Commitments: Environment & Sustainabililty

Volunteering Virtually with City Harvest for the Holidays

In December 2020, nearly a hundred employee volunteers from PRH US participated in our 9th annual Dinner on the House in partnership with City Harvest, a volunteer experience designed to serve others and share our good fortune with those who may need a helping hand during the holiday season. We’ve previously held this event as an in-person volunteering experience at City Harvest‘s food rescue facility in Long Island City. This year, with in-person volunteering no longer a viable option due to the pandemic, we looked to City Harvest, an organization focused on feeding hungry New Yorkers,  to create new, virtual volunteer opportunities for our employees. Employees volunteered in one of two ways:

  • Holiday Greeting Cards: City Harvest delivers food to over 400 community food programs serving thousands more New Yorkers a day than before the pandemic. Our volunteers wrote holiday greeting cards to send to City Harvest’s many partners. 
  • Mini Mesh Bags: During the holiday season, City Harvest Repackers use thousands of mesh bags each day to pack fresh produce that will go into their trucks and be delivered to food pantries and community food programs across the five boroughs. Our volunteers helped make these bags which keeps costs down and ensures more money can be spent on emergency food.

In addition to our employees donating their time, Penguin Random House made a donation to City Harvest as part of the Repack to Give Back campaign, which will provide 200,000 pounds of produce and non-perishable goods to 384,000 families in need this holiday season.

Supporting Women Climate Leaders Through Community

As part of our ongoing efforts to help protect the planet and its future, we are proud to support the All We Can Save Project. Created by the editors of One World’s ALL WE CAN SAVE: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Dr. Ayana Johnson and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, and inspired by the anthology, the new initiative will accelerate the success of the climate movement by providing support and community for women climate leaders — scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers — across generations, geographies, and race.

The All We Can Save Project will hold virtual and in-person programs; provide education and engagement; and direct financial support to cohorts of women climate leaders with the goal of championing a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. One of the most crucial issues of our lifetime, it’s imperative that we acknowledge the intersectionality of environmental injustice with racial, social, and political inequities. We hope the All We Can Save Project will empower women climate leaders in profound and impactful ways to continue to care for our planet and its inhabitants.

Employee-Driven Action to Combat Climate Change

Our employees across the territories are leading teams, such as the Sustainability Subcommittee in the United States and the Environment Team in Australia/New Zealand, to make grassroots efforts to combat climate change. In the United States, the Sustainability Subcommittee is an employee-led group of engaged colleagues who are dedicated to positively affecting the environment. In tandem with our corporate efforts, through awareness campaigns and events, the Subcommittee aims to have a positive impact in our communities and the environment where we work and live.

United Fight Against Climate Change

Our Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial team in Miami kicked off its first year of corporate volunteering in 2019 with hands-on activities at main community organizations, including Miami-Dade County parks. Our employees planted 200 native plants at a county park to attract butterflies and other important pollinators, and also decorated a rainwater barrel with characters from our most popular children’s books to capture rainwater to irrigate the plants.

To further our efforts in the fight against climate change, the team in Miami collaborated to pack and sort donations for United Miami Way of Miami-Dade following the destruction Hurricane Dorian inflicted on the Bahamas.