SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT
Innovate has adopted a “Huge Heart, Tiny Footprint” mindset, enabling us to make responsible choices that ensure the long-term health of our employees, our business, and our planet.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) REPORT
Innovate! (Innovate) is dedicated to a sustainable future and partnering with organizations that promote environmental improvement. We prioritize our clients' success by delivering innovative solutions that address management, technology, and program challenges, all while keeping costs low, to allow clients to reallocate valuable resources towards protecting human health and the environment.
We develop partnerships, not projects.
As a green company, Innovate is deeply committed to sustainability; we believe in stewardship for the environment and invest in sustainable initiatives that will positively impact our planet and our future. From our telecommuting model to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to our Green IT practices, we strive to be a leader in sustainability. We are dedicated to preserving our planet and working toward a sustainable future.
Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy guides our work, focusing on four key areas:
GREEN IT
Our IT operations consume energy due to the use of computers, data centers, and servers, which can contribute to environmental impact. However, by leveraging virtualization technology, a single physical server can be divided into multiple virtual servers, allowing us to conserve resources. This approach not only reduces energy usage and lowers our carbon footprint, but also optimizes the space and cooling systems required to maintain the servers. At Innovate, we operate just three servers to efficiently support our entire nationally dispersed team, maximizing resource efficiency and sustainability.
Our commitment to "Green IT" practices is demonstrated through a range of environmentally conscious initiatives.
We have implemented energy-efficient solutions, with 80% of company-issued laptops featuring "green" power management options, reducing energy consumption by 30%.
We ensure 100% of vendors responding to requests for proposals are evaluated based on their sustainability practices, promoting responsible sourcing.
Our virtualization efforts, including server consolidation and the decommissioning of outdated hardware, further reduce our environmental impact by improving our server-to-hardware ratio and introducing energy-efficient models.
We prioritize lifecycle planning and product stewardship by evaluating the recyclability of materials when purchasing new hardware and partnering with
manufacturers that offer take-back or recycling programs. Our IT hardware recycling policy emphasizes extending equipment life through reuse and refurbishment while ensuring secure data destruction throughout the process.
We follow the principles of ISO 9001, ISO 20000, and ISO 27001 Environmental Management Systems standards, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
ENVIRONMENTAL PARTNERSHIPS
We are committed to championing environmental projects and actively pursue opportunities where we can make a meaningful impact. With over two decades of experience, we bring a global, analytical approach to addressing large-scale environmental challenges while continuously working to minimize our own ecological footprint. We not only integrate sustainable practices within our operations but also seek to inspire and positively influence our clients and stakeholders, driving collective action towards environmental protection and sustainability.
Innovate supports the EPA’s Region 9 (R9) Superfund efforts to assess, remediate, and provide long-term care to contaminated sites to protect public health and the environment, including emergency response efforts for hazardous substances.
We created a print map and a dynamic web app of community water systems that had continuous Clean Water Act violations across California, Nevada, and Arizona for a variety of hazardous chemicals, including arsenic, nitrates, and radionuclides. The maps are used to brief Water Division senior managers and EPA Administrator Michael Regan, facilitating the Water Division proposed actions for moving forward on mitigation.
Innovate created the AirNow Air Quality Index (AQI), which is an air quality monitoring and reporting hub that pulls EPA data for a public-facing, visualized website. The AQI is an interactive map that provides real-time information about air quality across Region 9 and shows levels of major pollutants such as ground-level ozone, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide as well as health advisories/alerts based on the overall air quality.
We developed Mobile GIS support including emergency response events (on-site assessments and coordination), field data collection (mapping, sampling, and data entry), and site visits (reference maps and layers). We also provide post-processing support for GPS-collected field data, as needed.
Innovate supports emergency response efforts to local, regional, and national events.
Innovate manages DOI’s Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (IRWIN), a large-scale, interagency data exchange that provides a comprehensive picture of national wildfire efforts 24/7/365. We connected systems across agencies, providing real-time GIS, vital to situational awareness, fire danger modeling, incident mapping, initial satellite thermal detection, and decision support to first responders in the wildfire community.
