Responsible Business Report 2022
A note from our CEO, Bob Gogel
I say this often–the best part of my day as CEO is to see the smiles and excitement our students have on their faces when they are on one of our programs. What we do matters. We help students become global citizens by seeing the world and themselves in new ways.
How we uphold our mission is just as important to us as seeing our students smile. Our values help guide us to make the right decisions not just for us as a company, but for our customers, stakeholders, and the communities we work in and visit. This is why I am proud of the strides we’ve made to create a more inclusive culture, both in our offices and on our programs, and what we are doing to cultivate more sustainable communities.
Join me in celebrating a few of our recent accomplishments and thanking the Corporate Social Responsibility Team and their partners for making a difference for our global community.
Bob
Our team is grateful for the partnerships we’ve developed over the past few years. As our ambition has grown, the passion for social and environmental justice demonstrated from many Team Members across WorldStrides and in our global community has helped us to achieve so much in such a short period of time. We are also very thankful for our stakeholders’ continued support and encouragement.
Adrienne Howard Chief Impact & Program Management Officer
Leads WorldStrides’ Corporate Social Responsibility strategy and related strategic initiatives.
The best part of her day is making meaningful connections with Team Members and partners.
Yolanda Golden Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Yolanda leads the strategic planning and management of our diversity, equity, & inclusion initiatives within our CSR strategy.
The best part of her day is helping others create a culture of belonging for our Team Members and participants by keeping diversity, equity, and inclusion in the forefront of our engagement.
Paris started with WorldStrides in the summer of ‘22 as a CSR intern and now she is a key contributor in accomplishing our sustainability initiatives within our CSR strategy.
The best part of her day is creating opportunities for our participants to discover sustainability while on program!
Paris Woods Sustainability Lead
Corporate Social Responsibility is a business model, a commitment to operate in a way to positively influence the world in addition to maximizing profits. At WorldStrides, we firmly believe our purpose is to educate and enable students to see themselves and the world in new ways while being socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible. We do this by:
1. Collaborating with others to identify the most impactful CSR opportunities.
2. Executing on specific CSR initiatives that create a meaningful impact on our Team Members, students, stakeholders, and communities.
3. Building brand awareness and leveraging our platform to create an inclusive and sustainable community.
Given the strides we’ve made over the past three years, we are proud to announce we started our B Corporation certification journey by completing our initial assessment last year. B Corporations are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.
Obtaining a B Corp certification demonstrates a company’s high social and environmental performance and commitment to being purpose-driven. So, for us this certification will help us achieve a significant milestone in our CSR strategy to be recognized as a CSR leader in our market,
connect us into a network of like-minded companies and provide us with the structure to maintain high governance practices.
2022 CSR Milestones
Celebrated 55th year LifeChanging Moments for over 9 million students.
Earned recognition for outstanding educational practices and engagement with students.
Launched a DE&I Scholarship for underrepresented groups.
Implemented an Internship Program to increase access to diverse students to opportunities in the educational travel and experiential learning field.
Formed the Green Alliance, our council for sustainability initiatives.
Launched Two New ERGs, APIN (Asian Pacific Islander Network) and Choose Earth (group focused on sustainability.
Engaged all full-time and seasonal Team Members in our commitment of Education in Everything We Do.
Drafted On-Program CSR Guidelines to ensure people, animals and communities are respected across the globe.
Expanded Environmental reporting scope to cover 100% of WorldStrides corporate offices.
Kicked off our journey to decarbonize our business operations.
Confirmed strategic community partnerships to strengthen relationships.
Education in Everything We Do
“Most importantly for me, I feel as though I am becoming more confident in myself as a person with a disability. My time in Spain is showing me that I can do whatever I set my mind to.”
– Demetria Ober
is a Study Abroad Student and recipient of DEI scholarship
Learn more on the blog.
WorldStrides has been privileged to create Life-Changing Moments for participants now for 55 years. Last year we hosted over 435,000 students in over 8,500 programs across the world. Education is in everything we do and it’s important to us that every student sees themselves and the world in new ways.
