Sunco Cares Charitable Contribution Q4 2020

Each quarter, Sunco Lighting gives back to the community and the environment through donations to charitable organizations worldwide under our Sunco Cares initiative. A sustainable future is part of our mission and is something our employees also value.

Combating energy poverty is also something we value. Numbers range, depending on who you source, but currently around 940 million people live without electricity and experience energy poverty.

Our recent donations for the fourth quarter of 2020 benefited these worthy conservation organizations worldwide:

Trees for the Future: Planting Trees Changes Lives

Mission: To end hunger and poverty by training farmers to revitalize degraded lands.

Planting trees changes lives when you plant trees to return nutrients to the soil. This allows farmers to plant vegetables and fruits to sustain their families through increased food security, improved nutrition, and boosting income potential.

Trees for the Future provides training to empower farmers. As of this posting, they report 200,000,000 trees planted, 29,714 acres restored, and 151,025 lives changed due to their efforts.

Their agroforestry and permaculture method is to develop a Forest Garden Approach. This involves educating vulnerable farming communities in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Through sustainable methods, the farmers can revitalize their lands. The farmers provide the land, labor, and water (along with entrepreneurial determination), all while inspiring a sense of community ownership.

In 2021, Trees for the Future announced they will plant 50 million trees to help 14,000 farmers in 9 countries. With a rapidly changing climate, this charity is already stemming the tide of poverty.

Help them continue their mission when you change lives through planting trees.

Donate Today to Trees for the Future

City Plants: Grow a Greener Los Angeles

Mission: To grow a greener future for Los Angeles, California by engaging Angelenos to plant and care for trees throughout the city.

Sunco Lighting’s headquarters is located in Los Angeles County. This charity helps us improve the lives of people in our neighborhood. City Plants has continued to serve Angelenos during the pandemic to provide free shade trees to plant in a yard or business, and on the parkway (between sidewalk and street). In the future, they will return to organizing community tree adoption events.

Not only do trees save energy by providing shade to cool a home or business they also provide a pleasant atmosphere, along with a protective home for birds and mammals. Trees combat climate change by absorbing CO2. They prevent rapid water evaporation in lawns. A greener neighborhood with more shade is also greatly appreciated now that people in Los Angeles are doing more walking in their neighborhoods (yes, despite the song lyrics, people really do walk in L.A.).

Already have trees, but want to do something proactive for your community?

Donate to help grow a greener Los Angeles

Let There Be Light International: Keep the Light Shining

Mission: To combat energy poverty in vulnerable off-grid communities and to fight global climate change through the donation of safe solar lights to vulnerable, vetted individuals and communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

As of this posting, 725,000 people benefited from Let There Be Light International’s efforts to provide access to clean light through solar-electrified health centers and/or solar lighting at home. With students studying at home and the additional load on health care centers, this charity was especially important in 2020.

860 million people worldwide do not have electricity access, per their site. 80% of those people live in sub-Saharan Africa. The charity focuses on Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya to aid families living in extreme poverty without access to electricity. Solar provides a viable access to light to allow children to study at night without the use of polluting and dangerous kerosene. It also expands the hours people can work on home-based businesses.

Did you know that per this charity, the families they serve can save $150 on fuel costs (in their first 3 years of use) when they switch to solar lighting. Typically, these savings are reinvested in the family through health care, basic needs, and education.

Donate Today to Let There Be Light International

Jewish National Fund: Turning the Desert into a Vibrant, Green Oasis

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) has been building and connecting to the land since 1901. Their visionary campaign to plant trees, source water solutions, and fund agricultural research helps boost their goal of a vibrant oasis in place of a desert.

Trees and greenery near a city can provide much needed benefits to the community and the environment. JNF foresters work on environmental soundness while they also clean, prune, plant and allow for a natural and healthy forest. There are also fire and rescue services sponsored by the JNF in Israel. In addition, JNF addresses soil conservation, the development of agricultural infrastructure, and combating desertification.

The National Jewish Fund forests are home to thousands of animals and birds, along with cypress trees, Atlantic cedar, almond, and oak. The NJF have created over 250,000 acres of greenery to beautify the land and provide the green lungs of cities and towns across Israel. Sunco Lighting donated towards their tree planting efforts and you can, too.

Plant trees to honor someone you love.

Donate Today to the JNF

Want to help Sunco promote a more sustainable future? Choose to donate directly to support green initiatives at home and abroad like the ones above or volunteer your time on the local level to improve your world.

Closer to home, you can also use solar lighting to reduce your landscape lighting costs and employ the power of the sun in your own yard or garden.