Lexmark operates in several sites across Latin America, including a manufacturing site in Juárez, Mexico; a major sales office in Mexico City, Mexico; a shared service center in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and support centers in Bogotá, Colombia, and São Paulo, Brazil. As a global workforce, we work together toward our corporate mission of creating cleaner, smarter, safer futures where we live and work. Following are just some of the activities we have done in the past years.
In 2021, Lexmark Latin America established a chapter of the Global Alliance of LGBTQ+ Employees (GALE) Diversity Network Group (DNG). We set up an annual agenda calendar to share inclusion and diversity via internal and external communications.
A primary focus of GALE Latin America was to work on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index certification. And in 2023, Lexmark International de Mexico, Lexmark International do Brasil, and Lexmark International de Argentina achieved a 100% rating and are named Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+.
GALE LatAm celebrates the following annually: International Day Against Homophobia in Football, International Transgender Awareness Day, Lesbian Awareness Day, International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, International Bisexuality Day, Day of Tolerance, and International Transgender Day.
GALE Brazil along with Women@Work, N-ABLE, and Abilities in Motion hosted a discussion called “Vamos Falar Sobre Diversidade” (Let’s Talk About Diversity) with journalist Lorena Coutinho. In addition, GALE hosted a discussion titled “Trends and Keys 2023: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice” on diversity, equity, and inclusion, highlighting gender, age, disability, LGBTQ+ status, ethnocultural background, and family situations. Included as well is the topic about developing inclusive leadership.
In November, GALE Argentina joined the Pride March, promoting awareness of the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community and celebrating the legislative progress in Argentina that has strengthened the recognition and protection of the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, which includes the legalization of the same-sex marriage and gender identity.
Additionally, GALE LatAm hosted an in-person and virtual conference with Santiago Ortega, a specialist from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, discussing Coming Out Day. The activity was attended by employees from Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Since 2022, we joined Pride Connection Argentina, a network of LGBTQ+-friendly employers providing a space for education and sharing best practices. Being part of this network strengthens Lexmark’s commitment to fostering a culture that recognizes LGBTQ+ employees as essential to an effective and diverse workplace and allows us to network with other companies with the same goal and improve the business sector together.
GALE Argentina and Lexmark Argentina HR were invited to the launching of the alliance of Banco Marco, a Lexmark client, with Ciervos Pampas Rugby Club. Banco Marco is a main sponsor of Ciervos Pampas, the first sexual diversity rugby club in Latin America.
The Office of Coexistence in Diversity of Undersecretariat of Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism of the Buenas Aires city government invited Lexmark Argentina to a meeting of companies committed to diversity. The attendees joined several workshops and discussions on best practices within organizations. The event aimed to promote the necessary cultural transformation to achieve equal opportunities through a network approach involving both the public and private sectors.
Latin America now has 44% women employees. Thus, Lexmark W@W Mexico, based in Juárez and now expanded to include Mexico City, has a mission to empower women at Lexmark by developing skills and actions to promote culture change around them, and we are committed to improving our skills by making a positive impact on the Lexmark community.
We also hold several other activities throughout the year, such as a book club, communication/circle group, healthy living events, and speaker series. And with Convive O’Clock, Lexmark committee members from Mexico City and Juárez met virtually to collaborate and strengthen integration between the two sites.
Aside from Mexico, we also have Women@Work Brazil and Multi-country chapters.
In October, W@W Mexico hosted a talk with Pilar Largaespada discussing women in leadership roles. This activity is part of the global W@W initiative, the Speaker Series.
Lexmark LatAm facilitated both in-person and virtual activities for all its employees throughout the last week of March. The activities included talks on healthy eating, cardiovascular risk prevention, a psychological first aid workshop, and a dance workshop.
In July, Lexmark supported 24 employees in Colombia who joined the 10 and 21-km run of the Bogota Half Marathon 2023. Lexmark supports activities that help its employees maintain healthy lifestyles.
In celebration of Customer’s Day in Brazil, Lexmark provided an online course that enables employees to learn more about addressing the needs of the customers and quickly responding to issues in order. The online course is part of LatAm’s Pildora de Conocimiento (Knowledge Pill), a series of suggested courses that employees are encouraged to take. Some of the courses include topics on financial health, dealing with stress, professional development, emotional intelligence, productivity, diversity and inclusion, mental well-being, and leadership.
In 2023, Lexmark Brazil ran awareness campaigns on sustainable fashion, the Meatless Monday movement, Earth Day and its importance, and ecological footprint and its objectives. Like in 2022, we also distributed seed cards to employees.
For Earth Month 2022, Lexmark Brazil ran awareness campaigns on water waste and rampant deforestation. We also held a live sustainability event and distributed seed cards that employees could plant at home.
GALE LatAm also led volunteering and charitable giving initiatives. We regularly collect nonperishable food, personal hygiene products and new clothes to donate to Casa Frida, an institution that supports people from the LGTB+ community and migrants in transit through Mexico.
Lexmark Argentina employees donated food, clothes, and blankets to Casa M.A.N.U., a shelter in the Buenos Aires suburbs that houses children of mothers with HIV. The shelter helps the children be rehomed into their family guardians or adoptive parents in some cases.
In July 2022, we donated back-to-school supplies for 300 children through the Fundación Ministerios de Amor (Ministries of Love) in Mexico.
In July 2022, and in preparation for the coming winter, Lexmark Brazil donated winter clothes and other goods to the Centro de Acolhida Brigadeiro (Brigadeiro Shelter Center) in São Paulo, which houses the homeless and women who are victims of domestic violence, as part of Campanha do Agasalho 2022.
On July 28, 2022, we held the Troque um agasalho por um retrato profissional (Exchange a warm coat for a professional portrait) in partnership with a volunteer professional photographer. In exchange for a free professional corporate portrait, employees in Lexmark Brazil’s Vila Olímpia office can donate a sweater or coat. We then gave the clothing to the Volunteer Institution Spreading Love (Instituição de Voluntariado Espalhando Amor), who will distribute it to men, women and children living in the shelter.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) was initiated in Mexico in 2016 following the success of the U.S. index. Lexmark International de Mexico has been recognized in the 2024 HRC annual Equidad MX report as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality. Lexmark obtained 100 points and the “Mejores Lugares Trabajar LGBTQ+ 2024” certification. Companies that achieved this score have taken strong actions to establish and implement policies, programs and specific procedures to ensure fairness for LGBTQ+ people in their workplaces.
For the second year in a row, the HRC Foundation, in partnership with Instituto Mais Diversidade and the Forum de Empresas e Direitos LGBTI+, recognized Lexmark for LGBTQ+ workplace equality in its second annual HRC Equidade BR: Global Workplace Equality Program.
Lexmark de Argentina received recognition in the second annual HRC Equidad AR: Global Workplace Equality Program report as a Best Places to Work for LGBTI+ People, having also achieved the maximum score in the index.
Lexmark International Inc. has also received a 100% rating on the HRC Corporate Equality Index for the sixteenth time and a distinction for Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality. This now makes us a fourfold winner.
In 2020, Edition II of United Nations Global Compact Ecuador Network recognized the LCCP (Programa Ambiental de Recolección de Suministros Vacíos Lexmark - LCCP Ecuador) as a winning initiative for good practices in sustainable development, specifically for Sustainable Development Goal 12: responsible consumption and production.