In 2022, we expanded our efforts to provide access to educational travel and experiential learning opportunities by launching WorldStrides Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship. Over $2 million, which represents 50% of our total scholarship allotment was allocated for 2022-2023 scholarships in an effort to create more inclusive opportunities for individuals to participate on our programs and become global learners. Participants are eligible to apply for the scholarship if they meet any of the 5 criteria.
We partnered with George Mason University as our college credit partner for K12 Group programs this past year.
In late 2021, we received the 2021 Cognia™ System of Distinction Award for our outstanding 2020–21 Accreditation Engagement Review with Cognia.
Read more about our commitment to educational excellence here
While education and experiential learning are our core mission, we value how we Care for Our People and Communities. So, we created a program to build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to become locally engaged, civically minded, and globally responsible people. Inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Choose Earth provides intersectional resources for participants to learn about Sustainability and Environmental Justice through the lens of their programs, while simultaneously engaging in practical steps to exercise sustainable travel. Referencing the UN’s SDGs reinforces our participants to take into consideration both the environment and people to leave a positive impact wherever they are around the globe.
In 2022, we had over 30 students earn a Choose Earth certificate. While we were excited that 30+ students participated in the program, we took the opportunity to reevaluate, strengthen, and broaden the reach of the Choose Earth certificate. So, in 2023, we plan to expand the program to appeal to all learners in their lifetime learning journey by offering a micro credential and a certificate that is available for individuals and groups.
We just launched a new Choose Earth micro credential for our Higher Education, Gap Year and Young Adult learners who have an interest in diving deeper in environmental justice and sustainability. Participants will complete the newly curated course through discussions, reflections, virtual project participation, and when applicable in-person experiences.
In 2023, we plan to expand the program to appeal to all learners in their lifetime learning journey by offering a certificate for K12 students. Each focus area comes with curriculum and lessons, suggested ecochallenges, and a final guided reflection led by the program lead.
We started 2022 focused on our value to have Education in Everything We Do for our Team Members by hosting our first ever One WorldStrides Education, Diversity, Growth and Experience conference with over 500 attendees from across the world. EDGE was just the start as we continued the engagement and training with our second EDGE in Merida, our EDGE Sales Conference at Disney, and over 7,000 additional hours invested in continued professional development.
We’ve had over 1,200 full-time team members complete over 5,200 courses and watch over 36,500 learning videos.
CSR specifically had 25 learners complete 160 courses and watch almost 1,400 videos, which equates to 109 hours dedicated to just CSR content.
Over 1,100 field educators participated in LEAP (Learning through Exploring and Actively Participating), course leadership, program specific training, and more to ensure we provide the best experience for every student–totalling over
33,000 hours of training.
Members of the CSR team provided DEI and Sustainability training, consultation, and/or participated at various conferences and summits throughout 2022, in order to educate our community partners and remain current on CSR related topics, resources, and solutions.
• Participated as a panelist in USTOA’s first Sustainability is Responsibility Conference in Norway, to share our views on how sustainability is not just good for the environment, but for business strategy as well.
• Conducted DEI training to 80 study abroad campus partners for WorldStrides Undergraduate Education Summit for Higher Education focused on navigating DEI related challenges during the pre, planning, and post engagement process with participants.
• Participated as a panelist on Sustainability in Travel and Transportation at Salesforce’s annual conference Dreamforce around the importance of change and the role we all play in environment, diversity and equity in our communities.
• Participated in Diversity Abroad’s annual conference.
• Hosted four faculty advisor, course leader, and tour director round tables focused on utilizing inclusive language to create a culture of belonging on programs.
• Facilitated DEI training to International Educators of Illinois (IEI) focused on navigating scenarios that address how study abroad advisors approach unconscious bias, microaggressions, and onsite issues centered around diversity, equity, and inclusion at various stages of program delivery.
Cultivate a Sustainable Community
As an educational partner in the lifetime learning journey, we have the opportunity to engage with people from all over the world. This platform also provides us with the opportunity to engage with people in sustainable ways to increase awareness and work towards minimizing the impact of carbon emissions. We kicked-off year 2022 with an open mindset to learn as much as we could about climate management and to identify initiatives, we can implement to help the world be a greener place for generations to come. We are happy to share a few of our most significant accomplishments:
Reduce Our Carbon Footprint
To understand our total carbon footprint we have implemented Net Zero Cloud by Salesforce. Net Zero will provide us with actionable insights into our disparate data, creating a source of truth for all energy related data. This tool will reduce our time to gather and analyze data for ESG reporting, provide databacked recommendations to create scenario planning capabilities and support our Responsible Business Practice process by enabling and educating suppliers at scale.
