UPS Wins Two Awards for Humanitarian Relief Work Around Ebola Crisis

Staff Report From Georgia CEO

Thursday, October 15th, 2015

UPS is a 2015 recipient of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Awards following its successful efforts to provide humanitarian relief that helped combat the spread of Ebola in West Africa last year. The annual awards program honors businesses who make significant and positive impacts in communities around the world.
 
UPS was recognized in the “Best Disaster Response and Community Resilience Program” category. Through its Humanitarian Relief & Resilience Program, The UPS Foundation provides critical, life-saving aid to communities in need, leveraging UPS’s global transportation network and logistics expertise. During the Ebola crisis, UPS sponsored a charter flight carrying 48 metric tons of disinfectant and arranged the shipment of 5.4 million medical supply items, including masks, gowns and gloves, to its humanitarian partners for ground distribution. Additionally, UPS coordinated the airlift of more than 70 trucks into West Africa, enabling the CDC to reach rural areas as nations limited air and ground travel.
 
The Corporate Citizenship Award comes after another recent accolade for UPS’s Ebola relief efforts. In September, the Ethical Corporation, a U.K.-based provider of business intelligence resources that further CSR, compliance and governance, awarded UPS its annual “Most Effective International Community Investment” honor for its leadership and contributions during the crisis.
 
“The unexpected development of the Ebola crisis emphasized the importance of agile and adaptable response strategies, including the power of strong public and private partnerships as the needs of our humanitarian partners and those in impacted regions changed rapidly,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of the UPS Foundation. “These recognitions are humbly shared with our humanitarian partners, healthcare workers and employees around the world, who all came together to provide critical support when our communities were in crisis.”
 
To determine the winners in its eight awards categories, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation evaluated nominees across criteria including strategic response planning, program execution, proof of positive results and lessons learned. Awards were distributed during an October 6 ceremony.
 
The “Most Effective International Community Investment” is part of the Ethical Corporation’s annual Responsible Business Awards. UPS was recognized for its meaningful and measureable commitment to aiding vulnerable communities.