Supporting our communities
Baker Hughes is committed to making a tangible impact by supporting the communities where we live and work and encouraging our employees to engage actively in service projects.
2020 brought many challenges to our communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty, and the inability to participate in in-person activities and events. We attempted to adapt our philanthropy and community programs to help in new ways and to use technology to support the needs of the community.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for medical supplies was paramount to combating the pandemic while keeping front-line workers safe. Baker Hughes facilities around the world responded to this critical need by 3D printing consumable ventilator parts and personal protective equipment.
了解就业一定的困难g a period of economic uncertainty, the Baker Hughes Foundation partnered with the 100K Mentors Challenge and Life Project 4 Youth, two nonprofits dedicated to providing virtual career mentoring, mock interviews, and professional networking for students from underrepresented communities who were struggling to find jobs and internships because of the pandemic. Many Baker Hughes employees provided virtual mentoring through these organizations.
Making an impact
In 2020, Baker Hughes contributed the equivalent of $119M to our communities through a combination of financial contributions, in-kind donations of goods and services, and employee donations. A summary table is included below:
Our strategic community impact areas
At Baker Hughes, we target our community support efforts on three areas that align with our strategy and our values. Through our giving, we seek to make a meaningful positive impact in the areas of:
Bringing education and opportunity to all people, especially underserved populations, is a key area of focus for Baker Hughes. To support the many communities Baker Hughes operates in around the globe, we donated tens of millions of dollars in software products to universities and technical schools in more than 15 countries. We also supported youth educational programs in our major operating communities of Houston, Texas, and Florence, Italy.
We promote clean air and water, biodiversity, and nature-based climate solutions. We continued our collaboration with The Nature Conservancy in Borneo, Indonesia, where we help support the adoption of reduced-impact logging. Indonesia is home to some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems, and we believe our partnership with the Nature Conservancy helps to make gains in protecting climate and wildlife.
As a leader in occupational health and safety, Baker Hughes has long contributed to causes that promote the well-being of our communities. The COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters put great stress on social services and disaster response organizations. The Baker Hughes Foundation responded by providing grants to local food banks, social services organizations, and health care providers in our largest communities in the U.S., the UK, and Italy. We also funded hurricane response on the U.S. Gulf Coast and wildfire recovery in Australia.
Engaging employees in the community
At Baker Hughes, our employees care, especially when they volunteer their time to help others. Though organized volunteerism was difficult to do safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 7,000 employee volunteer hours were logged around the world.
Our teams came up with new and innovative ways to help the people around them who needed it most. For example, some held virtual volunteer events to make gifts for those in need, while others participated in virtual mentoring and professional networking sessions. Some teams held virtual food drives and holiday toy drives. Our teams adapted by designing new safety protocols for socially distanced volunteer events where temperature checks, face masks, and carefully marked workspaces became the new normal. However, what never suffered was the spirit of giving and community, with virtual volunteering providing a much-needed and appreciated opportunity for interaction with colleagues. Even for those who could not participate in volunteer events, our commitment to giving remained strong.
In 2020, we launched a new volunteer recognition program, which allows employees to direct Baker Hughes Foundation grants to nonprofits in recognition of reaching volunteer milestones of 10 or more hours. More than 85 employees were awarded grants for outstanding volunteerism during the program’s inaugural year.
The Baker Hughes Foundation matches employee contributions to qualified nonprofits, up to $5,000 per person per year. Many of our people participated in organized fundraisers, personal giving, and matching gifts. Our employees contributed more than $750,000 of their own funds to charity in 2020, more than doubling their contributions from 2019. Some of the most popular causes included UNICEF’s disaster relief program and global food banks and social services organizations supporting community needs during the pandemic.
The Baker Hughes Foundation is focused on being steward of charitable resources for meaningful community impact. The Foundation supports organizations with shared values, demonstrated leadership, evidence of impact, financial soundness, and the capacity to implement initiatives and evaluate their success. We make strategic philanthropic contributions, match Baker Hughes employee contributions, and award volunteer recognition grants to support outstanding employee community service.