Environmental Responsibility in Action: Reducing our Environmental Footprint

Sharon Baker, Supervisor: “Once you get in and start working for Aflac, you realize there's a culture here like nowhere else.”

Rob Holleman, Manager; Facilities, Maintenance & Construction: “We're always looking for ways to put that caring into action.”

Sharon Baker, Supervisor: “In addition to taking care of policyholders, we want to make sure our environment is in a good place.”

David Glover, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Consultant: “Aflac being a family-oriented company, this kind of stuff comes easy, because you always want to do the right thing.”

Rob Holleman, Manager of Facilities, Maintenance & Construction: “When I first got to Aflac, we had begun to do some simple things like recycling of our paper and cardboard. Over time, we began to increase that focus; increase our recycling efforts. Fast forward to today – we cut our energy usage on a square foot basis by 50%.”

Alfred Blackmar, Vice President of Facilities: “We understand the importance of having a carbon neutral policy. Increasing the amount of solar helps us get there.”

Rob Holleman, Manager; Facilities, Maintenance & Construction: “Our solar initiative culminated in 2017, when we installed our solar array on top of our customer service building, and that was truly a partnership between Aflac, Georgia Power and at the time, Hannah Solar.”

Alfred Blackmar, Vice President of Facilities: “We are focused on the future. What can we do to continue to reduce the amount of energy that we use in our facilities, to increase renewables?”

Alfred Blackmar, Vice President of Facilities: “Somewhere between 12% and 15% of our overall consumption of this building has come from the solar panels, and we're currently in negotiations for a much larger project out at our Corporate Ridge facility.”

Alfred Blackmar, Vice President of Facilities: “We’re looking to the future, and that's where Aflac wants to be. We want to be a leader today and a leader in the future on all things environment.”

Sharon Baker, Supervisor: “It goes well outside of Aflac. It’s our world. The main responsibility of the Green Committee is to bring attention to Aflac’s green activities, our intention of doing things to make our environment better, our recycling efforts that we have within our buildings. Then we have other events that continue to encourage them to bring in their waste. We also have a place where they could bring electronics; what we call our e-waste.”

David Glover, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Consultant: “E-cycle is our current supplier, and they’re e-Steward compliant. What that means is that when they destroy the devices, they do it in an environmentally safe and effective way. We get a percentage back of those funds, and then those funds go over to the Aflac Cancer Center so they can use them. It's been a good thing all around.”

Rob Holleman, Manager; Facilities, Maintenance & Construction: “Even today, we’re continuing to look at ways to reduce our energy further.”

David Glover, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Consultant: “At the end of the day, it's the right thing to do.”

Sharon Baker, Supervisor: “Overnight, you're not going to become this person that just wants to save the world, but as you become more and more educated – and that's really what the premise of the Green Ambassador program was is the education, because a lot of people don't do things because they don't know.”

David Glover, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Consultant: “It's been a great opportunity to help Aflac, you know, reduce their environmental footprint, their carbon footprint. So, if we can make those small incremental changes at Aflac, then those things eventually lead to big changes. And, you know, for Aflac to be out front, so that way other companies can say, ‘Well, you know, hey, if Aflac is doing that, then we can do the same thing, too.’ ”

Rob Holleman, Manager; Facilities, Maintenance & Construction: “On a personal basis, I'm a grandfather. I'm vested in the future of this community, and I've got an 11-year-old grandson and 18-year-old granddaughter. And it gives me pleasure to know that we're playing a small part in making the future better for them than we've enjoyed over the last 30 years here.”