InBUSINESS - CSR Awards 2016 by Ashville Media Group

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CSR AWARDS 2016 •

Thursday September 1st DoubleTree By Hilton Burlington Road, Dublin 4

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Whether a child has Cancer, is Critically ill or has a life threatening / life limiting condition BUMBLEance is here to help. BUMBLEance the childrens national ambulance service reaches into every town, city and county in Ireland, delivering safe and comfortable transportation of sick children to and from children's hospitals, national treatment centres, respite and hospice centres. BUMBLEance provides the highest standards in professional medical care, and our top-of-the range entertainment facilities are designed and tailored for children. Our aim is to distract, comfort and entertain Ireland's Youngest and most sick patients as they travel, allowing children to be children and parents to be parents. We like to deliver smiles and compassion in equal measure, we provide additional supports when needed most.

‘We want an Ireland where the FEAR and Stress of an Ambulance Journey for a Child no Longer Exists’ Tony Heffernen, Founder and CEO of The Saoirse Foundation

Liam Ruth

Because of Liam’s condition we could have to stop on route if he had a seizure or to do suctioning and we would have to do that on the side of the road, but now, hospital journeys are stress free thanks to BUMBLEance. Liam’s mother

Julia

(Rest in Peace)

BUMBLEance runs such a great service for all kids, and the parents get the enjoyment of seeing their kids happy, even if it is for one last time. Ruth’s father Ruth grew her angel wings before her 1st birthday

BUMBLEance made a world of a difference to my daughter Julia as she received her treatment (Cancer) in Dublin. Julia, who was recently declared cancer free, will never forget the comfort and kindness she experienced each time on board! Julia’s mother

Tommy

Two of my major lifelines in my daily fight for life, are the love of my family and the reliability of Bumbleance. Tommy’s mother

BUMBLEance is the world’s first children’s interactive ambulance service. • Critical Care & Inter Hospital Transfers • End of Life / Angel Trips • Pre & Post Surgical Appointments

• Pre & Post Organ Transplant Journeys • Respite & Hospice Trips • Specialised Appointments & Cancer Treatments

Our Plans are to increase and develop our BUMBLEance fleet to serve even more children from every region & county on the island of Ireland

To find out how you and your company can help, Contact us

TEL: 083 00 44 444

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EMAIL: info@BUMBLEance.com

www.BUMBLEance.com

BUMBLEance, The Saoirse Foundation is a non for profit charity CHY 19226

@BUMBLEance

www.facebook.com/BUMBLEance

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COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE

his special supplement introduces the companies and projects that have been shortlisted for the 2016 CSR Awards. The annual awards showcase the best practice in CSR being undertaken by Irish business and throughout this supplement we can read about the various projects shortlisted in each category, share knowledge of best practice and learn more about what is excellence in CSR in 2016. Chambers Ireland is proud of our ongoing role in promoting best practice in CSR to the business community. This year we are particularly proud of the work the Chambers Ireland CSR Policy Council has undertaken to support CSR amongst SMEs. The members of the Council have dedicated their time and expertise to supporting SMEs to develop their own CSR policies. We also continue to participate as active members of the National CSR Stakeholder Forum. We support the ongoing work to increase awareness of CSR and develop and promote Ireland’s National Action Plan on CSR. This year we have introduced a new category to these awards, Excellence in Supporting Youth Employment, to recognise the efforts Irish companies are making to promote employment among young people. In spite of significant reductions to the overall unemployment rate, youth unemployment remains a huge social and economic issue in Ireland. The business community has been to the fore in seeking to address this challenging issue, and we felt it important that their efforts are recognised. The shortlist highlights some of the many companies participating in such programmes and we acknowledge the positive impact being made by such projects. I commend all companies shortlisted for this year’s awards. Each shortlisted company has demonstrated that they are achieving excellence in CSR.

Ian Talbot Chief Executive, Chambers Ireland

02 04 06 08 10

2016 CSR Shortlist

Committed to CSR CSR in the Chamber Full CSR Shortlist Judging the Merits of CSR Arthur Cox

Abbott

Eversheds

16 18 20

KPMG

Bank of Ireland Zurich

22 24 26 29 31

Tesco

Three ireland ESB

PayPal

Trinity College Dublin

PM Group

34 36 37

Cmrf

Saoirse Foundation

Companies Shortlisted

Waterford Crystal

Published by: Ashville Media Group, Old Stone Building, Blackhall Green, Dublin 7 Tel: +353 1 432 2200 | Email: info@ashville.com | Web: www.ashville.com On behalf of: Chambers Ireland, 3rd Floor, Newmount House,, 22 - 24 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2 Tel: +353 1 400 4300 | Email: info@chambers.ie | Web: www.chambers.ie All articles © Ashville Media Group 2016. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Opinion and comments expressed herein are not necessarily those of Ashville Media or Chambers Ireland.

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CSR AWARDS 2016

In recent years government has proven its commitment to the promotion and encouragement of CSR in Ireland with two departments particularly active within the sector. We asked them to tell us more about what is happening at Government level to promote and support CSR.

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING, PLANNING, COMMUNITY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Committed

CSR

Many organisations all across the country are addressing a range of issues including the environment, disability, raising standards of education and tackling poverty and social exclusion. These issues are also priorities for this Government. In many cases, a collaborative approach between public and private bodies, businesses and individuals offers the best opportunity to advance these areas. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has a key role to play in this context. CSR recognises our changing world and of the need for all sectors of society – Government, employees, multinationals and SMEs – to recognise the rights and responsibilities now inherent in commercial and non-commercial activity. CSR touches on many aspects of our lives – the environment, the economy, the workplace, and society in general. Many benefits can accrue to businesses from relationships forged under the principles of CSR. In addition, Corporate Social Responsibility activities can be consistent with profitability and it is known that some of those companies most committed to CSR are also among the most successful and profitable. To continue to be successful in the long term, businesses have to recognise the interests not only of their bottom line and of shareholders, but also of employees, customers,

