In for the better: Community engagement at GEA

December 16, 2024

Human hands brought together to form a circle

Community engagement is an important aspect of GEA’s culture and purpose of engineering for a better world. The spirit of giving back comes naturally to many GEA employees, who generously donate their time, knowledge and skills for the greater good. To support their efforts, GEA offers employees paid time off and a skill-based volunteering platform, helping match employee skills to need-based initiatives around the globe.

In July of 2021, Europe was devastated by deadly flooding. Germany’s Ahr valley was particularly hard hit. Sadly, 184 persons lost their lives in that region, which suffered around 30 billion euro in damages. Four GEA apprentices headed to the Ahr Valley in October that same year to offer support. Still a scene of desolation, they labored to remove debris and picked grapes to salvage some of the local harvest. As useful as these efforts were, listening to residents was also an important part of the task, helping those affected to heal and face the future.

One of those then apprentices, Jason Jaskulski, today an electrical engineer at GEA, went back on multiple occasions to help out – even using his electrical engineering skills. “I was drawn to return. Help was so clearly needed and appreciated. I saw people cry, including those that had lost homes and loved ones; but I also saw people laugh again. The feeling on the ground was very positive. We were just people helping other people. The greatest gift for me was the gratitude of the local people, many of whom just a few weeks earlier didn't know how they could go on. They were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support received from people they had never met. The experience reinforced how important community is,” says Jaskulski.

GEA apprentices in 2021 during Ahr valley flood

Then GEA apprentices (left to right), Jason Jaskulski, Marcel Grossecossmann and Lucas Teckentrup pitch in to help communities in Germany’s Ahr valley after devastating floods hit the region in 2021 (not pictured: Eva Wiebe). (Image: GEA)

Over the years, GEA employees from around the world have been stepping up – and sometimes out of their comfort zone – to use their expertise to help others. We spoke to GEA employees across our network about their recent volunteering efforts – from providing professional insights to university students, organizing scout camps and using creative skills to enable a better future for children in need. We asked what motivates them to volunteer and what impact their work is having on the individuals and communities they support.

All van Glabbeek: Lifelong lessons learned in the great outdoors

For more than 20 years, All van Glabbeek, Project Manager for GEA in Bakel, Netherlands, has been organizing scouting camps, which for a small annual fee give local young people aged 14 to 22 the opportunity to re-connect with nature. The camps, he emphasizes, teaches them how to live more simply and inspires them to put down their digital devices and explore the great outdoors.

While he used his free time to volunteer for many years, he recently made use of GEA’s community engagement policy. “As a project manager, leading teams comes naturally to me; I use these same skills in my volunteer work. About four times a year, I organize smaller scouting camps, and once a year we have a bigger camp event where we go to the Belgian or Dutch coast. We rock climb, mountain bike and canoe. Our kids learn valuable life lessons by spending time in nature – like how to be mindful of the world’s limited natural resources and live more sustainably to protect them,” explains van Glabbeek. “There are also the more practical lessons, like learning how to work efficiently in a group, which includes compromising to resolve conflicts, as well as how to make a nutritious meal with just a few ingredients and limited tools.”

GEA Project Manager, All van Glabbeek, uses his leadership skills to organize scouting camps for young people in the Netherlands. These activities and the environment help kids reconnect with and explore nature. (Image: GEA)

“The young people learn a lot about themselves from these activities. The hikes can be tough, so we need to support and motivate each other to keep going. To me, that is incredibly rewarding. Showing these kids the value of community, as well as trying to understand different perspectives, even if they differ from your own is invaluable,” concludes van Glabbeek.

Community engagement at GEA

As a successful multinational company and local employer, GEA wants to contribute to a better world. The company supports employee volunteering and donations along four key pillars:

Critical disaster relief and extraordinary events
Promoting education, especially in IT, science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM)
Combating child poverty
Promoting access to clean water, renewable energy or medical care

Nadine Pringnitz and team: Designing a better future for children in need

Kinderhelfer mit Herz e.V. is a Düsseldorf-based non-profit organization that supports children in the region who are sadly, living in poverty. Thanks to its efforts, these children receive after-school tutoring, as well as free breakfast bags and lunches, clothing and access to organized vacation camp activities. Despite these successes, finding long-term volunteers and donors to support their efforts is sometimes a challenge, as is keeping up with social media and other communication requirements needed to attract new supporters and donors. Employees from GEA’s Internal Communications & Corporate Events team took up Kinderhelfer’s challenge in late 2023.

