Lexmark's corporate headquarters is in Lexington, Kentucky, the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region. Lexington is also home of the University of Kentucky, and is an economic hub of business, art and culture surrounded by a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and horse farms. The name Lexmark is actually not related to its location of Lexington. The name Lexmark is derived from "lexicon," while "mark" represents printers making a mark on paper.
Lexington blends southern charm and tradition with the hustle and bustle of an emerging, diverse city. Residents are drawn to the many outdoor activities, its beautiful countryside and changing seasons. Lexington offers a range of cultural attractions, including a professional symphony orchestra, several museums, art galleries and professional theater. The city is known for retaining its historic feel, offering tours of many classic sites, including antebellum homes, parks, horse farms and distilleries.
Lexmark is a Green Check Certified business, achieving Gold level
Lexmark installed a 2 megawatt solar array on Lexington's campus. This array is expected to produce more than 3.3 million kilowatt hours in its first year of operation, it is expected to provide 10% of Lexington's energy.
Lexmark's bioretention and rainwater harvesting system, located on the Lexington site was installed in cooperation with Lexington Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG), EcoGro, Ridgewater, Stantec and the University of Kentucky.
While larger in scale than the three traditional rain gardens on site, the 2.5 acre depression in the ground collects rainwater and filters it through a layer of sand. Water that is not needed for immediate use is stored in tanks. The water is naturally soft and is used in Lexmark’s cooling towers, reducing the need for chemically treated water. Approximately 6 million gallons of water is used each year.
Lexmark’s rainwater retention area has some bioremediation value acting as a retention pond for rainfall runoff in conditions when excess flow is discharged to Cane Run Creek. In the vein of sustainable resource consumption, the pavement, rock and soil removed for the project was reused or recycled. Existing pipes and tanks already in place were recommissioned for use in this project to gain further savings.
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Kentucky (ACEC-KY) awarded the rainwater harvesting design-build project team the Grand Conceptor Award in Waste and Storm Water, the organization's top honor in the state of Kentucky. ACEC-KY's annual Engineering Excellence Awards competition recognizes engineering firms for projects that demonstrate an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, achievement and value. The system also won an international Green Apple Environmental Award in 2021.
Lexmark employees planted and maintain a butterfly garden on Lexmark headquarters’ property. The registered Monarch Waystation has a wide array of native nectar plants, including milkweeds that attract monarchs, bees and many other pollinators to a safe habitat.
In 2022, pollinator plants were planted in the nearly 8 acre area where the solar panels were installed. This area will also be the home of 5 bee hives and incluced in the Monarch Waystation registry.
Many communities are encouraging local businesses and corporations to get involved and provide native species plants and pollinator gardens to help reverse the decline in bee and butterfly populations. Our Lexington butterfly garden has an added benefit of serving as an educational resource for our onsite childcare center.
Many employees enjoy biking to and from work, at lunch and in between buildings. With on-site locker rooms and showers, as well as indoor bike storage, and a safe place to ride. Lexmark was recognized by the League of American Bicyclists with a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) award. Lexmark donated land at headquarters for its the city's Legacy Trail. The twelve-mile trail stretches from the North Side YMCA to the Kentucky Horse Park. This shared-use greenway trail is popular with employees who walk, run and ride together on the trail. Lexmark was also selected for inclusion in the 25 Best Companies for Cyclists Award. Amelia Neptune, director of the Bicycle Friendly America program, applauded Lexmark for making our workplace and community safer, happier, healthier and more sustainable through bicycling.
Lexmark employees have been volunteering to clean up the portion of the Cane Run Creek and its tributaries that flow through the headquarters' property since 2007. This annual activity began as an effort led by the Corporate Sustainability team to assist in improving environmental conditions in the waterway that had been placed on Kentucky's list of impaired streams. Each year a significant amount of trash and debris is removed from the streams and stream banks. The continued dedication to this effort is a demonstration of Lexmark's commitment to the communities in which we live and work. Periodically, volunteers remove invasive honeysuckle along the stream to allow native species to take over and return the watershed to a more welcoming habitat for various wildlife. Over the years that this clean up has been held more and more native wildlife has re-established itself in this portion of the watershed, including turtles, fish, geese, fox, snakes, deer, crawdads and more.