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CSR AWARDS 2016

suppliers and the wider community in which they are based. Government support has been, and continues to be, vital for the active development of the CSR sector. This Government has demonstrated its commitment to working in closer partnership with all sectors to ensure that dynamic businesses and groups within society are given the support they need to champion ideas for the betterment of society. The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government fully acknowledges the immense value of CSR to society. Through our work, especially in the areas of promoting sustainable and inclusive communities and in the promotion of philanthropy, we see and appreciate the role CSR plays in improving our workplaces and our quality of life. Many very worthwhile initiatives are only made possible by the alliances that have formed between communities, voluntary organisations, government and business. It is important that our community and voluntary sector can tap into the many cross-over benefits which can flow from a well cultivated relationship with the business community. The Department is very pleased to provide financial support to Chambers Ireland and also to be involved in the judging panel for its annual Corporate Social Responsibility awards. As a result of this partnership, we bring back firsthand experience of how businesses, large and small, indigenous and multinational, develop and implement programmes to tackle many of the issues challenging society today. Corporate Social Responsibility plays an important role in driving business forward – by its nature it encourages innovative thinking by both business and the workforce. As a result, it is important that the real value of CSR is communicated to all participants in a way they will readily understand. Chambers Ireland’s annual CSR Awards, including this supplement, provide the ideal mechanism by which such communication takes place. | CSR AWARDS 2016

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DEPARTMENT OF JOBS, ENTERPRISE AND INNOVATION Ireland’s first National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility, ‘Good for Business, Good for the Community’, was launched in 2014 by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. A key element of the national plan was the establishment of a CSR Stakeholder Forum, aimed at informing businesses about the development of CSR policy in Ireland and ensuring that the national plan remains relevant in the context of evolving best practice. The CSR Stakeholder Forum comprises representatives of the business sector, key Government departments and agencies and the wider community. Brendan Jennings, Managing Partner of Deloitte Ireland, is Chair of the Forum and he says there are numerous benefits to embracing CSR practices. “It helps you to build a more resilient business because you do what is right by your customer, what’s right by your employees, and what’s right within the community in which you operate. For more organisations today, a significant part of their value no longer lies in plant and machinery and bricks and mortar, it’s actually in the intangible thing of what their brand stands for, loyalty of customer trust, the quality of what they do.” The National Plan on CSR sets out the general framework within which CSR operates in Ireland and outlines the key principles and objectives which underpin the Government’s approach to CSR. It also seeks to communicate a common understanding of CSR by outlining the pillars on which CSR is based in Ireland. The core CSR pillars are: workplace, environment, marketplace and community. According to Jennings, the millennial generation is now helping to drive the CSR agenda. “They look at organisations a lot differently than I would have when I started my career,” he says. “Younger people today have a more holistic view of life, and the reality of it is that they will not want to work for organisations that don’t have a

focus on some of the things that they believe are important.” When you consider that people will likely be one of the scarcest commodities for corporates over the coming decades, it is another reason why businesses should consider their approach to these four pillars of CSR. “Being able to attract those people into your organisation because of the way you operate, what your priorities are, what your purpose is, becomes fairly important,” says Jennings. “It actually plays into those two key areas: attracting people and resilience by holding customers.” To help achieve its goals the Forum set up a CSR Hub website, www.csrhub.ie, a communications initiative which brings together all the key CSR resources in Ireland. The CSR Hub aims to provide a central repository of information on CSR, accessible to all businesses interested in learning more about sustainable and responsible business practices. Recognising the heightened importance of social media, the CSR Stakeholder Forum also established its twitter account in November 2015 - @CSRHubIrl. The main purpose of this account is to bring traffic to the CSR Hub, but in addition, with hundreds of millions of users and over 500 million tweets being sent daily, there is a great opportunity to engage and build meaningful connections with others interested in actively promoting the positive impacts of strategic CSR. The consultation phase for the development of the next National Plan on CSR will take place in the coming months, and the Department together with the CSR Stakeholder Forum is looking forward to engaging with all relevant stakeholders. The Department and the CSR Stakeholder Forum also supports and applauds the Chambers Ireland annual CSR Awards. These awards recognise and celebrate the important contribution that good CSR practices can make to both the Irish economy and to society as a whole; ‘Good for Business, Good for All’.

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COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE • WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING •

CSR AWARDS 2016

CSR in the Chamber We profile some of the recent CSR winners from within the Chamber Network.

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NORTH KILDARE CHAMBER BUSINESS AWARDS 2015

LOUTH BUSINESS AWARDS 2015

WEXFORD CHAMBER BUSINESS AWARDS 2016

Corporate Social Responsibility Award sponsored by Kildare Village Winner: KBC Bank Naas

Corporate Social Responsibility Award sponsored by Prometric Winner: Fyffes

Wexford Corporate Responsibility Award sponsored by Wexford Bus Winner: BNY Mellon

KBC was delighted to receive the 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Award from North Kildare Chamber for its activities in support of the community in North Kildare. As ‘The Bank of You’, KBC’s sustainability programme helps its customers, staff and communities share its vision for better, brighter communities. Through its 15 retail banking hubs, KBC is growing a strong retail presence in communities across Ireland. KBC’s Naas hub was officially opened in March 2015 and the team works hard to understand customer needs while making a positive impact on the community. Through Bright Ideas, KBC awards local funding to innovative ideas all over Ireland. Since 2013, it has funded 70 impactful projects countrywide. In Kildare, initiatives KBC has supported include:

Speaking about their win at the 2015 Louth Business Awards, Emma Hunt-Duffy, Sales and Marketing Manager at Fyffes, said: “At Fyffes, we are proud of our heritage as a local company, and wherever possible, we endeavour to help as many initiatives as we can throughout Louth, Leinster and indeed Ireland as a whole. We are very fortunate to be in a position to work with hundreds of grassroot charities, clubs, communities and initiatives each and every year. Some of our higher profile sponsorships include Dundalk FC, Dundalk Tennis Club, Star Camps and the St Patrick’s Day Parade, but Fyffes also provides supports to many causes by way of monetary funding or the provision of fruit. At a global level, Fyffes aims to provide the finest quality produce, produced under the safest working conditions, following fair labour practices and with the minimum environmental impact. Fyffes is pro-active in these matters and actively participates in industry forums on social, ethical, health and safety and environmental issues. Fyffes is also the biggest exporter of Fairtrade bananas into Europe. We were delighted to be recognised for our achievements and had a thoroughly good night at the awards.”

BNY Mellon’s Wexford office won the Corporate Social Responsibility Award at the annual Wexford Business Awards 2016. Now in its 8th year, the awards recognise the entrepreneurialism, innovation, diversity and talent of business across all sectors in County Wexford. The CSR award recognises the organisation that goes above and beyond its business duties to improve the wellbeing of others within the local or worldwide community. Around 500 members of the Wexford business community attended the event hosted by Irish broadcasting veteran, Pat Kenny. BNY Mellon has a strong history of philanthropic support in Ireland. In Wexford, employees regularly support local community initiatives, in particular local charity Acquired Brain Injury Ireland (ABI), Junior Achievement Ireland and St. Vincent de Paul. In 2015, BNY Mellon was named Corporate Philanthropist of the Year in recognition of its longstanding partnership with ABI in Wexford.

