Life Time Fitness
At a Glance
Industry
Retail and Apparel
Project Types
Data Analysis, Engagement and Behavior Change, Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy
Year
2018
Location
Chanhassen, MN
Summary
Joseph Hodges helped Life Time increase funding for their CSR programs by engaging and educating executives and employees, helping to make the case for a direct business objective.
Goals
Life Time, a healthy way of life company with over 130 luxury athletic clubs, asked EDF Climate Corps fellow, Joseph Hodges to help expand and formalize its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy and to present operational changes that would reach across its three platforms of Healthy People, Communities, and Planet. The Healthy Planet pillar, Life Time’s strongest, had already won numerous awards and achieved results such as 15% electricity and 5% gas reduction, but ambitious growth plans and limited resources dedicated to CSR presented the biggest challenges.
Solutions
In order to overcome the obstacle of lack of funding, Hodges determined that the best strategy was to provide education and inspiration across departments and help to make CSR a direct business objective, for Life Time. This could be done by telling the stories of successful, existing initiatives, identifying new projects and implementing programs with quick returns. He designed and led a monthly process that enabled interested executives to explore those solutions. This included:
- CSR
- Creating meeting agendas and protocols
- Providing backp research to help them make informed decisions
- Identifying potential CSR initiatives, based on research of comparable organizations, Life Time’s business model and strategy and the feasibility and impact of each initiative.
Additionally, Hodges proposed twenty new projects, created the guiding principals of a formal volunteer program for team members and launched an organics composting pilot at Time Life’s Chanhassen club.
Potential Impact
A survey of the volunteer program across all clubs received a 25% response rate, detailing 12 events that had generated 3,900 hours of service. His recommendations for an expanded program could increase the contributions to over 25,000 hours per year. Hodge’s organics pilot yielded a 7% increase in diversion in its first month up to 30%, but analysis of a national roll-out to all 134 clubs estimates a potential diversion of 54%, keeping an additional 10,000 tons out of landfills per year with net greenhouse gas emission reductions of 4,700 MT CO2e. With these programs, a platform for executive education and a more detailed vision, Life Time is well positioned to become a CSR leader while rapidly growing its business.