THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
February 28, 2023 / 2 minute read
Giving Back with the ADS Foundation
Written by Scott Barbour, President and CEO
ADS enjoyed a productive and successful year in 2022, and I very much appreciate our team’s hard work to help us grow, as well as the support we receive from our customers, communities and business partners across the nation. With that success, and as a business committed to sustainability, we also recognize that ADS has an obligation to support and contribute where our employees live, work and play.
ADS has partnered with philanthropic organizations for decades, and in 2020 we created the ADS Foundation to elevate and centralize our giving. The ADS Foundation’s vision is to partner with organizations and communities to preserve clean water, promote recycling and advance quality of life through new opportunities.
Late last month, ADS and Nationwide Children’s Hospital announced a gift of $3 million from the ADS Foundation to create the Advanced Drainage Systems Behavioral Health Professional Development Fund. We are thrilled to make this contribution, providing scholarships and support to develop current and prospective employees at Nationwide Children’s who want to grow their careers in behavioral health. The impact of this Fund will be felt across the country as more behavioral health professionals are brought into the field to help advance quality of life for children.
Our relationship with Nationwide Children’s goes back nearly 30 years and in 2016, a $1 million gift created the ADS Suicide Prevention Endowment. Access to mental health resources is important for all –– especially our children –– and we want to be part of the solution.
As so many of you know, the core of our business is to protect and preserve water, our most precious resource. As the largest recycler in North America, ADS is also committed to sustainability and through the ADS Foundation, we’re helping other organizations that work to protect our nation’s waterways. Earlier this year we also announced a three-year, $500,000 gift from the ADS Foundation to The Nature Conservancy to aid in water conservation efforts in California, Florida, North Carolina and Texas.
Giving back to, protecting and helping our communities flourish is a responsibility our entire company takes very seriously, and the ADS Foundation is just one way we can contribute that will make our communities inviting places to live, work and play. I very much look forward to witnessing how the ADS Foundation works with partner organizations and the impact these initiatives will have across the country.
If you’d like to learn more about the ADS Foundation, please visit www.adspipe.com/ads-foundation.