BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ahead of Earth Day 2022, Symetra today announced National Park Trust as its first national environmental partner. Dedicated to preserving the country’s national parks and to environmental education, National Park Trust is working to create a pipeline of future park stewards by connecting kids to parks. Symetra has committed $150K to the organization through 2025 to fund access and education programming for underserved youth.
National Park Trust’s Buddy Bison™ School Program helps more than 20,000 students in 40 states annually connect with parks around the country. More than 80 percent of participating students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch, the federal indicator of low income.
“We are proud to partner with National Park Trust and to support inclusive programming that increases access and connectivity to the outdoors for underserved youth. As we near the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, our hope is that by exposing more kids from diverse backgrounds to the outdoors they will develop a love of nature and a passion for preserving the environment,” said Sharmila Swenson, AVP, Public Affairs.
“We are excited and honored to be selected as Symetra's first national environmental partner and look forward to our work together that will connect students from Title I schools to the many benefits of the great outdoors. Through our collaboration, we will be able to introduce hundreds of children each year to these wonderful iconic places and teach them about their role as future caretakers of our public lands and waters,” shared Grace Lee, National Park Trust executive director.
Symetra Social Impact
Prioritizing environmental sustainability is one of the core commitments of Symetra’s newly launched corporate social responsibility initiative, Symetra Social Impact. Over the next three years, the program aims to drive transformation across three priority areas — social commitments, sustainability and governance — through eight goals aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
In addition to its National Park Trust partnership and funding commitment, Symetra’s sustainability goals through 2025 include:
- Achieve carbon-neutral status by 2023. Commit to The Climate Pledge by 2025.
- Achieve 40 percent reduction in paper consumption by 2025.
- Implement new supplier guidelines by 2023.
- Launch new employee sustainability platform in 2022.
Earth Day at Symetra
National Park Trust Executive Director Grace Lee will join Symetra employees for a special Earth Day virtual event on Wednesday, April 20. Employees will learn more about National Park Trust, including opportunities to become a Buddy Bison program volunteer. In addition, they will receive a hands-on tutorial in Benevity’s Missions, a purpose-driven engagement software platform that connects employees to Symetra’s overall sustainability work and provides access to a rich array of environmental content and the ability to track individual sustainability efforts.
About Symetra
Symetra Financial Corporation is a diversified financial services company based in Bellevue, Washington. In business since 1957, Symetra provides employee benefits, annuities and life insurance through a national network of benefit consultants, financial institutions, and independent financial professionals and insurance producers. For more information, visit www.symetra.com.
About National Park Trust
National Park Trust is a non-profit dedicated to the protection of our national parks. The Park Trust preserves parks today and creates park stewards for tomorrow by acquiring the missing pieces of our national parks. National Park Trust’s mission is to preserve parks today and create park stewards for tomorrow. Since 1983, the Park Trust has acquired the missing pieces of our national parks, benefiting 51 national park sites. Our national youth education initiatives, including our national Buddy Bison Programs and Kids to Parks Day, cultivate future park stewards, partnering annually with more than 300 Title I schools. We believe that our public parks, lands, and waters should be cared for, enjoyed by, and preserved by all for current and future generations. Find out more at parktrust.org.
