Started in 2014, Canon Canada’s Branch Out program is a national volunteer initiative that gives employees the opportunity to spend part of a workday creating green spaces and sustainable environments around the communities where they work and live. The program supports the Canon Americas Environmental Charter and actively demonstrates Canon’s corporate philosophy of Kyosei – all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future.

Traditionally, employees participate in outdoor activities in their local work community. In 2020 and 2021, however, due to the pandemic, Canon Canada had to reimagine the program. Two years ago, the company provided financial support to two of its environmental partners – Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) and Trout Unlimited Canada – to assist their great work in the communities they serve. Last year, Branch Out took the form of a virtual scavenger hunt for employees to complete at home and within their local communities. Canon Canada also donated to four environmental organizations: CVC and Trout Unlimited Canada, as well as Éco-Nature and Nature Conservancy Canada.

After being unable to take part in-person group events the past two years, employees once again got their hands dirty planting trees and shrubs, removing invasive species, installing beaver guards, and maintaining a pollinator patch and past plantings. At one event, employees in Brampton and Mississauga returned to Glendale Public School to tend to the rain garden they planted with students in 2019.

Canon Canada worked with its environmental partners across the country to host 13 events. Throughout August and September, employees in all 11 offices had the opportunity to spend an afternoon outdoors working side by side with their colleagues and senior management. The company is proud that its employees came together to give back to their communities and help ensure a sustainable environment for future generations.

Here are some highlights of what Canon Canada accomplished this year during Branch Out.