• The Chain Gang Project, which improves youth employment prospects through a bike maintenance and cycling initiative • HeartSafe in Kilcock, which provides community access to defibrillators • Shoulder to Shoulder community rugby coaching programme Staff from KBC’s Naas Hub actively support fundraising initiatives for KBC’s charity of the year, the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation. Find out more about KBC’s community initiatives at www.kbc.ie

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COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CHARITY COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERING PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT MARKETPLACE WORKPLACE CARLOW BUSINESS AWARDS 2015

FINGAL BUSINESS EXCELLENCE & CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GALA AWARDS 2015

Sponsored by Carlow County Council – Local Enterprise Office Winner: Arthurs Supervalu, Hacketstown Road, Carlow

The Fingal Awards celebrate the responsible business practices of companies across five CSR categories. The 2015 winners were:

Arthurs Supervalu aims to consistently offer its customers the very best of everything from customer service to freshness, value and quality. It has recently introduced ‘The Food Academy’, which showcases produce from local suppliers, giving small businesses a big opportunity from the premium Italian section to the new ten bay health and wellness section. Supervalu’s latest campaign, Good Food Karma, shares recipes, tips and ideas to help customers and their families cook from scratch whilst enjoying each others’ company. Arthurs Supervalu is also heavily involved with local community-based events. In conjunction with Carlow Older Person’s Forum, it became one of the first supermarkets in the Republic of Ireland to participate in a programme committed to older people, offering 10 per cent discounts on their grocery shop every Tuesday, free delivery services, dedicated parking spaces and seating area, which has been running successfully for over 12 months. In October 2015, Arthurs Supervalu was delighted to win the Social Responsibility Award at the Carlow Business Awards. The company is proud to be Irish, proud to be local.

Development in People Corporate Responsibility Award Winner: Dublin Airport

Multinational Employer of the Year Corporate Responsibility Award Winner: Fujitsu

“The winner of this award has proved that its strong commitment to the principles of CSR has impacted on all areas of the operation of this business. Enthusiastic and dedicated staff promote the organisation’s policies with spectacular results.”

“The winner of this award has set a great example to others in terms of its long-term involvement and support of the local community. The creation of a positive and inclusive workplace culture has contributed to this engagement.”

SME Employer of the Year Corporate Responsibility Award Winner: Country Crest

Large Employer of the Year Corporate Responsibility Award Winner: Viatel

“The winner has enabled staff to deliver an impressive number of CSR initiatives which have resulted in exceptional benefits. The company has developed a strong CSR culture which has contributed to a motivated workforce.”

“The winner of this award has demonstrated very clearly how Corporate Social Responsibility is at the foundation of the business. Its strong commitment to excellence was evident and the range and success of initiatives undertaken are exceptional.”

International Employer of the Year Corporate Responsibility Award Winner: PayPal “The winner of this award has an impressive record in terms of commitment and support to CSR initiatives both nationally and internationally. Judges were particularly impressed with the empowerment of employees to get involved with a wide range of different activities to support those in need.”

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CSR AWARDS 2016

Complete 2016 Shortlist

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EXCELLENCE IN CSR COMMUNICATION

• Lidl Ireland: Lidl’s CSR Programme

EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERING - LIC*

• Boots Ireland: Driving employee engagement and awareness of CSR through greater internal communication

• Tesco Ireland: Tesco Ireland raising funds for Temple Street

• Arthur Cox: Raising standards of living in Zambian communities through the Arthur Cox Zambia Project (ACZP)

• Three Ireland: Three’s Strategic Corporate Charity Partnership with An Cosán Virtual Community College

• PM Group: PM Group’s ‘Building’ Partnerships Initiative

• ESB: Communicating the impact of ESB’s Energy for Generations Fund • KPMG: KPMG’s Our CSR Story • Three Ireland: Together We Can Tackle Homelessness - leveraging Three’s sponsorship of the Irish rugby team to support Focus Ireland

EXCELLENCE IN ENVIRONMENT - LIC* Sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency

• daa: daa Travelling Towards Sustainability

EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP WITH CHARITY - LIC*

• Dawn Meats: Carroll’s Cross - Resource Management Excellence

• Bank of Ireland: Be Our Inspiration – Bank of Ireland and Barnardos

• ESB: ESB Tree Week

• Bon Secours Hospital Cork: Social skills app for children with autism

• Roadbridge: Roadbridge Energy Management Programme

• Datapac: Transforming technology services for Barretstown

EXCELLENCE IN ENVIRONMENT - MNC**

EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP WITH CHARITY - MNC** • Boots Ireland: Boots Ireland in partnership with the Irish Cancer Society • Boston Scientific: Charity Partnership across three Boston Scientific sites in Ireland • Heineken Ireland: Heineken Ireland and Cork Simon Aftercare Programme

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Sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency

• Abbott Ireland: Abbott’s journey to achieving 2020 environmental goals • IBM Ireland: IBM Smarter Cities Challenge Dublin • Tesco Ireland: Reducing carbon emissions and helping those in need through food waste donations at Tesco Ireland

• Trinity College Dublin: Trinity Access 21

EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERING - MNC** • Abbott Ireland: Sharing our talent, experiences and resources in our local communities • Eli Lilly: Eli Lilly Day of Service • Oracle: Sales skills for community and voluntary sector - a master class in sales and professional mentoring • SSE Airtricity: SSE Airtricity Be the Difference volunteering programme • Three Ireland: Employee Skills Volunteering for Virtual Community College

EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY PROGRAMME LIC* • Bank of Ireland: Enterprise Town - Working together to support local communities • DPS: DPS CSR Student Support Programme • Laya Healthcare: Super Troopers with Laya Healthcare | CSR AWARDS 2016

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EXCELLENCE IN WORKPLACE - LIC* • Arthur Cox: Fostering a culture of shared parenting for employees • Bank of Ireland: Be at your Best – Bank of Ireland’s Workplace Wellbeing Programme • ESB: Maternity Positive Programme • Eversheds: Workplace Wellbeing Initiative • KPMG: Ignite – Empowering Young Women

EXCELLENCE IN WORKPLACE MNC** • AbbVie: The Abbvie Ballytivnan Culture Teams • Lidl Ireland/Lidl Northern Ireland: We are Lidl • PayPal: Diversity and Inclusion Strategy • Zurich Insurance plc: Zurich Wellbeing Matters

