As we continuously strive to build a sustainable and resilient organization, ensuring profitability is critical to our success. We recognize that our suppliers, employees, and customers all make vital and distinct contributions to help us achieve this important goal.
Each year, the Leadership Team at Hunter Industries sets a targeted percentage goal for profit sharing. Employees are regularly updated on organizational progress toward the goal. Over the last seven years, employees have seen an average distribution of 14% of eligible earnings. Profit sharing is celebrated at most locations at the end of the calendar year. Because of the pandemic, we could not gather in person to celebrate during 2020. To keep the fun alive, we engaged employees around the globe in different ways, including relaying fun video messages from the Leadership Team and sending out specially designed “Together Distantly” T-shirts.
Profitability ensures we can continuously implement new ways to invest in product and process improvements while minimizing environmental impacts. Our “Built on Innovation” program — which engages employees and customers to encourage innovative thinking — continues to produce outstanding results. Despite the challenges we faced throughout 2020, participants contributed a range of creative ideas to promote the success of our organization. In 2020, we reached a major milestone:
2020 Edwin J. Hunter Innovator of the Year Award
Recognizing a Lifetime of Achievement in Agricultural Irrigation Product Development
Congratulations to Mark Healy for being selected as the winner of the 2020 Edwin J. Hunter Innovator of the Year Award. Mark was recognized for his many years of contributions in helping Senninger deliver innovative irrigation products to their customers. He was selected from a group of 20 employees who received CEO Innovation Awards from Greg Hunter during the year.
A prolific engineer, Mark received the Irrigation Association’s Industry Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the development of the irrigation industry in 1994 along with his brother, Andy Healy. Mark helped design the industry’s first inline pressure regulator in 1966 and has since followed with a long list of innovative products that have revolutionized how irrigation products are designed and manufactured.
His unique contributions include plastic sprinklers for center pivots (1971), the first six-degree “Wind fighter” center pivot sprinkler (1974), the first color-coded sprinkler nozzles (1970), Wobbler® Technology (1978), Hydro Sprinkler Package Design Software (1980), the LEPA Quad Spray (1986), integral sprinkler weights (1999), thermoplastic gooseneck and truss rod hose sling (2002), the quick-change UP3 nozzle (2008), and the hand-tight nozzle for impact sprinklers (2014).
Meet Our 2020 Ann Hunter-Welborn Circle of Excellence Award Winners
When Hunter Industries was established in 1981, co-founder Ann Hunter-Welborn initiated steps to develop a long-term sustainability movement for our organization. Her efforts helped us realize that we can’t achieve our goals alone. The Ann Hunter-Welborn Circle of Excellence Award — presented annually since 2018 — aims to identify, congratulate, and publicly recognize customers and partners who exemplify socially responsible practices within our industry and inspire others to join the movement. Click here to discover how our 2020 award recipients are setting the standard for excellence in the green industry.
Finding New Ways to Meet Our CSR Goals in a Changing World
We’re proud of staying the course on our CSR commitments despite the complex challenges presented by the pandemic. Looking ahead, we will implement our roadmap for decarbonizing our company and develop a plan to further reduce our water footprint. On the social side, we will implement a robust new strategy to enhance employee career development and engage our stakeholders to refine material topics and key performance indicators. We also plan to implement a new software platform to improve global tracking and communication related to our organizational goals and commitments.
Special thanks to the following employees for their tireless efforts to help create this report: Adela Alfaro, Scott Allison, Connie Alvarado, Michelle Assadi, Amanda Baldwin, Betsy Brasfield, Stephanie Brownell, Bryce Carnehl, Parul Chauhan, Ishmael Colon, Mel Defaria, Jeff Falk, Kris Guy, Shelly Hester, Jason Herman, Wendy Hoth, Katie Johanski, Jeffery Kremicki, Carol Leon, Moises Lopez, Salvador Lopez, Jordan Lovgren, Matt McArdle, Silvia Moore, Todd Melton, Breanna Morries, Liz Mutrux, Dina Newcomb, Ana Osuna, Todd Polderman, Erin Rapp, Jaime Sandoval, Steve Sharp, Scott Skeens, Kate Smith, Ann Tartre (SustainabilityNext), Jason Ward, Robert Wessel, and Eric Zuazo.