We’ve started our journey to understand and make commitments to reduce our carbon footprint focused on our scope 1 and 2 emissions. We will continue our journey by capturing the remaining scope 2 emissions and our scope 3 emissions. Leveraging the benchmarks we identify, we are committed to making informed decisions on how to decarbonize to help cultivate sustainable communities.
Logan Redd, 2022 intern
During the pandemic, we reduced our total office footprint by almost 40% and supported all team members to work in a virtual environment. Last year when we reopened our office doors, we opted for a hybrid work environment. Given our global operations, we decided to maintain a smaller portfolio of physical office space to help us keep our energy footprint smaller while also offering work-life integration that reinforces our CSR strategy to cultivate a sustainable community.
By implementing Net Zero Cloud, we are now able to benchmark our energy data. This is the first time we have been able to clearly see where we are using renewable energy and have a portfolio view of our energy consumption. Once we have completed the integration of the remaining scope 2 data, we will define a plan to decarbonize our office energy footprint to help cultivate sustainable communities we operate in.
Total Emissions: 233.37 tCO2e
Total Energy Consumption: 519,281 kWh
Renewable Energy
Total Renewable Energy: 34,272.55 kWh — 6.60%
Total Renewable Energy (excluding hydro):
Total Emissions: 91.85 tCO2e
Total Energy Consumption: 323,316.00 kWh
Renewable Energy
Total Renewable Energy: 323,316.00 kWh — 9.30%
Total Renewable Energy (excluding hydro): 485,759.65 kWh — 22.60% Charlottesville
—
Total Emissions: 58.97 tCO2e
Total Energy Consumption: 148,049.00 kWh
Total Emissions: 0.26 tCO2e
Total Energy Consumption: 1,064 kWh
Renewable Energy
Total Renewable Energy: 210.69 kWh — 19.80%
Total Renewable Energy (excluding hydro): 141.54 kWh — 13.30%
Total Emissions: 1.73 tCO2e
Total Energy Consumption: 13,330.83 kWh
Total Emissions: 801.40 tCO2e
Total Energy Consumption: 2,149,370.00 kWh
Renewable Energy
Total Renewable Energy: 490,058.41 kWh — 22.80%
As we embark on our journey to reduce our carbon footprint, we committed to offset our freight with UPS. We appreciate UPS’ commitment to decarbonize the transportation sector with alternative fuel, leveraging renewable energy, sustainable packaging, and certified offsets.
We believe our student programs should be adventurous and focus on learning about our most challenging societal problems, all circling back to our dedication to a sustainable future. So, we were happy to enter an agreement with Carbonzero, a Canadian-based supplier of greenhouse gas measurement and carbon offsetting solutions, to provide our participants with carbon neutral experiences in Canada.
Educating and Encouraging to Reuse
Part of our efforts to reduce waste on programs and in our offices, we partnered with Fill it Forward, a company whose primary mission is to inspire the world to reuse and does through innovative reusable products and fun educational technology.
In our first year, we had participants log over
19,000 reuses which resulted in over
11,170 kwH
600 lbs
19,000 lbs
100 lbs
Given those results, we are proud to be recognized as one of Fill it Forward’s Top 25 Changemakers for demonstrating high youth engagement on our programs. of power saved of waste diverted of emissions saved of ocean pollutants prevented
Giving of Our Time
To align our giving efforts with our company mission around lifetime learning, we intentionally partner with organizations who share similar priorities to provide educational and skill building services in the communities we live and visit. Spring of 2022, we partnered with THEARC-Building Bridges Across the River to offer groups the opportunity to visit THEARC campus, which houses 14 nonprofit organizations, to learn about the rich culture and people of the nation’s capital east of the Anacostia River, gain insights into the importance of urban farming in a food desert, experience the only Frederick Douglass Aminatron and fill their bellies with a meal from DC Central Kitchen. Last year was just a start for us as we hosted an outdoor lunch for the on-campus schools, volunteered our time working on the farm and created program opportunities for our students. Our larger goal is to provide learning opportunities for all students and to help Building Bridges Across the River with their goal to fully connect Washington, D.C.