EXCELLENCE IN MARKETPLACE • A& L Goodbody: A& L Goodbody collaborative project with the Irish Refugee Council’s Independent Law Centre | CSR AWARDS 2016

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• Arthur Cox: Helping to Change Irish Legisation on Human Rights Around Immigration - Arthur Cox and the Immigrant Council of Ireland

JUDGING PANEL The independent judging panel is made up of respected individuals working in various fields. The panel acts independently at all times. This year’s judging panel is as follows:

• KPMG: KPMG supports Going for Growth

JUDGING PANEL CHAIR

EXCELLENCE IN SUPPORTING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

ROUND ONE JUDGING PANEL

• Diageo Ireland: Diageo Learning for Life • ESB: ESB Apprenticeship Programme • Mergon International: Building for the Future at Mergon International • Microsoft: Youth2Work • Zurich Insurance plc: Zurich Youth Activation

EXCELLENCE IN CSR BY AN SME • Carey Building Contractors: Implementation of resource efficiency strategies • Collins McNicholas: 750km completed over three years in aid of Pieta House • Earth’s Edge: Kilimanjaro Equipment Lending Programme • John Cradock Ltd: Homeless Care – supporting young adults exiting the state care system in Kildare • Three Q PERMS & TEMPS: The Business of CSR in our Business

• John Cunningham is Chair of the judging process

• Pauline McKiernan Sustainability and Community Affairs, Ulster Bank • Dr Sheila Killian Director, Principles for Responsible Management Education, University of Limerick • Niall Hayden Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government • Nancy Brown Lecturer in Management Development, University of Ulster • Catherine Heaney Founder and Managing Director, DHR Communications

ROUND TWO JUDGING PANEL • Tomás Sercovich External Relations Director, Forética • Martin Tobin Chief Executive Officer, European Recycling Platform (ERP) Ireland • Éilis Murray Executive Director, Philanthropy Ireland • Deirdre Mortell CEO, Social Innovation Fund • Deirdre Kearney Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government • Maura Quinn Chief Executive, Institute of Directors in Ireland • Prof Rosa Chun Chair in Global Leadership, Reputation & Responsibility, UCD • Nina Arwitz Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Ireland

*LIC: LARGE INDIGENOUS COMPANY **MNC: MULTINATIONAL COMPANY 7

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CSR AWARDS 2016

Judging the Merits of CSR We asked this year’s awards judges to share their thoughts on what CSR means to business.

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CHAIR OF THE JUDGING PANEL JOHN CUNNINGHAM, CHAIR, IMMIGRANT COUNCIL OF IRELAND

”I am delighted to chair the judging process and am so proud of the quality of the submissions. We are making great progress and I believe we can confidently say Ireland is a leader in the CSR field - there’s always room for improvement but what progress we have made.”

JUDGING PANEL ONE Judging Panel One scrutinises all applications to the awards. The judges review the applications independently and provide a score. This judging panel then meets to discuss the highest scoring projects and create a shortlist of the strongest projects. These projects are then passed on to Judging Panel Two for review.

Pauline McKiernan, Ulster Bank “Shortlisting was a much tougher task than I expected, and any company that reaches the shortlist in these awards should be incredibly proud of its achievement.” Ulster Bank was last year’s winner of the Award for Outstanding Achievement in CSR.

Dr Sheila Killian, Director, Principles for Responsible Management Education, University of Limerick “It’s fantastic to see the different ways in which companies in Ireland are looking imaginatively at what they do and how they can do it a little differently to create value for employees or other stakeholders.”

Catherine Heaney, Founder and MD, DHR Communications “A strong commitment to CSR is increasingly important to a company’s competitiveness, both in terms of attracting clients and attracting passionate staff. To put it simply, clients like to work with, or buy from, a company that gives something back to the community.”

Niall Hayden, Department of Planning, Housing, Community and Local Government “The Department’s involvement in this important initiative demonstrates the Government’s commitment to working in closer partnership with all sectors to ensure that dynamic businesses are given the support they need to champion ideas for the betterment of society.”

Nancy Brown, University of Ulster “An organisation must focus its attention on both increasing its bottom line and being a good corporate citizen. Although the aspiration of organisations is to contribute to a better world, translating that aspiration into reality can prove to be a challenge.”

OVERALL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CSR

Each year, one company wins the award for overall excellence in CSR. This year, companies shortlisted for the overall award will be invited to make a presentation on their company’s CSR strategy to a panel of judges selected from Judging Panel One and Judging Panel Two. This presentation will help the panel to decide on the winner for overall excellence in CSR.

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VOLUNTEERI PARTNERSH COMMUNI ENVIRONME MARKETPLA WORKPLA CHARI COMMUNICATI VOLUNTEERI PARTNERSH EMPLOYME COMMUNI ENVIRONME MARKETPLA WORKPLA CHARI COMMUNICATI VOLUNTEERI PARTNERSH EMPLOYME COMMUNI ENVIRONME MARKETPLA WORKPLA CHARI COMMUNICATI VOLUNTEERI PARTNERSH EMPLOYME COMMUNI ENVIRONME MARKETPLA JUDGING PANEL TWO Judging Panel Two independently reviews the shortlisted projects and then meets to deliberate and decide on the category winners. This judging panel will also shortlist a small number of companies for the Overall Award for Excellence in CSR.

Tomás Sercovich, External Relations Director, Forética “We need to move away from labels: whether it is called CSR, social responsibility, sustainability or responsible business, there is a global general consensus on the fact that responsible and sustainable businesses are businesses that will succeed in the future.”

Martin Tobin, Chief Executive Officer, ERP Ireland “By taking a strategic approach to CSR and addressing their social responsibility, companies can build long-term employee, consumer and citizen trust leading to sustainable growth, responsible business behaviour and lasting job creation.”

Éilis Murray, Executive Director at Philanthropy Ireland “Giving is good for business at all levels. Strong CSR programmes, strategic in nature and driven from the top, contribute so much to society. Where they incorporate a philanthropic dimension - strategic planned giving - the impact can be quite significant.”

Deirdre Mortell, CEO, Social Innovation Fund “CSR provides the opportunity for a company to align its mission, customer needs and demands, supply chain and employee satisfaction with the community to create a win-win. It takes a bit of work but it can pay off in all kinds of dividends.”

Deirdre Kearney, Department of Planning, Housing, Community and Local Government “It was very interesting to see at first hand the diversity in the types and sizes of companies participating and all involved should be very proud of their achievements.”

