United Way encourages people to “Live United” to collectively address needs in our communities.

A group of Amway employees and friends took that concept a few miles further when they decided to “Ride United” to raise funds for United Way.

The enthusiastic group of motorcyclists recently donated a small entry fee to pull on their boots, don their shades and strap on their helmets to cruise through the countryside on sunny summer Saturday.

Starting at Amway World Headquarters, the rally was a creative way to kick-start our annual campaign to support the Heart of West Michigan United Way.

But while a picnic lunch and entertainment waited at the finish, these grassroots do-gooders took time to enjoy the journey along the way – knowing their efforts would help other people live better lives.

If your end-of-summer plans find you in West Michigan this week,  you’re welcome to stop by Amway World Headquarters for a visit to our Welcome Center.

You’ll learn about Amway’s global business, our brands that do wonders and the business opportunity that has put millions of people in business for themselves. 

More than 20 interactive exhibits and 160 videos tell Amway’s story from its founding in 1959 to its global success today.

The Amway Welcome Center is open weekdays except major holidays.    Call 616/787-6701 for hours and more information. 

Amway, and Amway’s Welcome Center, will be closed Monday, September 5 in celebration of the U.S. Labor Day holiday.

Stop by for a visit.  You’re always welcome.

Around Amway, less is adding up to a lot more in terms of saving energy and water.

Last year Amway hosted five Kaizen events to identify how we can save electricity and water.  These events resulted in changes that saved 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity – enough to power 300 homes for a year – and 87 million gallons of water – enough to supply 680 households annually.

But reducing isn’t all we’ve done.  

We recycle 25 million pounds of materials per year, equivalent to 1.2 million bags of trash.  We recycled 78 percent of  our waste in 2009, 84 percent in 2010 and have set a goal of recycling 95 percent by 2014.

We think our Fulton Innovation eCoupled technology rocks.  After all, the way eCoupled wirelessly powers cars and electronics is pretty cool stuff.

If you think this technology rocks, too, help get eCoupled on the agenda of the 2012 South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference.

Conference presenters are selected partially by popular vote through SXSW’s “Panel Picker.”  So if you’d like to see Fulton present about the future of wireless during this interactive, film and music festival, just click here.  Choose the “thumbs up” sign to let organizers know you think Fulton’s “Juice without Wires” presentation is an “idea that rocks.” 

But if you want to see wireless power at work a bit sooner, this video shows how eCoupled powers everything from appliances to technology.

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Amway is in the business of selling nutritional supplements.  But our ultimate goal is to help people live better lives.

Our products  and online resources reach millions of people.  But some need a little additional inspiration, and come to the source – Nutrilite’s Center for Optimal Health (COH) in Buena Park, Calif.

Since 2006  more than 75,000 guests from all over the world have visited COH, ranging from foreign journalists to local school kids to policy makers here and abroad.  Last year, nearly 25,000 visitors from 38 countries visited the center to learn about nutrition, fitness and the science behind the Nutrilite brand.    

Some traveled from near and some from very far.  But all had a common goal – improving their health and wellness.

Watch the video below to learn more about what our visitors see, hear and do at COH.

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For three months this summer, the more than 100 college interns who invaded Amway’s World Headquarters in Ada were hard to miss.  

We were in the halls, on the softball field and in the cafeteria. We attended meetings and events and worked on projects in many Amway divisions.

The interns had 12 weeks in which to experience Amway,  and we took advantage of every opportunity - ”lunching and learning“ with executives, solving problems and leading projects.  

We even found time for some friendly competition with interns at other companies and to volunteer  with local school kids.

Now as summer winds down, we head back to our respective colleges and universities with longer resumes, practical work experience and many more LinkedIn connections.

The halls might be a little less crowded and the cafeteria quieter for now. 

But don’t worry, in just eight months, another crew of interns will return!

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Brittany Hill is an intern in Global Procurement this summer.

Unlike many of my fellow interns, I am a graduate student seeking a MBA from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management.

When deciding where to complete my internship, I wanted a company that listened to me, recognized my strengths, and understood my desire to work internationally. I was prepared for all of the horrible things I had heard about graduate level internships such as long hours, mysterious projects, impersonal relationships, impossible deadlines and a fiercely competitive pool of interns.

I was wrong – about Amway, about the people, and about the job.

My projects related to the exact skills I was learning in the classroom and allowed me to work on projects with colleagues from around the world. I have led an international team with members from four continents to complete a project that will have a global impact, even after I am gone.

The company also strives to provide a great balance between work and personal life. Throughout the summer I was able to be challenged professionally, as well as find time to take a canoeing trip, hone my photography skills, and play softball with other interns.

Now, 12 weeks later, I feel much more prepared to finish school, start my career, and be a part of the workforce.

When we launch a new Nutrilite product, we arm our distributors with all the information they need to sell the product to their consumers.

But some distributors take learning about our products a step further – or in the case of a group of distributors from Taiwan, miles further.

About 250 Amway distributors from Taiwan recently visited our Nutrilite Trout Lake Farm in Washington to learn about Nutrilite Triple Guard Echinacea, which will launch soon in their market.   During their visit distributors learned how the echinacea, or coneflower, plants are grown, harvested and processed before becoming part of our product.  

But they had more than science lessons at our farm.  The group learned about the social responsibility of our operations -  sustainability efforts  that include organic farming, social responsibility and helping the communities where we do business.  And they left with ideas about how they could make small changes to make a big difference in their corner of the world. 

“I came expecting to hear about how we could sell more products. Instead, you told us about how we can change the world by planting a tree, helping a neighbor or picking up trash from the street,” said one of the distributors who attended the trip.  ”We’re not just selling a product. We’re also changing the world.”

You didn’t have to search far to find Amway Canada in the news this summer.

Our Canadian affiliate made headlines by taking home two prestigious honors at the Canadian Direct Selling Association (CDSA) annual meeting in June. Amway Canada received CDSA’s “Making a Difference” award for its support of Easter Seals, notably for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through the organization’s Drop-Zone Events. 

And Angela Abdallah, our manager of communications and  government affairs and vice chair of CDSA, was given the industry’s highest honor, the Ivan P. Phelan Award.  This award honors those who have made  “a significant contribution to the advancement of the direct selling industry in Canada.”

Finally, Amway Canada was featured in two major stories about direct selling in Canada  in La Presse and Direct Selling News.

The Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) Beauty Inc. Top 100 ranking of the biggest beauty manufacturers in the world is out, and Alticor, Amway’s parent company, is near the top of the list.

Alticor was #20 on this list of “who’s who” in the global skin care and cosmetics industry.

The ranking was driven by Amway’s powerhouse beauty brand Artistry, which is among the world’s top five, largest selling, premium skin care brands.*  The ranking also includes sales of non-Amway skin and cosmetic brands owned by Alticor.

Since Artistry has fans in more than 80 countries and territories, it’s not surprising that it helped Alticor land near the top of this global list of the biggest names in beauty.

*Source: Euromonitor International Limited; Beauty and Personal Care database; premium cosmetics sector; global 2009 RSP; global brand name classification.