The 300-acre Lexmark campus has numerous amenities for employees. Lexmark employees have a multitude of opportunities at its headquarters to improve their cardiovascular health and wellbeing. A bonus at Lexmark global headquarters is an activity area for employees to exercise and relieve stress. The Lexington Multi-Activity Center is an indoor sports and fitness facility offering basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, foosball and ping-pong; and an additional area offers yoga, and other group exercise and events.
To keep our employees feeling their best during the workday, Lexmark's onsite Health & Wellness Center offers services such as acute care, health coaching, physical therapy and lab tests. Employees are also offered online support to achieve personalized goals by analyzing data from biometrics, health assessments and activity. Lexmark stays connected with our employees’ needs by offering programs providing physical and mental health benefits, fitness perks, telecommuting policies and support for families. These opportunities relieve stress and increase overall wellbeing resulting in a more productive and committed workforce. By placing importance on the wellbeing of our employees, Lexmark successfully transforms the workplace with employees who thrive.
Lexmark employees can take advantage of a subsidized childcare center located on site in a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified facility. The environmentally beneficial features that earned this certification are used as an educational experience for the children. The children learn about water and energy conservation, local harvest and material reuse, and recycling. In the state-of-the-art facility, the center is a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education showcase.
Lexmark is active in the community. Lexington employees are empowered to volunteer with organizations of their choice. Volunteer time off, unlimited vacation and flexible schedules enable employees to volunteer more freely, in addition to taking advantage of the numerous activities that Lexmark supports on a corporate level.
In 2013, Lexmark donated 12 acres of land to the Hope Center -a recovery resource for homeless and at-risk persons- to build the facilities that it needed to perform its mission.
For construction and expansion of the North Lexington Family YMCA, Lexmark donated 20 acres of land and $1.5 million. The North YMCA helps our employees improve their health and well-being while supporting the community through youth development and social responsiblity.
Lexmark donated $1 million to the University of Kentucky's project to renovate a public library into a science and math outreach center to help educate teachers in Kentucky. Lexmark is also sponsoring a scholarship program, providing four $10,000 annual scholarships to women and underrepresented engineering students. The scholarships also come with a paid 10-week summer internship at Lexmark headquarters.
Additionally, Lexmark has been a long-standing partner with Lexmark partners with Fayette County Public Schools and provided funding to the STEAM Academy and Rise STEM Academy for Girls to be used for STEM education programs and technology resources.
Lexmark has held an annual United Way campaign in the U.S. for 30 years. Employees have the opportunity to donate funds to the organization and Lexmark matches a percentage of the donation. In Lexington, there are numerous company-organized Care Days with United Way-partnered agencies around the region. Each year, volunteers donate hundreds of hours on a variety of projects, including mentoring, gardening, cleaning, painting and more. In addition, Lexmark employees hold an annual United Way Silent Auction, whose proceeds go to United Way of the Bluegrass. One of our largest fundraisers for the United Way campaign is the annual United Way Golf Classic presented by Lexmark. To date, Lexmark employees worldwide have donated more than $28 million to the United Way.
Lexmark has been a longtime sponsor of the University of Kentucky's Engineering Day (E-Day). This interactive event lets Lexmarkers share the excitement of engineering with school-aged children through fun and engaging STEM activities.
Lexmark is involved in Habitat for Humanity each year in Lexington. Since 1998, Lexmark has funded and built homes with employees volunteering their skills. To date, Lexmark employees have built 24 Habitat for Humanity homes in Lexington. Teams volunteer to build a home for a partner family using materials sponsored by Lexmark.
Lexmark has been a sponsor of Reforest the Bluegrass since the event’s inception in 1999. This community effort has planted 200,000 trees in the community in twenty years. The event consists of planting trees, local sponsored booths of services and education. It is always a productive day and lots of fun for folks of all ages to come out and participate.
Lexmark is a supporter of Junior Achievement (JA) of the Bluegrass, whose purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. For over 20 years, Lexmark has been one of JA's largest corporate partners. Employees volunteer to present JA programs to more than 24,000 students of all ages in a typical school year and Lexmark has adopted schools in the local area to sponsor their JA in-school programs.