Nina Arwitz, Chief Executive Officer, Volunteer Ireland “As CEO of Volunteer Ireland, I care about CSR because it is a key vehicle for engaging employees in volunteering. It is inspiring to see so many examples of high-quality volunteering among the companies shortlisted in this year’s CSR awards, through programmes that have a real impact.”

Maura Quinn, Chief Executive, Institute of Directors in Ireland “CSR is about much more than ‘doing the right thing’ – it also makes good business sense. Whether contributing to driving client engagement or employee retention, businesses in Ireland can gain real benefits from engaging in CSR activities.”

Prof Rosa Chun, UCD “Does your company try to create a differentiated image based on CSR in the hope that it will lead to satisfaction? Then think twice! My latest research shows that companies should build favorable stakeholder perceptions by focusing on key dimensions of virtue that most shape employee and customer ‘identification’ with the firm, which then eventually lead to ‘differentiation’ in the marketplace, not the other way round.”

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CSR PROFILE ARTHUR COX

A LASTING

CSR LEGACY Education and empowerment are at the heart of Arthur Cox’s CSR programme.

rom its beginnings almost 100 years ago, Arthur Cox has incorporated philanthropy and charitable activity into the running of its business, including active participation through volunteering and pro bono work. The firm’s founder, Arthur Cox, was a wellknown philanthropist and spent the final years of his life as a missionary priest in Zambia. His legacy continues with CSR endeavours that go from strength to strength each year within the firm. The Arthur Cox CSR programme is made up of four main pillars – charitable activities, volunteering, pro bono work and the environment.

for five organisations that then receive two-year commitments of CSR support and volunteering. When votes were cast in July 2015, the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA) was overwhelmingly the top choice. Arthur Cox is committed to supporting IMNDA, not just financially, but also with practical assistance that ultimately benefits the many sufferers of MND and their families in Ireland today. Arthur Cox has sponsored a job placement with IMNDA, called The Loretto Dempsey Placement, in recognition of its namesake’s continued brave fight against the disease.

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP THROUGH VOLUNTEERING Arthur Cox aims to support and encourage all staff to make a difference in the community. In recent years, the firm has worked closely with organisations including the Early Learning Initiative, Special Olympics Ireland and St Vincent de Paul as part of its volunteering programme. Always seeking further opportunities for people to serve as volunteers, the firm has a preference to partner with organisations where a long-term relationship can be established and incorporated into the CSR programme. Without doubt the cornerstone of Arthur Cox’s volunteering programme is its trainee-led Zambia Project, with its focus on

education and community self-empowerment. Now in its ninth year, The Arthur Cox Zambia Project was inspired by the firm’s founder, who travelled to Zambia over 50 years ago. The project is focused on raising standards of living in the most rural regions of Zambia by developing sustainable health, education and agricultural infrastructure, hand-in-hand with local communities. Recently, the project shifted its focus from healthcare to education, following a successful community handover in the Mwandi region. Returning to Chikuni, the burial place of Fr Arthur Cox, trainees have partnered with the local Jesuit mission to work hand-in-hand with the community on building solar-powered radio schools.

CHARITY PARTNERSHIP WITH IMNDA Like many other organisations around the world, Arthur Cox took part in the popular Motor Neurone Disease Ice Bucket Challenge back in 2014. But for Arthur Cox, this event had a poignant and personal significance, inspired by Loretto Dempsey, a valued staff member at Arthur Cox who is battling MND. The people at Arthur Cox have a vital role in directing charitable efforts, by voting

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Arthur Cox participants in the Calcutta Run 2016

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CSR PROFILE ARTHUR COX

CSR COMMITTED Commenting on Arthur Cox’s CSR programme and its importance for the firm, Brian O’Gorman, Managing Partner, says: “We have worked extremely hard on the design and implementation of our CSR policies. CSR is one of the key components of the way we do business. We are proud of our achievements to date and we will continue to move forward in the development of our programme across our four CSR pillars.”

Radio schools provide a government-approved curriculum to children who cannot attend formal schools due to geographic or financial barriers. The Zambia Project’s initiatives aim to become self-funding and are conducted in accordance with a carefully-devised community handover strategy to ensure that local residents assume ownership for their ongoing success. Community leadership and self-direction are key pillars of the project, ensuring its sustainability.

PRO BONO WORK AND THE CHANGING FACE OF IRELAND Like the Zambia Project, the Arthur Cox pro bono initiative is focused on overcoming disadvantage. Pro bono work is an opportunity for staff to exercise their professional skills free of charge, or for a substantially reduced fee, in aid of disadvantaged or marginalised people who cannot afford legal services as well as certain non-profit, charitable or community organisations. Arthur Cox encourages and promotes the undertaking of pro bono work. The firm’s ongoing pro bono commitment is highlighted in its

secondment programme to the Immigrant Council of Ireland, ongoing since 2013. The programme is focused on changing Irish legislation affecting key human rights issues around immigration. To date, five Arthur Cox lawyers have been seconded, each for a three to six month period. This has enabled the Council to expand both its much needed services for immigrants and its capacity as an organisation to carry out policy work. The secondment programme has significantly amplified Council support to the many immigrant families who access its legal services annually.

MINIMISING IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT Arthur Cox is committed to minimising its impact on the environment and undertakes initiatives to promote greater environmental awareness across all aspects of its day to day operations. The firm continues to make progress on waste reduction, with recycling initiatives for water, batteries, mobile phones and IT equipment. Energy audits are carried out regularly to assess performance. Arthur Cox is also developing strategies to reduce its carbon footprint

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Arthur Cox volunteer breaking ground in Zambia

on the environment long-term, as it prepares to move to new buildings that are BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) approved and meet LEED gold (shell and core) and platinum (fit out) standard.

EDUCATION AND THE NEXT GENERATION Education is central to the Arthur Cox CSR programme and is one of the firm’s key CSR objectives – to have a long-term impact on communities by working with organisations that engage specifically to support educational development. In addition to partnering with a number of leading third level institutions in their

development and access programmes, Arthur Cox is the only Irish law firm to be involved in the UK-led PRIME initiative. Arthur Cox’s PRIME programme provides work experience in the legal services sector to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The firm wants to assist in breaking the cycle of unequal opportunity, with the goal that the most talented people from all backgrounds are given a fair chance. The ultimate aim of Arthur Cox’s partnership with PRIME is not just to improve diversity within the legal profession, but also to demonstrate to students the value of continued education and to encourage them to pursue their chosen career paths.

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ABBOTT DIAGNOSTICS DIVISION LONGFORD: ADD Longford opened in 2005. Longford and Clonmel are recipients of the prestigious Shingo Prize, the world’s highest standard for operational excellence.