We developed the Account Request Tool to streamline emergency response (ER) account creation for various scenarios. Users submit a web form, and Admins manage accounts via a dashboard. Once approved, users are automatically added to ArcGIS Online groups, granting access to essential ER applications. Currently EPA's primary account provisioning tool, it has been deployed in 66+ projects with over 3,500 accounts. Its dashboard interface allows for rapid deployment while preventing Admin email overload and access control delays. It also enables field data collection via mobile devices with seamless transfer to a central repository. The offboarding of users/groups is just as easy and provides a consistent, trackable process.
Innovate created the Water Emergency Team (WET) Tool for field use by emergency teams (water, wastewater, and others). This heavily utilized tool uses Safe Drinking Water Information System Federal Reporting Services (SDWIS) data and allows Admins to build out repeatable Survey123 questions on the fly for phases of the response. We configure Esri’s mobile GIS applications for use online and offline, depending on the circumstances of fieldwork.
We deploy our Mobile GIS support to provide real-time data for emergency response events (on-site assessments and coordination). We also provide post-processing support for GPS-collected field data for use in post-event analysis and future event mitigation.
Innovate created wind motion maps that monitor typhoon development in the Pacific Ocean that may impact US territories, enabling EPA and local officials to coordinate pre- and post-event efforts, and to monitor storms’ impacts.
Innovate supports many projects with national and international environmental impact:
Innovate created the US-Mexico Border Program Story Map, a public application that highlights environmental projects using monitoring tools (e.g., air quality sensors, data from satellite imagery) to track pollutants like ozone and particulate matter. In a regional first, we used Esri’s Experience Builder to create a bilingual, interactive Border Map showing regional environmental projects and their sponsors, funding, and descriptions, a key resource for policymakers, community, and environmental groups.
For the Offshore Marine Debris Survey (OMDS) project, we provided expertise in remote sensing and performed atmospheric correction of multispectral imagery, produced bathymetry and chlorophyll images, and researched the potential to identify plastic pollution with remotely sensed imagery.
Innovate created the San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund (SFBWQIF) application and Story Map. We supported the SFBWQIF with a custom application and database internal to EPA for grant tracking and a public-facing Story Map for formal reporting. Innovate has collaborated with SFBWQIF on grant data management since 2010.
We transitioned the U.S. EPA Excess Food Opportunities Map (EFOM) to better support nationwide food diversion efforts. This interactive tool identifies and displays facility-specific information on nearly 950,000 potential excess food generators and recipients, offering estimates by generator type.
Innovate developed the EPA Region 9 Land, Chemicals, and Redevelopment Division (LCRD) Climate Vulnerability Screen Tool (Beta), hosted on the EPA GeoPlatform. The tool shows intersections of EPA-regulated facilities with climate vulnerability factors and includes filters to assess how facilities are impacted by various climate threats.
We analyze GIS time-series data and validate evapotranspiration using remote sensing to provide water use estimates at daily to annual scales for the DOI’s WaterSMART project (focused on improving water conservation, water management, and enhancing water reliability in areas facing water scarcity).
For the US Geologial Survey (USGS), Innovate contributes to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) by acquiring satellite data to create imagery and geospatial datasets that monitor environmental changes and food security conditions. These datasets provide early warnings, helping decision-makers mitigate impacts on humans and livestock.
We developed and tested the VegET agro-hydrologic model, which uses precipitation data to model evapotranspiration, runoff, and soil moisture.
Innovate manages the Water Points Viewer, which tracks seasonal water levels in the Sahel and Southern Africa using satellite imagery and hydrologic models.
For the Water and Vegetation Drought Dynamics Project, Innovate conducts temporal analysis to assess drought onset, duration, and severity, visualizing spatial and temporal patterns.
SUSTAINABLE WORKFORCE
Combining environmental sustainability, economic stability, and social responsibility, Innovate’s sustainable workforce actively contributes to the long-term success and resilience of our company and the economy at large, so they can thrive without depleting resources or communities.
Our sustainable workforce drives productivity while aligning with broader goals of social equity and environmental stewardship. Fostering our sustainable workforce includes:
Work-Life Balance: Promoting health, well-being, and employee satisfaction by avoiding burnout and ensuring workers can maintain a balance between professional and personal life.
Innovate offers Paid Time Off (PTO), paid holidays, and flexible schedules for its employees, so they can take time as needed for vacations, illnesses, and healthcare. In addition, remote work eliminates commute time, allowing for more personal time each day.
