More than 2,000 employees from Invitrogen Corporation's 25 global offices will head into their communities on July 13 to take part in an effort to improve the areas where they live and work in the company's 3rd Annual Global Volunteer Day.

In Shanghai, staff will attend a community environmental protection seminar. Their Beijing counterparts will help at a local beautification project while their colleagues in Taiwan work at a recycling station for the day. Invitrogen employees in Guangzhou will assist in battery collection and disposal.

This year's theme is "Invitrogen Goes Green" and Invitrogen's Annual Global Volunteer Day provides employees worldwide with a half day of company time to participate in employee-organized volunteer activities. This has enabled the company to impart thousands of volunteer hours to dozens of organizations, moving its passion for philanthropy out of the office and into action.

Last year employees logged more than 5,000 volunteer hours directly benefiting their local communities. In 2006, Invitrogen bolstered its commitment to a robust environmental policy and dedicated its worldwide Global Volunteer Day efforts to ecological stewardship. Adding these volunteer efforts to the company's onsite recycling programs, waste management and resource conservation efforts, the company and its employees are proactively taking steps to protect and preserve the environment.

"We have a tremendous amount of momentum leading into this year's Global Volunteer Day," said Gregory T. Lucier, Chairman and CEO of Invitrogen. "Over the past two years our employees have experienced firsthand what can be accomplished in their communities and many have developed a year-round dedication to service. I am excited by the anticipation and energy I feel from our team."