ABBOTT VISION, WESTPORT: n site in Westport giving Employees from our Abbott Visio nts, during Abbott’s sponsorship a healthy heart talk to local stude y Heart Appeal’ in 2016. of the Irish Heart Foundations ‘Happ

ABBOTT, LIFFEY VALLEY: A wide range of our businesses are based at our Liffey Valley offices; Abbott Laboratories Ireland Ltd, Abbott Vision and Abbott Established Pharmaceutica ls.

ON, COOTEHILL: ABBOTT NUTRITI in 1975. menced operations com ill teh ply high The facility in Coo ms in the region sup far ry dai 00 1,0 per day. s litre 0 ,00 Today approximately 500 ses facility which proces quality milk to the

ABBOTT VASCULAR, CLONMEL: Abbott’s vascular facility is our largest site in Ireland. Our STEM programmes, Family Science and Operation Discovery, have been delivered to students in Ireland near our sites since 2009.

70 Years Of Abbott in Ireland

ABBOTT DIAGNOSTICS DIVISION SLIGO: Abbott established its first Irish diagnostics manufa cturing facility in the Finisklin Business Park in Sligo in 1994 to manufacture blood-screening products and reagents.

ABBOTT DIABETES CARE, DONEGAL: Abbott’s diabetes business in Donegal is a centre of excellence for blood glucose monitoring strip production. The image shows employees from the plant enjoying outdoor activities in the North-w est.

ABBOTT NUTRITION, BALLYTI VNAN: Abbott’s first manufacturing site in Irelan was established in Ballytivnan, Sligo d, Abbott Nutrition, in 1974. Today the site manufactures medical devices for the nutrition business.

LTD, SLIGO: ABBOTT NUTRITION ldwide third party contract wor ages man site this , are Opened in 2007 products. Here employees al ition nutr ott Abb of g 2016 manufacturin sponsorship of Happy Hearts ott’s Abb ng duri ing train undertaking CPR

ABBOTT FINA

NCE SHARED SERVICES HU B, Opened in Decemb CHERRYWOOD: er 20 15, the hub provid expertise to Abbo es processing an tt divisions and d affiliate compan ies across Europ

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CSR PROFILE ABBOTT

IN THE

BUSINESS OF LIFE As part of its Global Citizenship strategy, healthcare company Abbott aims to achieve sustainable growth, deliver innovative solutions and build stronger communities around the world.

and benefiting from handson experience in a range of areas over the course of the two-year programme.

LIVELIFEWELL

oday, with almost 3,000 colleagues at ten sites across the country, Abbott is one of the largest healthcare companies in Ireland. In addition to commercial operations in Dublin and business service centres in Dublin and Westport, Abbott has manufacturing facilities for its diabetes care business in Donegal, for nutrition in Cootehill and Sligo, for diagnostics in Sligo and Longford, and for vascular devices in Clonmel. Clonmel and Longford have received the prestigious Shingo Prize, which recognises organisations that have achieved world class operational excellence. Abbott is in the business of life, believing that good health is the starting point for all of life’s possibilities. Abbott looks at health from all sides, working to create solutions that make life better for people of all ages, in all aspects and stages of life, wherever they are in the world. The goal of Abbott’s Global Citizenship strategy is to achieve sustainable growth, deliver innovative solutions and build stronger communities around the world.

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICES Abbott wants to be known as a great place to work. It offers innovative employee programmes that help its people reach their full potential and live healthy, well-balanced lives. In 2016, Abbott was awarded the Top Employers Ireland and Top Employers Europe certification, which confirmed that the company “provides a forward thinking environment that is continuously working to optimise its employee conditions and leading the way in the development of its people”.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES In 2016, Abbott won the Best Internship Programme at the gradIreland Graduate Recruitment Awards and its award-winning Professional Development Programme (PDP) is open to entrylevel employees and gives new talent the opportunity to rotate through key positions in different Abbott businesses and locations around the world. PDP participants work side by side with Abbott professionals, learning and growing from their mentors

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Abbott’s LiveLifeWell programme supports and inspires employees to be well, live their healthiest life and achieve their best. The programmes ensure employees embrace a holistic approach to their physical and mental wellbeing. LiveLifeWell helps employees learn about their health risks and encourages them to make healthy choices. The programme includes exercise across Abbott; onsite health screenings; health awareness talks; money advice; and smoking cessation advice.

EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND SAFETY Abbott has clear, consistent global policies and standards regarding how it manages employee health, safety and productivity, while also protecting

Global Citizenship Strategy

the environment. At Abbott Vascular Clonmel, ergonomics is built into how the business is run, and through workstation design, station rotation and an ergonomic stretching programme, the site has achieved a 100 per cent reduction in its muscle strain injury accidents in 2016. The site has also been awarded an Abbott EHS Excellence award for outstanding performance and lasting contribution to ergonomics.

Participants in the Internship and Professional Development programmes

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Brighter futures Our staff lead the way in CSR Valuing and supporting what matters to our staff makes us stronger together. Every day, our people commit themselves to their work, and it’s vital that the workplace reflects their values, supports their talent and channels their drive and energy. Our commitment to CSR means we provide a supportive environment, where staff have space and time for what matters to them, both in their work and in their home lives. Our CSR structure supports individuals’ career and personal aspirations, health and wellbeing, as well as their commitment to the wider community. The positive impact we make, by supporting communities and initiatives most important to our staff, gives us all inspiration, making us stronger and more powerful together as a team in our work. Aisling Gannon Partner and Head of CSR +353 1 6644 205 aislinggannon@eversheds.ie

eversheds.ie ©Eversheds Ireland is a member of Eversheds International Limited.

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CSR PROFILE EVERSHEDS

STRIKING THE

RIGHT BALANCE Eversheds’ workplace wellbeing programme promotes employee health and wellness and encourages a healthy work/life balance.

versheds encourages a strong sense of workplace wellbeing among its employees, supporting an open and proactive charitable ethos at all levels of the firm. CSR is how Eversheds manages its impact on society and the environment, and it works closely with its employees, local communities, charities, schools, universities and community groups to ensure it impacts positively on society.

WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE As part of this ethos, Eversheds launched the Workplace Wellbeing Initiative in 2015 to promote a healthy work/ life balance in recognition of the fact that people are spending increasing amounts of time at the workplace. A company-wide programme that encourages participation by staff at every level, it is designed to create a better workplace for employees, promoting health and wellness and encouraging employees to bring their true selves to work. Reflecting Eversheds’ commitment to harnessing the energy and dynamism of our employees, the programme focuses on three main areas:

• Wellness Within: This health and wellness initiative involves talks from a variety of highly inspirational speakers including former athlete Sonia O’Sullivan and Dr Tony Bates, Headstrong CEO, general health checks for staff, and the provision of a box of fresh fruit three times a week to promote healthy eating choices. • Work/Life Balance: Eversheds offers a variety of initiatives through internal training and online courses. One of the key workplace initiatives in 2014 was the formation of our Eversheds Women’s Leadership Initiative (EWLI), which seeks to boost the confidence and development of female staff members. • Sport: Eversheds promotes an active workplace through various sporting and health initiatives including a tailored health and fitness programme and subsidised pilates classes.

PROMOTING DIVERSITY The Eversheds culture is based on mutual respect, and the firm strives to

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create an environment in which each person feels respected and can prosper and develop. Valuing diversity means expressly valuing and respecting our people, our clients and the communities in which we work. As part of this commitment, Eversheds recently joined GLEN, the Gay + Lesbian Equality Network, highlighting the firm’s commitment to this community both in Ireland and within Eversheds. Eversheds has also established the Eversheds Women’s Leadership Initiative (EWLI), which focuses on the personal and professional development of female staff members. Open to all female employees, EWLI is a forum where members can share ideas and experiences and engage in a mentoring programme.

SUCCESS Eversheds has received an overwhelming response to the various initiatives introduced since this programme began last year and its various seminars, workshops, GP on call and fitness programmes have all been very positively received by staff. Eversheds also introduced a speech bubble initiative late last year, which employees can use to offer suggestions as to how the firm can improve and which are reviewed by the CSR committee. Regular updates

Pictured at the launch of Eversheds’ membership of GLEN are Pamela O’Neill, Eversheds; Davin Roche, GLEN; Greg Louganis and Mark Varian, Eversheds

on upcoming activities and seminars are communicated via email to staff members to encourage participation, while the CSR committee also releases quarterly activity updates. Staff are encouraged to provide feedback and input to further develop the programme. The Workplace Wellbeing programme, nominated for the CSR award for Excellence in Workplace, educates Eversheds staff on the importance of exercise, nutrition and mindfulness in a supportive environment. Over time we hope that this will help deliver tangible health benefits for staff, increased job satisfaction and a workplace we can continue to be proud of.

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CSR PROFILE KPMG

EMPOWERING

PEOPLE KPMG’s CSR endeavours focus on a wide range of initiatives, including empowering women to become strong entrepreneurs.

iving back to the communities in which it operates underpins KPMG’s CSR strategy. Fostering talent, sharing knowledge and helping others are very much a part of its responsibilities – both within the business and externally. Having an inclusive workplace is highly consistent with these principles, and helping people reach their full potential is particularly important. These are the principles from which the KPMG Ignite programme grew. Empowering women at a formative stage in their career development – before they leave secondary school – the programme was developed by a team of recent graduates in the context of KPMG’s strong commitment to a range of gender diversity programmes. The Ignite programme is the first of its kind in Ireland, and comprised four workshops (held in April and May 2016) in the Jesus and Mary secondary school in Goatstown, Dublin. Female transition year students were invited to take

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KPMG volunteers celebrating the firm’s 2015 key milestones for the launch of the BITCI Business Impact Map

part in the workshops which focused on empowerment and building confidence. Widely publicised internally to encourage staff participation, each of the sessions was presented to a group of students by an established female role model, who offered valuable tools and tips to improve confidence and boost participants’ aspirations. The programme culminated in presentation sessions where each group presented on their learnings and the benefits gained from the programme. There’s no doubting the programme’s early success, and KPMG hopes to build on this, along with other gender diversity initiatives, to eliminate barriers and

Paula Fitzsimons, Going for Growth, Cliona Mullen, KPMG and Sarita Johnson, Enterprise Ireland at the Going for Growth celebration event in KPMG

provide the supports required to help ensure women fulfil their personal and professional aspirations. “Before the programme I wasn’t very confident at all really, probably a 4/10, but then I surprised myself and found myself joining in more and more in the group each week,” said 16-year-old Aislinn, one of the participants in the workshops. “Listening to the

speakers and doing activities in a group environment pushed me a bit further out of my comfort zone. After the programme I would rate my confidence as 7/10.”

GOING FOR GROWTH KPMG’s support of the Going for Growth programme, nominated for the CSR Excellence in Marketplace award, began with similar aspirations. | CSR AWARDS 2016

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CSR PROFILE KPMG

Going for Growth is primarily focused on female business owner-managers from across Ireland that have been running their companies for two years or more. The initiative is designed around practical roundtable sessions, each of which is hosted by an experienced business leader, such as Caroline Keeling, Miriam Byrne and Louise Phelan, all of whom give their time on a voluntary basis. Within KPMG, a team of 14 female executives was established to support the programme through active involvement, while on a broader scale, all KPMG Ireland staff are encouraged to act as ambassadors and to reach out to their individual networks to encourage suitable entrepreneurs to apply for participation. To keep in touch with past participants, KPMG also hosts a Meet the Leads event in May and provides its expertise at the annual Community Forum. The idea grew from the concept that while more women are being encouraged to start new businesses, there is a need to move beyond this. Compared to men, female entrepreneurs tend to be less ambitious for their businesses, and fewer have achieved significant growth. This is the challenge which Going for Growth addresses, mirroring – in terms of gender diversity – what KPMG seeks to achieve internally. The programme provides peer support which seeks to reduce psychological isolation, increase confidence and support female entrepreneurs to achieve and

exceed their growth goals. Participants are supported to increase sales, numbers employed and, where appropriate, gain customers in export markets. The programme also seeks to inﬂuence public policy in terms of moving the focus to encourage female entrepreneurs to build strong businesses capable of sustained growth. Since KPMG became involved, over 130 female entrepreneurs have participated in Going for Growth. Apart from an increase in confidence, ambition and motivation, 82 per cent of participants in the seventh cycle (2015) increased their turnover over the six months of the cycle by an average of 30 per cent, alongside growth in exporter numbers (25 per cent) and the creation of an additional 94 jobs. Working in partnership with the Director of Going for Growth, Paula Fitzsimons, KPMG Ireland is committed to continuing to support this award-winning initiative, encouraging women to grow and thrive as entrepreneurs.

