It’s a busy time of year, but Pattern’s corporate offices and sites are teaming up to give back to communities.
While there are opportunities to give back and donate throughout the entire year, December is focused on kids and the holidays.
“December is all about Toys for Tots. We are encouraging every single employee to give to Toys for Tots and they can do that in a few ways. They can bring in an unwrapped toy into the office, they can donate money, or they can buy a toy online and have it shipped to the office and we’ll make sure it gets to Toys for Tots,” explains Alison Solari, Director of Workplace Operations & Experience at Pattern Energy.
A Positive Experience
Alison’s role is focused on ensuring that everyone’s experience at Pattern Energy’s corporate offices is positive and welcoming – whether you’re an executive, employee, or visitor.
“It’s very exciting. I get to work with all of these wonderful people who really ensure that Pattern is a well-oiled machine and is making sure that people are set up to be successful when they come in. We want them to enjoy their time with us and feel welcome here,” she explains.
Another aspect of her role is providing volunteer opportunities for employees and managing the Pattern Gives Back program.
“Our employees always amaze me because they are always giving back. It’s not just the vision of our company that is helping to make the world a better place, it’s also each and every one of them who want to make their communities better and leave a positive mark,” says Alison.
Getting Involved
One of the ways employees can give back is through volunteering, and Alison and her team work on building relationships with local organizations so staff can come in and help with anything that is needed.
“We’ve done beach clean-ups, working with the SPCA, and educational speaking events at schools. A big part of our giving also goes to the local food banks in each of our communities. It’s really important to us that we try to ensure that people aren’t hungry,” she says.
While support for all organizations is a priority throughout the year, Alison says they try to highlight a different cause each month.
“A big focus for November was fighting hunger. We gave $10,000 to each local food bank near our corporate offices in Toronto, San Francisco, San Diego, and Houston. Employees are also encouraged to give and we go on-site and volunteer there as well,” she explains.
Staff is also encouraged to share their knowledge and experience in renewable energy with students.
“We’ve hosted students who come in and learn about wind energy and build their own little wind turbines on site. We’ve had employees who donate their time to talk about what we do as a company and why renewable energy is important. We also encourage our team to tell us what they want to do and we organize the groups and go out and volunteer,” she says.
A Good Cauze
While the past several years have made in-person volunteering difficult, a new application was introduced to help make giving back easy.
“During the pandemic, we launched Cauze because we, unfortunately, couldn’t do in-person volunteering during that time. It’s an application that makes it easy to donate to pretty much any non-profit organization you can think of. Employees can go in and donate and it’s as simple as opening up the app on your phone and choosing an organization. Each donation made is automatically matched by Pattern up to two hundred and fifty dollars,” Alison explains.
Because of its broad range of organizations to choose from, the application is likely to stick around.
“Cauze is a great partner. There’s something for everyone to support. This was a great thing that came out of the pandemic and it’s something that we’ll continue to use for years to come,” she says.
With the Cauze app and monthly opportunities to volunteer, the Pattern Energy team is motivated to make the world a better place.
“The people at Pattern are very generous, they’re very giving of their time and their money, and I think they want to make the world a better place in whatever way they can. They really are invested in leaving the world and their communities a better place whether it’s through donating time at the local food bank or reading to kids at a local school.
