Sustainability for our communities
At Flex, we work with nonprofits, community leaders, and governments to promote sustainable economic growth, employment, and decent work for all.
We also foster inclusive, quality education, and lifelong learning opportunities. We care about the environment and protect it through resource conservation. We promote social progress through grants from the Flex Foundation, from corporate and employee donations, and through volunteerism.
Working to achieve our goals
In 2016, we established the Flex 20 by 2020 program, a corporate-wide and executive-supported initiative that identified 20 sustainability goals which we committed to achieve by 2020. We aligned these 20 goals to four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: quality education, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, and responsible consumption and production.
Disaster relief: our response to natural disasters
We provide relief to locations affected by natural disasters, in alignment with our sustainability strategy and the responsibility we have with society and our communities.
Last year through the Flex Foundation, we supported the victims of the earthquakes in Mexico with a monetary donation to TECHO to build emergency houses in the affected zones of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Puebla, Mexico State, and Mexico City. TECHO is a non-profit organization that provides services across Latin America and the Caribbean seeking to overcome poverty in slums.
Building realities with TECHO, I discovered the great responsibility that we, as a society, have to promote instances that guarantee each of the members of our society get the basic necessities to face life, something as basic as a roof over their heads. We dedicated one weekend and the satisfaction was immense. Thanks for this opportunity.
— Rebeca Gomez, Customer Service Representative
Giving hope back to society
Our Service Learning initiative started in 2016 and incorporates social responsibility elements. In its inaugural year, we sent 21 employees from 9 sites and 4 countries to Nepal to help build a community hall in the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
This experience allowed me to develop more empathy and perspective about the problems that we have in our country. I am very proud of Flex because we carry out these types of activities, and through them we demonstrate our social responsibility. I also am proud of the Flex Team: we left our hearts in the community which received us with warmth and acceptance.
— Araceli Arriaga, EHS Engineer
The following year, in 2017, we sent 24 employees from 4 countries and 13 sites to Laos to help complete a school building, which local authorities want to make a regional school by 2020. These activities provided 2,000 children with a safer and brighter study environment. Both the Nepalese and Laotian projects were named “Hope” in local languages.
Building a home for families in Mexico
In 2018, our Service Learning program found its way to Mexico, where around 50 employees contributed 1,813 volunteer hours to build 11 transitional wood houses that benefited 55 people directly and 110 indirectly in Las Liebres community in Tlaquepaque, Mexico.
As part of their work, the volunteers emphasized the importance of education and work within the community, sharing personal experiences as part of their volunteer effort.
This was an unforgettable experience, where the only objective was to give a decent place to live to a family, that until that day only had plastic and blankets for a roof. Thanks a lot for making this happen.
— Luz Iniguez, Facilities Engineer
This experience had a positive impact on a local community, where people now have a better understanding of the role education plays in providing access to better opportunities. When the volunteers set out to help this community, their original goal was to build 5 houses. Their dedication resulted in a total of 11 houses built. These 11 families now have a provisional wooden house that will provide shelter and the hope of a brighter future.
Being a part of [this] for a weekend was quite a satisfying experience. We had two days to help a family improve their life situation by doing just a little. Each family had a different history and different needs. Many times, these families are there because they have no other options and lack the resources and opportunities they need to get ahead.
While I know that no matter how much I may do, I cannot change their situation, but whatever contribution I can provide to make a family happy over just one weekend has been one of the best experiences I’ve had. It was a weekend of coexistence, new experiences, and great achievements. Only two days with one goal and one objective gave me an experience that I would undoubtedly repeat again. Thanks to Flex and TECHO for this weekend!
— Heriberto de Santiago, Material Planning Analyst