PROFILE OF A CHAMPION: GAS SOUTH

A COMPANY BUILT ON PURPOSE

Gas South was nominated and selected by fellow Georgia business leaders for their unwavering commitment to generosity. Five years after receiving the inaugural goBeyondProfit Champion Award, Gas South continues to demonstrate how generosity in business strengthens organizations during times of significant growth and change.

“I think being a generous company is truly multifaceted,” says Kevin Greiner, CEO of Gas South. “Our employees love it because they feel like they have a sense of purpose coming to Gas South. Our customers see us as a company that really leans into the community, which leads to a level of loyalty that is uncommon in our industry. And we are seen as a leader in our industry in part because of how we lean into community engagement.”

True to its purpose, Gas South has consistently raised the bar on business generosity. Their pledge to donate 5% of annual profits to youth organizations has reached a remarkable $4.5 million in donations in 2024.

Excerpts taken from the interview with Kevin Greiner, CEO of Gas South.

Be a Fuel for Good

Gas South really has built our business around purpose. When you get purpose working, you take an approach of thinking about who are all the stakeholders in my business. How do I holistically really make a difference with all of these different constituencies? It all started with a pledge that we had made in 2016, which was to give back 5% of our profits to youth in need. It was really to support our purpose of being a fuel for good, in caring for our customers and our employees, and in elevating our industry and our communities, and as we looked at how do you bring purpose to life, a core part of that community commitment was really about that 5% of profits going to children in need.

Purpose as the X Factor for Gas South’s Growth

I think that purpose matters so much when you acquire or merge with another company. Through all of the acquisitions that we have made it has made such a difference. Those employees who came over from acquisitions, all the great team members that we’ve been able to bring into this great company, have mentioned that time and time again that they could see that this was a purpose-driven organization. They wanted to be part of that.

I think it is difficult if you don’t have that foundation, because this is a time when people are really watching and thinking about, is this really where I want to go? Is this where I want to continue my career? Without it, you’re going to lose a lot of folks.

Narrowing the Focus Deepens the Impact in the Community

We have made a shift in our philanthropy. What we’ve done is we have concentrated our giving with a fewer number of larger partners and I think that’s really helped us to move the needle with those organizations. We’re able to fund specific initiatives and specific programs and to be a more meaningful partner for those organizations.

The way that we look at the 5% is as the pie increases, there’s more good that we can do. We felt like the 5% of profits going to children need continues to be as salient as ever and makes sense as much as ever for Gas South.

Practical Ways Purpose Influences Employee Care

The way that we think about “Work for Your Day”, is all about conscientious autonomy. We want you to make the decisions about whether you should be in the office with a customer or at home on a given day, but be conscientious about it. Think about what impact it is going to have.

People do a lot of different work. People have a lot of different preferences and so we decided not to go in the direction of having a one size fits all where everybody’s expected to be in the office on certain days. We decided instead to really take advantage of the differences of the work that people do and recognize that there is a different optimum for different individuals in terms of how often they should be in the office versus how often they should be able to work from home.

Our team members want to have more autonomy in how they work and where they work. And we’ve embraced that at Gas South and really tried to turn that into a strength for our company.