Skills Development: Continuous learning and upskilling opportunities to keep employees relevant in a rapidly changing work environment.
Innovate encourages employees to attend conferences, engage in networking and continuing education opportunities, and enroll in enrichment/training courses. In fact, Innovate offers each employee a $1000 stipend per year for their professional development (e.g.—higher education, professional training, professional conferences).
Diversity and Inclusion: Creating an environment that embraces diverse backgrounds and perspectives, fostering innovation and resilience.
Innovate has developed diverse hiring practices by removing unconscious biases in recruitment processes and creating programs aimed at recruiting underrepresented groups.
Environmental Responsibility: Incorporating practices that reduce environmental impact and contribute to the sustainability of resources, such as remote work to reduce commuting emissions.
To foster environmental responsibility, Innovate employs a remote workforce, reducing commuting emissions while promoting a healthy work-life balance for ~100 employees across 22 states.
Energy efficiency is prioritized and encouraged by using LED lighting, optimizing heating and cooling systems, and ensuring proper insulation.
Where possible, Innovate chooses to partner with suppliers that follow sustainable practices, focusing on minimizing waste and using renewable resources to reduce their overall environmental impact.
We prioritize being largely paperless, using digital documentation and communication to minimize paper use. For our limited printing needs, we use recycled paper as well as soy ink for printing business cards.
BUSINESS ETHICS
To ensure fair and ethical workplace practices, Innovate:
Regularly reviews wage standards to guarantee that all employees, including contractors, are paid equitably and receive wages above the minimum living standard.
Encourages safe remote workspaces that meet health and safety regulations.
Maintains PTO policies that support both the mental and physical well-being of employees.
Offers transparent labor policies that clearly communicate workers’ rights, including details on fair working hours, paid time off, and anti-discrimination protections, so that all employees are treated fairly.
Holds its supply chain partners to ethical labor standards, ensuring practices such as fair wages, anti-child labor measures, and safe working conditions, regardless of geographic location.
Additionally, Innovate utilizes the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS), a framework to help entrepreneurial businesses achieve sustainable growth, focusing on six core components: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction. Fostering a culture of accountability, discipline, and transparency via the EOS Model™, Innovate encourages ethical decision-making and responsible leadership, with a focus on clear, long-term goals, open communication, and alignment with company values. This ensures that ethical practices are ingrained in the company’s growth strategy and decision-making processes at all levels of the organization.
During government shutdowns, Innovate upholds its core values with a three-pronged
approach to retain as many of our nearly 100 employees as possible. Executive leadership voluntarily deferred their salaries; we reassigned government contractors to state/local government, commercial, and internal projects; and profits were set aside to maintain salary levels and insurance coverage for employees who were ultimately furloughed, ensuring their well-being during the shutdown.
We are committed to upholding a strong ethical foundation within our workforce. To foster an inclusive and equitable environment, we treat each other, our clients, and our business partners with respect and honesty, and do not tolerate harassment, intimidation, or discrimination. We promote an inclusive culture that values and respects individuality. Innovate has a fundamental belief in the importance of good employee relations and the dignity of each individual. Equal employment opportunity is more than a legal phrase; it is a matter of principle, a commitment to our people, and something we are proud to practice.
Financial sustainability remains at the heart of our corporate strategy, ensuring the resilience, independence, and long-term success of the organization. By maintaining a strong financial foundation, we empower ourselves to adapt to market changes, invest in innovation, and pursue sustainable growth opportunities without compromising our values or operational stability. Financial sustainability enables us to support new initiatives and withstand external economic fluctuations, ensuring that we can continue to fulfill our commitments to stakeholders, employees, and the environment. This approach not only fosters business longevity, but also reinforces our independence, allowing us to drive positive change and promote sustainability across all facets of our operations.
CONCLUSION
Innovate's commitment to a "Huge Heart, Tiny Footprint" philosophy reflects our dedication to social responsibility and sustainability. Through our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, we strive to make a meaningful impact by promoting responsible practices and fostering partnerships that align with our values. By maintaining financial sustainability and driving positive change, we ensure the resilience of our organization, empowering us to invest in a green future and to continue fulfilling our commitments to stakeholders, employees, and the planet.
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