Sep 19, 2017: Global Volunteer Day's seventh edition celebrates Deutsche Post DHL Group employees making a difference in their local communities

Deutsche Post DHL Group organizes the seventh edition of Global Volunteer Day (GVD) from September 18 to October 1 and encourages its employees to get involved. During this official core period, employees from around the world team up with independent organizations and charities to play an active role in improving their local communities through various non-profit projects. Last year's GVD event inspired the employees of Deutsche Post DHL Group to invest some 365,000 hours of volunteer work in almost 2500 social and environmental projects, representing a 40 per cent rise over the hours accrued in 2015.

'Community involvement is a fundamental principle of our corporate culture - a principle that is fully lived by our employees, as we can see from the steady increase in hours invested and in the total number of projects over the years,' says Christof Ehrhart, Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications and Responsibility at Deutsche Post DHL Group. 'And because we believe that our contributions to society and the environment also make our business stronger, Deutsche Post DHL Group committed to reduce all logistics-related emissions to zero by the year 2050, as well as mid-term to train and certify 80 per cent of the employees as GoGreen specialists by 2025. With about 510,000 employees, we are one of the world's largest employers and can have a major positive impact on society and its sustainable development. Global Volunteer Day is just one of the opportunities that our employees use to participate in environmental and climate protection activities contributing meaningfully to making the world a better place.'

The activities planned for this year's GVD are very diverse - from reading to children in kindergartens, rebuilding homes in areas affected by natural disasters, to organizing donation drives. Further supporting the 2050 zero emission target, Deutsche Post DHL Group plans to join with partners to plant one million trees every year. By ways of contributing to this ambitious target, many employees work with responsible organizations on reforestation projects. Be it planting trees, supporting teenagers with job application workshops, or serving meals to people in need - the vast majority of GVD projects at Deutsche Post DHL Group focus on one or other of the company's long-standing GoTeach, GoHelp and GoGreen initiatives, which form the three pillars of the Group's sustainability strategy.

Beyond the core Global Volunteer Day action period, many employees remain active year-round and volunteer their time and energy to charitable organizations and projects close to their hearts. More than 15,000 Deutsche Post DHL Group employees participate in community initiatives to help refugees. The Group thus operates a dedicated fund for longer-term volunteering engagements to which employees can apply for financial support on behalf of those projects.

As a longstanding partner of the United Nations, Deutsche Post DHL Group strongly supports all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through the diversity of social and environmental projects taking place during the Global Volunteer Day, the Group contributes meaningfully to the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs: Quality Education, Decent work and economic growth, Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action, Partnerships for the goals.

Deutsche Post DHL Group launched Global Volunteer Day in 2008. As an integral component of our Corporate Citizenship activities, Global Volunteer Day is a major driver of employee volunteer work across the Group and supports our sustainability strategy to serve the company's economic interests and those of our stakeholders' while balancing these with social and environmental needs.