FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Marissa Kerman
Landmark Pest Management
224-775-5888 direct telephone
marissa.kerman@landmarkpest.com


Landmark Pest Management Wins Daily Herald Business Ledger 2021 Diversity Award, Along with 17 Other Firms

Eighteen organizations have been selected as honorees of the inaugural Diversity in Business Awards (Diversity Awards). Daily Herald Business Ledger’s Diversity in Business Awards recognition will honor businesses who have shown exceptional commitment to promoting practices that advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace, in business leadership, and who bolster equality across all areas of diversity; including age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, race and religion.
The awards will be presented virtually via livestream, to register, visit: dhbusinessledger.com or by using this live link: 2021 Diversity in Business Awards Event Registration.

Honorees will also be profiled in a special publication of the Daily Herald Business Ledger published on Monday, Sept. 13th.

Landmark Pest Management embraces equal employment opportunity (EEO) and inclusiveness and maintains a work environment in which no employee or applicant for employment is denied equal opportunity because of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other non-merit-based factor.

Landmark CEO Rebecca Fyffe says, “That’s the law though, so nobody should give us an award based on just that. Let’s talk about what we’re doing to take our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion many steps further and to be disruptive and show leadership in the D,E,& I sphere.”

• Landmark engaged an African-American owned diversity and inclusion consulting firm to guide its hiring efforts. The consultant works with aldermen throughout Chicago, as well as the City Colleges of Chicago to help Landmark connect with talented candidates from diverse backgrounds.
• Landmark founded and sponsors an annual scholarship award for women in STEM, since women are underrepresented in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
• Landmark has a diversity supply plan that gives preference to women-owned and minority-owned companies to furnish us with the products and services we buy. Landmark also leads workshops to help its vendors create their own diversity supply plans
• Landmark proactively conducts sensitivity training with all of its teams annually to reduce the chance that someone might give offense to a coworker who is a member of a protected group and to create a safe space for anyone who needs to bring their concern to management so they will know that their concern will be welcomed and will be taken seriously
• Landmark asks all employment applicants their preferred name and pronouns so that we don’t make assumptions about people and instead create a welcoming environment where everyone’s rights to their correct name and pronouns are respected
• Landmark’s research interests and philanthropic contributions are designed to improve equity in historically underserved communities
  
  Examples include:
  • Many children in our cities are economically disadvantaged and there are obstacles to their education, but disparate access to pest control doesn’t have to be one of them. When Landmark visits a school where a child has brought bed bugs from home to school, Landmark works with the principal to provide resources to the child’s guardians, including helping them invoke their rights under the Chicago Bed Bug Ordinance by writing a landlord notification letter, or by offering grant-funded services to treat the child’s home free of charge. These philanthropic services are offered with the goal of alleviating embarrassment or bullying that children with bed bugs at home might otherwise endure. While writing and mailing a letter seems easy to some people, it’s a prohibitive barrier to others, so Landmark writes the landlord notification letter for them and delivers it by certified mail at the company’s expense. One can imagine that children who bring bed bugs to school get bullied and made fun of, so for Landmark, it’s not enough to treat the classroom. The team at Landmark wants to help level the playing field for that child so they can focus on their studies and not feel embarrassed.
  • Landmark Pest Management donates its services to many deserving individuals and organizations. One such example is Montessori School of Englewood in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The school installed a vegetable garden to teach the children about growing healthy food, and chefs volunteered their time to teach the children how to cook what they grew. Gardeners from Chicago’s Museum Campus volunteered to help plan and plant the garden. The only problem was that pests love healthy food too, and pretty soon they moved in to share in the bounty. When Landmark heard about this, they said that Montessori School of Englewood deserves the same excellent pest control that Michelin-starred restaurants, and James Beard Award-winning chefs rely upon, so Landmark donated all of the pest control to the school and also sealed pests out of the building by installing door sweeps and tuckpointing on a pro bono basis.
• Landmark CEO Rebecca Fyffe is also a mentor to many women and minority-owned firms. The Illinois Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at the Women’s Business Development Center hosts a program called GovCon, and Rebecca is a presenter and mentor in this program helping women and minority-owned firms grow their capacity.
• Rebecca also serves on a number of boards and committees that help shape policies impacting women-owned and minority-owned businesses, including the Federation of Women Contractors, which partners with the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) and works to ensure the equitable participation of its constituents in the construction industry.

Mission Statement
We control insects and humanely manage wildlife in the interest of human health and safety from an environmental sustainability perspective with a love of nature and a deep respect for all living things.

Business History
In 2008, Rebecca Fyffe founded Landmark Pest Management, and the company’s rapid growth, uniqueness, and success enabled her to purchase ABC Humane Wildlife Control & Prevention, Inc., the first private nuisance wildlife control firm in the United States, which was founded in 1976. The company Rebecca leads today is a merger of these two brands.

The company serves 10,000 clients each year, including homeowners in six Chicago Metro Area counties (Cook, Lake, DuPage, McHenry, Will, and Grundy). Landmark also provides commercial services to stores, offices, managed multi-unit properties, and government buildings, including every police station, every fire station, and every public library in the City of Chicago, City Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, every CTA station, over 400 Chicago Public Schools, both O’Hare and Midway airports, and state buildings over a five-county area.

Here is a complete list of this year’s honorees:

· A Safe Haven, Chicago
· Landmark Pest Management, Schaumburg
· Association Management Center, Chicago
· Bank of America, Chicago
· Burns & McDonnell, Chicago
· Call One, Inc., Chicago
· Comcast, Schaumburg
· Delta Hotels by Marriott Chicago Willowbrook
· Dominican University, River Forest
· Elgin Police Department
· Lake County Community Foundation, Grayslake
· Mainstreet Organization of Realtors, Downers Grove
· North Suburban YMCA, Northbrook
· NWSRA - Northwest Special Recreation Association, Rolling Meadows
· Populus Group, LLC, Lisle
· The Alive Center, Naperville
· WCPT 820AM, Chicago
· Zurich NA, Schaumburg