2018 was a tough year for our home state of California.

According to a recent CNN report, an estimated 18 million trees died here from issues such as drought, disease, invasive insect species and wildfires. In particular, the massive Thomas Fire affected Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties and impacted our employees and community directly, and the devastation it caused is still visible.

In response to this major environmental challenge, Service Objects has joined with 500 participating companies who have each promised to plant at least 2000 trees in California through One Tree Planted, with a goal of repopulating the state with over one million new trees. We have committed to plant 10 trees for each new customer and are already well on our way to exceeding our goal.

One Tree Planted is a unique organization. As their name suggests, they support reforestation efforts in regions around the globe, including North and South America, Latin America and Africa. They are very cost-efficient at what they do, and their entire focus is on planting trees. We particularly like partnering with them because they let you choose which geographic region your trees are planted in, allowing us to support the regrowth of forest land here in California.

Supporting environmental causes is nothing new for us at Service Objects. We were originally founded in 2001 with a goal of reducing the waste stream in the environment, by cleansing databases of bogus, fraudulent, and undeliverable customer records. In doing so, we estimate we have saved over one million trees, 400 million gallons of water, and prevented 30 million pounds of air pollution. Even as we have grown to become one of the world’s major players in contact data quality services, we remain true to our founding values to make the world a better place through data quality excellence.

This means that environmentalism isn’t just some faceless corporate contribution for us – it is part of our DNA. As a company, we are very thoughtful about our stewardship of the environment. We incentivize people for bicycling to work instead of driving, conserve energy, and encourage recycling and minimal use of resources wherever possible. And we will continue to support like-minded causes through corporate action.

This year we chose to focus our contributions on our company’s home state of California, because of all the devastation this state has faced as a result of recent wildfires and other environmental issues. We love living and working here and realize that we all need to pull together to help rebuild our community and our state. This is why our partnership with One Tree Planted was a natural fit for this pivotal time in California history.

If you would like to learn more about Service Objects’ corporate conservation efforts, we have a dedicated web page where you can check out more details. Above all, we would like to thank you – our customers – for being part of our efforts to create a better planet for all of us. Or as our state’s forests might say, “thanks a million!”

Employee growth and wellbeing plays a pivotal role in Service Objects’ office culture and overall success. We truly believe in finding a balance between work-life and home-life, and a happy, healthy workplace is just the beginning. In fact, having a happy and healthy workplace is one of the Four Core Values Service Objects was founded on.

Service Objects’ core values

Much like IBM’s second President, Thomas Watson Jr., our Founder and CEO Geoff Grow believes that successful organizations are those that adhere to their strong beliefs while adapting to an ever-changing world. That is why these Four Core Values are at the heart of all we do:

• Customer Service Above All – our highly satisfied customers make our work possible.
• Happy and Healthy Workplace – our employees enjoy their work, which makes best-in-class products and exceptional customer service possible.
• Corporate Conservation – every employee cares about the environment and has opportunities to take part in conservation at every level.
• Network Excellence – outstanding network performance is necessary to delivering genuine, accurate, and up-to-date data.

Service Objects’ Core Values Award

The idea for a Core Value Award came to Geoff when he realized his co-workers weren’t taking their vacations seriously. He wanted to reward the hardest working employees with extra money to help them pay for their vacation expenses. The cost of living in Santa Barbara is very high, and many employees didn’t have the extra money for airline tickets and hotels.

Every employee has one vote each month to nominate a coworker they think best embodies the Four Core Values, and each quarter the employee with the most nominations is awarded $1000. Second-time winners level-up, and Service Objects makes sure those winners can cross something BIG off their bucket list (which employees share with the team when they arrive). Every time an employee wins, they get a bigger and bigger prize. Core Value Award winners have enjoyed some awesome bucket-list prizes: trips to Thailand and South America, a romantic getaway to New Orleans, a helicopter ride over a volcano, tree-house vacations, and other once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Most recent winner

The most recent Core Values Award winner, Travis Quine, is our Senior Network Engineer. This was his second time winning the Core Values Award. Travis is an avid motorcyclist, and he’s wanted to go to Keith Code’s California Superbike School and race his bike on a track ever since he started riding.

According to Travis, getting to shred a racetrack on a 2018 BMW S1000RR was the best part of his bucket list experience.

Travis was nominated for his patience and the support he offers his teammates while supporting our network. That speaks to why he loves working at Service Objects – he likes the people he works with and the cohesive nature of the team.

At Service Objects we believe our finest asset is our employees. The talent and knowledge they bring to the table allows us to provide exceptionally complete tools and live our values every day. Learn more about our values and history, or check out a few photos of our team enjoying their work on our careers page.