Using their diverse skills, the team created tailored event and digital assets for the non-profit to use over the coming years. Nadine Pringnitz, Internal Communications Manager, and five of her colleagues: Mona Scheele (project lead), Nadine Dengel, Nadine Kipphardt, Carl Schoppmann and line manager, Daniel Seack, first assessed Kinderhelfer’s needs. Next, they divided the tasks based on their individual strengths: project management, social media messaging, video creation, branded merchandising and website usability. “Our goal was to provide Kinderhelfer with assets and guidance they can use and reuse easily,” explains Pringnitz. The social media posts reached an estimated 30,000 viewers; the branded merchandise and event support reached around 100 people and the image video, another estimated 30,000 viewers. “If Kinderhelfer had to pay for these creative assets and strategic expertise, that would have meant a lot fewer kids in this region getting the support they need and deserve.”

Nadine Pringnitz and several colleagues from GEA’s Internal Communications & Corporate Events team combined their creative skills to create awareness for Kinderhelfer mit Herz e.V., which helps children in need. (Image: GEA)

“This project further bonded us as a team,” says Pringnitz. “We worked towards the same goal, yet everyone contributed their own unique skills. I’m very proud of what we achieved and grateful that GEA enabled me to do good for the world. I learned you don’t have to look too far afield for opportunities to make the world a little better. I would encourage everyone at GEA to do some skill-based volunteering. It broadens your horizons.”

Jacob Foster: Opening a window to a world of career opportunities for students

“Doing something for other people is important to me. If you can't find a purpose in helping other people, then what are you doing? It’s great to work at a company where this idea is not only supported, but encouraged, by giving employees one day off per year to focus on volunteering,” says Jacob Foster, a GEA sales engineer based in Canada.

Foster finds his purpose by mentoring students at the University of Toronto where he graduated as a chemical engineer in 2020. Having benefited from mentoring himself, he meets with engineering students from the university several times a month – typically for a coffee or a walk around the neighborhood. He answers their questions about career paths and what a professional – and personal – life could potentially look like as an engineer.

“Many of these students have a difficult time imagining what kind of career they will have after graduation. Given my experience, I can reassure them that there are many types of job options available to them. This is important for the next generation as they are concerned about sustainability and making a positive impact on the world. Finding an employer that encourages personal growth and development as well as a healthy work-life balance is also something they look for. I guide them as best as I can by drawing on my own experiences,” explains Foster.

Jacob Foster, a GEA sales engineer in Canada, mentors engineering students from the University of Toronto, providing insights about future career paths. (Image: GEA)

In 2024, Foster made use of GEA’s community engagement policy and offer to spend one day doing skill-based volunteering for the first time. Together with his team, he organized a lecture on mechanical separation at the University of Toronto. “I spent one day talking about my passion and advising students how GEA technology applies to so many different industries. I believe they found it empowering, especially since I’m a younger person which makes it easier for them to identify with my life and career,” says Foster. “I think it’s safe to say that the next generation of engineers will have an even greater focus on profitable sustainability, which of course is also a key priority for GEA. I will continue volunteering because it’s so rewarding. And for a nerd like me, it’s another excuse to talk about how cool centrifuges are!”

Shaping a better future by giving back

GEA’s dedication to contributing to a better world is strongly tied to its most valuable asset: its people. With its more than 18,000 highly skilled and committed employees worldwide, their talents and volunteering activities range from engineering, project management, science, IT, marketing, communications, and more.

GEA aims to pass on its sector and function-specific knowledge to at least 100,000 people by 2026 through employees’ skilled-based volunteering efforts. On top of this, GEA aims to donate 1 percent of its net profit per year to charitable organizations. With these efforts, GEA and its employees are making a positive impact on communities, people and the planet for a better future.

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