September at Acronis: Turning World Cleanup Day into a Month of Action

September has always been a month of transition — summer giving way to autumn, routines resuming, new beginnings. At Acronis, September has taken on another meaning: a month dedicated to environmental action. Timed to coincide with UN World Cleanup Day — held globally on the third Saturday of September — employees across the company step out of the office to plant trees, clean parks, and care for green spaces in their communities.  

What began as local volunteer days has grown into a tradition that spans continents. In Germany, colleagues in Munich braved the rain to join the UN World Cleanup Day, collecting 160 kilograms of waste together with the Bavarian Red Cross. In Turkey, the team in Istanbul rolled up their sleeves for a beach cleanup, removing 290 kilograms of trash. In Serbia, employees made Block 45 of Belgrade cleaner, removing 396 kilograms of litter. And in Spain, World Cleanup Day marked the start of our Foundation Ambassadors’ journey, with local volunteers coming together to restore community spaces. 

These projects may look different in scale, but they share the same spirit: protecting the environments where we live and work. 

In 2025 alone, more than 180 employees have joined environmental volunteering activities across 10 countries. Together, they planted 1,680 trees and collected over 1,000 kilograms of waste. These numbers tell a story of collective impact — small acts multiplied across offices and geographies into a force for tangible change. 

But our commitment goes beyond planting. We also care for the trees after they take root. In Japan, volunteers took part in tree thinning events, while in Bulgaria teams returned to nurture the newly planted trees through weeding, digging, and clearing wild berries and bushes around them. The Bulgarian team takes this even further: they organize educational sessions with primary school children, giving them young oak saplings to care for over the summer. Later, the children join our volunteers and NGO partners to plant the oaks together, learning how to care for them properly under professional guidance. 

While World Cleanup Day anchors these activities, the commitment goes further. September has become Acronis’ environmental month, with cleanups, plantings, and restoration projects clustered together to build momentum and visibility. But it doesn’t stop there — environmental volunteering is an ongoing effort all year round. 

In Bulgaria, this year employees planted 520 oak trees, returning regularly to water and care for them — with more than 70 % of trees thriving months later. In Romania, volunteers planted over 1,000 of seedlings from 13 different tree species, including ash, elm, maple, oak, linden, and more. Their efforts contribute to enriching the local ecosystem, boosting biodiversity, and promoting environmental education. The event also included the creation of perennial plant islands, enhancing both the beauty and ecological balance of the area. In Serbia, Acronis team made it already a tradition to plant 100 of trees twice a year, in spring and in autumn, mostly around various kids organizations and in public spaces of Belgrade and Novi Sad. And in the United States, Acronis team restored Melvin G. Rogers Park, collecting over a dozen large bags of trash to return the area to the community. 

These regular cleanups and plantings show that our commitment isn’t limited to a single day — it’s woven into the year’s rhythm and rooted in the communities where our employees live and work. 

Just as Acronis’ mission is to safeguard digital worlds, these efforts show that protection can take many forms. Protecting a community park, re-growing a forest, or reducing plastic pollution all align with the same core belief: responsibility goes beyond business to the societies and environments we share. 

From Massachusetts to Munich, from Sofia to Tokyo, September proves that when employees unite behind a common cause, the results are measured not just in trees or kilos of waste — but in the lasting culture of care they create.