We are living through one of the most uniquely challenging moments of our lifetimes. With the COVID-19 public health emergency continuing to unfold across much of the world, the job of making these times easier on all of us falls not just to government and local officials, but to the companies and other organizations upon which we rely every day.
Rubicon® is working with some of the most sustainability-minded companies on the planet to help them keep their customers, employees, and local communities safe during COVID-19. We are proud to partner with them now, and as always, help them to live up to our mission to end waste, in all of its forms.
In fact, Rubicon recently partnered with legal technology company Libryo to offer a COVID-19 regulation tracker to our customers, free of charge, in eight U.S. states hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Thank You
As my colleague, Rubicon’s Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Allegretti, noted in his recent blog post about how Rubicon’s smart city partners are leading during the coronavirus crisis, it’s impossible to highlight all of the great work that so many of our customers are doing across the country in the fight against COVID-19.
With that said, I would like to take this time to highlight some core examples of how our customers are helping their customers, their employees, and their local communities during this challenging time:
Helping Frontline Workers
First up, many of our customers are helping frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19 across the United States, and abroad. Here are three great examples:
- The Hilton hotel chain recently announced that it is providing complimentary stays for any and all doctors that need them.
- Costco is giving healthcare workers and first-responders priority access to stores throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
- Chick-fil-A announced that it will donate more than $10.8 million to first responders impacted by the pandemic.
COVID-19 Testing Support
We also have multiple partners across our business helping to provide COVID-19 testing and other health support to their employees and the larger community. Three inspiring examples include:
- In Memphis, Tennessee, Kroger is offering drive-thru COVID-19 testing.
- Walmart is running mobile testing sites across ten different states.
- CVS is partnering with UCLA Health and other hospitals to create more bed capacity.
Employee and Community Solidarity
In these unprecedented times, at Rubicon we have been motivated by seeing our partners express solidarity and improve morale among their customers, employees, and local communities. This sort of work matters now more than ever, and these three examples are worth a special mention:
- Pret A Manger announced that they donated nearly 173,000 pounds of unsold food and ingredients to its food rescue partners, local hospitals, schools, and police stations, to help feed those in need and on the front lines. It also announced upon its select re-opening of stores for take-away at the end of April that employees will be paid 1.5 times their standard rate through May.
- Wegmans announced that it is increasing pay for its employees amid the COVID-19 outbreak, with the pay increase being retroactive throughout March and April.
- Tractor Supply announced that it is offering appreciation bonuses to employees through May 9, 100 percent paid coverage of COVID-19 medical treatment, and two weeks of paid sick leave to any employees affected by the virus.
Helping the Food Supply Chain
Especially during these times, we need to come together in new and imaginative ways. One way is in our ability to feed our families and neighbors. Here are three examples of our partners doing just that:
- Wegmans committed to staying open and implementing safe social distancing measures throughout its stores during the COVID-19 crisis.
- Kroger sought new supply partners to keep food moving and supermarket shelves stocked.
- The Atlanta Hawks helped to feed 500 families affected by the crisis.
Continuing Essential Services
Finally, throughout this pandemic we must ensure that essential services continue to operate in order to allow all us to go about our daily lives, as best we can, during these self-isolation periods. Here are three examples from our partners:
- FedEx launched a network for carrying COVID-19 testing kits.
- COX is providing free internet services to low income families of K-12 students.
- Fresenius Medical Care is expanding their telehealth services to support their patients, as well as providing dialysis machines to hospitals due to an increase in patients with acute kidney injury.
Marco Hilty is Chief Commercial Officer at Rubicon. To stay ahead of Rubicon’s announcements of new partnerships and collaborations around the world, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or contact us today.