn CEO Jeff Zeigler has figured out how to turn some one million used computers annually into millions in revenue by properly recycling, recovering, refurbishing and remarketing them to thousands of end-users world-wide. In addition to reaping a handsome monetary reward, TechTurn also gives people access to very affordable refurbished computers while protecting the environment from harmful chemicals that leach out of discarded electronics. The company offers recycling solutions for used computers, notebooks, displays, and enterprise systems.