While the initiatives we prioritize as an organization are important, our greatest strength is the dedication of our Team Members. Each team member is provided eight paid hours to volunteer their time to something that is meaningful to them. With the help of our DEI Council and Employee Resource Groups, we are thematically building regional partnerships with various charitable organizations to provide Team Members local volunteer opportunities, whilst creating a global impact for a particular cause.
Create an Inclusive Culture
People are at the core of our mission. So, it’s critical for us to foster an inclusively diverse environment for Team Members, students, partners, and stakeholders. We show up every day to support our network by:
• Ensuring there is diverse representation and perspectives in all aspects of our business.
• Giving open access to meaningful resources and training to foster equity and inclusion.
• Expanding access to educational travel and experiential learning by offering DEI specific scholarships.
• Being purposeful in our recruitment and partnership outreach strategies.
• Encouraging broad participation in impactful conversations and initiatives.
• Establishing guidelines to outline measures for success by upholding our company values.
We are moved by the allyship our Team Members have demonstrated, the support our leadership and stakeholders have provided, and the collective commitment made by all to achieve so much in just a year.
We launched our inaugural Internship Program in 2022 with 36 WorldStrides Interns participating in our WorldStrides Professional Internship Program from May 17-August 5. The internship cohort was comprised of 50% of historically underrepresented groups based in a variety of locations to include Brazil, Columbia, Canada, and 17 US cities. As part of their internship experience, interns completed executive presentations, earned a Choose Earth Certification, volunteered at THEARC in DC, and completed career readiness training in addition to working with their mentor and business unit.
Employee Resource Groups
WorldStrides has 7 Employee Resource Groups (APIN, BOLD, Caminamos Juntos, Choose Earth, FEmpowerment, PRIDE, and Well-being) to support a culture of belonging by offering programming and team member engagement that supports Human Resources 4C’s: career, culture, care, and community. In 2022, ERGs hosted 10 trainings and resource sharing events for a total of 400 training hours for 2546 participants. A couple of noteworthy highlights include:
• Our Well-Being ERG hosted “Reimagine Wellness” with Dr. Karinn Glover, board-certified physician, focused on providing WorldStrides Team Members with insights and tools for staying knowledgeable, empathetic, and culturally competent with the diverse communities we serve. Participants then received training on how to mitigate biases in their daily work to increase inclusivity and equitable best practices.
• Our BOLD (Black Organization Leadership Development) ERG renewed their community partnership with Horton’s Kids and collected coats, hats, and glove sets for youth in the program. They also provided and facilitated STEM and career leadership activities as well as reading assistance for their K-8th grade participants.
Our team members are the heart of WorldStrides. So, it’s important for us to offer comprehensive benefits that care for the whole person. This year we made several updates to our benefits package to be even more advantageous for team members. A few highlights include reducing the cost team members are responsible for in medical insurance, providing additional coverage in dental, providing supplemental insurance for domestic partners, adding a wellness benefit, and personal ID theft protection.
We value having Education in Everything We Do. To ensure every team member has the opportunity to continue their own lifetime learning journey, we increased the available tuition reimbursement for team members to $5,250 and doubled the allocation amount for professional development in their role.
We launched a new Travel and Global Immersion Program to create a fair travel incentive program for all team members. The program is a way for WorldStrides team members to have an opportunity to work in a different office other than their own, experience our vast program offerings, and immerse themselves in the essence of Education in Everything We Do. The Travel Program will provide participants and program leaders with additional skills, motivation, new perspectives, and an expanded network of colleagues with the added benefit of experiencing Life-Changing Moments and strengthening our One WorldStrides culture.
As part of our care for community initiatives, DEI training focused on creating onsite experiences for program participants that are respectful of their gender identity and gender expression. Four 60 minute, Inclusive language trainings were provided to our campus partners, course leaders, and tour directors throughout the year to support this initiative.
