April 22 – Earth Day – is the perfect day to recognize the founder of the global environmental movement, Rachel Carson. Her revelatory book Silent Spring in 1962 brought new awareness to a public that previously had limited concern for environmental damage and land conservation. Her research and prose ultimately launched the global environmental movement, capped annually by Earth Day to honor environmental progress, and increase awareness and action.
At Juniper Networks, we view our connection to the planet as fundamental. On Earth Day, we highlight our ongoing focus on sustainability in the workplace, hear from the different sustainability leaders within the company, encourage environmental volunteerism at our different sites, and raise awareness of everyday actions to promote sustainability.
This year we are also using the occasion to announce grants to three land conservation/restoration non-profits in addition to multi-year partnerships with two organizations bolstering climate solutions in underserved communities. The Juniper Foundation is proud that its Earth Day donations will directly support preservation of lands and resources as well as support grassroots solutions to the climate crisis.
The manifold benefits of protecting and restoring land are clear, including:
- The potential for absorbing carbon dioxide
- Protecting biodiversity under threat from encroaching human populations
- Conservation of culturally significant sites
- Restoration of damaged ecosystems
- Access to outdoor recreation for local communities
We have aligned our grant-making to organizations operating near our major global sites that have established track records of results-based approaches to conserving and restoring local lands. The 2024 grants are awarded to:
- Peninsula Open Space Trust —. A local organization responsible for permanently protecting more than 87,000 acres in counties neighboring Juniper’s Sunnyvale, California campus in the U.S. –Since 1977, this organization has collaborated with partners and leveraged funds to acquire and restore land effectively, to the benefit of many of our employees and local communities.
- One Tree Planted — A global reforestation organization with a mangrove initiative in India. Home to large mangrove forests, India is also the location of Juniper’s second largest site. Mangroves play a vital role in protecting tropical and subtropical land coasts through ecosystem services and they serve as highly effective carbon sinks. However, a combination of mangrove forest degradation and fragmentation has led to the need for mangrove forest restoration.
- Rewilding Europe — Headquartered in the Netherlands, this organization selects large areas across Europe for rewilding, or letting natural processes reshape and enhance ecosystems. The results over the last decade have yielded richer natural environments that also reverse biodiversity decline, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and provide a range of resource benefits.
In addition to the land conservation grants, Juniper is also supporting two organizations advancing renewable energy and climate solutions for underrepresented communities through the CLIMA Fund and GRID Alternatives. Through multi-year grants, we want to help sustain the good work of these organizations that drive crucial climate action in frontline communities.
Juniper’s philanthropy reflects the core focus areas of our corporate social responsibility program. Pairing these donations with land conservation and corporate climate initiatives is our global resilience work in action. As Rachel Carson said, “The balance of nature is not a status quo; it is fluid, ever shifting, in a constant state of adjustment. Man, too, is part of this balance.” We at Juniper want to safeguard such balance. This Earth Day, we honor the founder of the ever-growing global environmental movement – Rachel Carson – as we and our grant recipients continue to work for awareness and action.