The CSR and Health & Safety teams partnered to update WorldStrides housing policy to provide more transparency in our efforts to provide inclusive housing for participants that align with their gender identity, gender expression, physical, behavioral, and mental health needs. The updated policies will be more widely launched across all programs in 2023.
Part of CSR’s Strategic Roadmap included an audit of DEI and Sustainability practices within our program delivery systems, onsite locations, and WorldStrides sponsored events/conferences. As a result of the audit:
• We developed on program socially responsible guidelines to establish standards and expectations when visiting historical sites that contributed to or are a product of the exploitation, oppression, and/or genocide of a historically marginalized people.
• We developed a policy around community engagement with vulnerable populations to minimize potentially harmful impacts and increase positive opportunities.
• The events team successfully hosted 2 enterprise-wide trainings to over 1000 team members that integrated best practices such as use of QR codes and cell phone apps instead of paper products to align with our zero-print policy, avoidance of single use items (plastic bottles/utensils/paper napkins), and integrating DEI concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of presentations/training.
• We updated our enrollment management system to include the addition of non-binary pronouns, and additional name fields.
Our Accessibility Team consulted and advised on student requests to ensure service/emotional support animals, mobility, audibility, medication, neurodivergent, and academic accommodations were made on our programs.
Exploring DEI-A self-paced journey
In collaboration with our Campus Partnerships Team, a series of training and resources have been cultivated designed to assist team members with advancing their knowledge in equity, belonging, inclusion, diversity, social justice, access and allyship, and anti-racism. In 2023 this series is being expanded to include additional higher education team members and will be a training resource that will be available enterprise wide via our intranet.
Neurodiversity
Belonging
Guide our Social and Environmental Strategy & Practices
We are privileged to be a part of the Life-Changing Moments for our students and we understand the magnitude of the opportunity and responsibility. As a purpose-driven company, we accept our social and environmental responsibilities and commit to take action on four of the seventeen United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
WorldStrides has established a set of guidelines to promote communication, champion our mission, challenge the norm, and deliver beyond what is expected for our students. These guidelines provide clear standards and expectations to our team members, business partners, and extended network on how to conduct business.
WorldStrides bases commercial relations with vendors and business partners on Responsible Business Principles to promote ethics and good governance. We aim to create and nurture mutually beneficial relationships while staying true to our company values. Our goal is to set a positive example within our industry by encouraging other organizations to embrace these principles and to share their own best practices. These Responsible Business Principles are to:
Maintain transparent business partnerships
Avoid creating economic dependence with business partners
Refuse gratuities and excessive gifts from business partners
Practice anticorruption in all business transactions
Avoid conflicts of interest between employees and the company
Maintain confidentiality of information and communication with business partners
Respect intellectual property rights of partners
Additionally, we provide the following recommendations to all business partners and encourage them to raise awareness of these recommendations with their own business partners. These recommendations are based on our own code of conduct and our hope is the will ensure accountability across all links within the supply chain.
Respect national and international legislation and regulations
Respect human rights
(proper working conditions, prohibit child labor, do not employ any forced labor practices, pay a fair wage, ensure decent working hours, the absence of discrimination, harassment and inhuman treatment, promote diversity, ensure health and safety in the workplace, and respect local communities)
Reduce economic dependence
Ensure the confidentiality of information
Fight corruption and money laundering
Avoid conflicts of interest
Fight anti-competitive practices
Respect the environment
We developed several guidelines specific for Team Members to consider when planning and executing activities that have social and environmental impacts.
• Historical Context Guidelines when visiting sites that contributed to, or are a product of the exploitation, oppression, and/or genocide of a historically marginalized people.
• Community Engagement with Vulnerable Populations Policy to minimize potentially harmful impacts and increase positive opportunities.
• Animal Welfare Policy to create clear guidelines to limit specific types of interactions with animals as they may have unintended negative consequences.
• Choose Earth Materials & Asset Guidelines, which include policies around responsible printing, ethical merchandising, and recycling.
We believe these guidelines help navigate competing priorities and the complexity of balancing current vs future needs. These guidelines provide a structure to discover and make sound business decisions to execute on our mission to enable students to see themselves and the world in new ways in a responsible and respectful manner.