WHAT’S THE STORY? Across its broad spectrum of CSR activities, KPMG mobilises over 1,100 staff volunteers every year, with in excess of 9,700 staff hours donated and supported by the firm. KPMG sought to highlight these endeavours by creating a collection of short stories that would profile its award-winning, skills-based CSR projects via a series of nine short stories. The result of many hours of meetings, workshops and events planning with stakeholders, Our CSR Story – nominated for the Excellence in CSR Communication award – was designed and produced by KPMG’s in-house design team. Staff engagement was key to its successful launch, and KPMG employees were brought on board at all stages of the process. Shared with staff, stakeholders and the general public, the publication reached an audience in excess of 80,000 via print, digital and online media. The publication’s wide distribution ensures that KPMG staff can become ambassadors for the firm’s CSR programmes and can speak about the various initiatives supported; that external stakeholders are educated concerning the types of hands-on activities that KPMG supports; as well as boosting KPMG’s profile among the general public and highlighting the work the firm does within each community.

The four KPMG Ignite volunteers who came up with the female empowerment concept

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Karina Howley, KPMG and Tina Roche, CEO, BITCI look on as CBS Westland Row student Emirjeta Doda reads the newly launched ‘Our CSR Story’

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CSR PROFILE ZURICH

INVESTING

IN PEOPLE Through its youth employment initiatives and wellbeing in the workplace programmes, Zurich is delivering innovative and exciting opportunities for participants and staff alike.

ellbeing and employment are the areas of focus at Zurich which see the leading global insurance brand shortlisted for two accolades at this year’s Chambers Ireland CSR Awards. The first – Zurich Wellbeing Matters – centres on employee wellbeing and is designed to encourage Zurich’s employees to proactively look after their physical and mental health, while giving them the knowledge and tools to enable them to be at their best. The initiative has four pillars – Fitness Matters, Nutrition Matters, Personal Budgeting Matters and Mental Wellbeing Matters – and each one comprises three core elements. They are:

knowledge into action Zurich introduced a number of initiatives, including healthy lunch and snack options, discounted gym membership, mapped routes in the local area to encourage lunchtime walks, easy access to its in-house financial planners with discounted rates on saving and investment plans, and the promotion of its employee assistance programme.

• ACTIVATION – Zurich harnessed the competitive spirit of its employees to jump-start their participation in the programme. For example, teams competed to become the first to ‘Walk to Zurich’ (1,200km in six weeks) and aspiring chefs donned their aprons to compete in a healthy cooking challenge. Starting in June 2015, work on each pillar has been aligned with the relevant season; Fitness Matters takes place in the summer months. Nutrition Matters is organised in autumn as people begin their countdown to Christmas. Personal Budgeting

Matters is organised in January when people typically review their expenses and budget for the year. To coincide with the launch of Zurich’s community investment initiative, Mind Matters takes place in March. Each pillar’s season ends with a celebratory event with staff members and their families to recognise the people who got involved and to encourage them to continue their efforts. According to Elaine Hayes, People Development Consultant at Zurich, the wellness programme saw a significant level of engagement from staff and had a notable impact

• EDUCATION – providing staff with the knowledge to improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing through interactive workshops, e-zines and online materials. • RESOURCES – in order to facilitate employees to turn

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Zurich trainees Ashley Cuachi and Jacinta Murphy discuss what they’ve learned during their work placement

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CSR PROFILE ZURICH

under the age of 25 in the area were unemployed. Zurich’s Youth Activation programme has three core components that support youth employment in the area and beyond:

Zurich employees Joe Hall, Joan Costello, Wendy May and Dearbhail Brady enjoy learning more about Wellbeing Matters

Change is something that our business has come to expect as a constant and our wellbeing programme supports employees through the challenges of changing environments, helping contribute to sustainable success.” on their attitude to work. “Change is something that our business has come to expect as a constant and our wellbeing programme supports employees through the challenges of changing environments, helping contribute to sustainable success,” she says. “Individuals in our business have come forward to share stories of overcoming wellbeing challenges, which demonstrates an open culture that encourages people to actively engage.” The Wellbeing Matters programme, which has been shortlisted in the Excellence in Workplace – MNC category at this year’s CSR Awards, is a three-year initiative, year one of which is now coming to a conclusion. This year focused on launching the programme to raise awareness of the supports available. Years two and three will go on to embed and sustain the programme by giving Zurich managers the skills to support their team

members’ wellbeing. “Over the next six months all of our people managers will take part in Zurich Oxygen,” Hayes explains. “It’s a management training programme designed to raise awareness of and provide the skills to deliver, amongst other things, our wellbeing initiative. Specific training on managing emotional and mental wellbeing demonstrates Zurich’s intent to embed wellbeing as a core strand of our DNA.”

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT As a leading employer in the south-east region, Zurich’s Youth Activation programme covers a number of initiatives designed to address a serious social issue in the area; high jobless rates among the young. Youth unemployment in Wexford is twice the national average, and in 2015 when Zurich started its programme, almost one in two people

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• In 2014 Zurich formed a partnership with the CBS boys’ school in Wexford town to deliver a Transition year programme for up to 12 high-performing students every year. Students spend one day a week for 10 weeks in Zurich’s Wexford centre, experiencing the day-to-day work of each department. The students also take part in training and development in both presentation skills and CV and interview skills. • The Zurich Insurance Practitioner Traineeship is a collaboration with the Waterford/Wexford Education and Training board (WWETB). Having commenced in September 2015, the programme is giving 15 trainees the opportunity to complete a level 5 FETAC award in Business Administration, including nine weeks of work placement in Zurich’s Wexford centre, taking place in four twoweek rotations across different departments. In addition to this, the participants also achieve a Professional Certificate in Insurance (APA), the qualification required by the Central Bank to work in the insurance industry in Ireland. • Zurich’s application on behalf of the insurance industry to the Apprenticeship

Council to create the Insurance Practitioner Apprenticeship programme has been approved and Zurich has joined a consortium of employers led by the Insurance Institute of Ireland to develop a three-year programme to begin in September 2016. Once completed, the successful apprentices will qualify with a BA (Hons). Zurich’s work in the area of youth employment is not a short-term project and there are plans to expand the initiative to incorporate additional schools in the south-east region. “Our commitment to the programme as an ongoing one remains strong,” says Hayes. “The long-term impact will see school leavers embarking on a career path in insurance which supports Wexford County Council’s vision to make Wexford a financial services centre for the south-east.” Zurich’s traineeship initiative will be replaced at the end of this term with the Industrywide Apprenticeship programme. “We believe this three-year programme will be a credible alternative to third level education for school leavers and will equip participants with the skills and experience to succeed in the industry,” adds Hayes. “With an intake of apprentices every year, the programme, which is supported by Government agencies, will be tightly governed so that it remains relevant and is selfsustaining to ensure future roles for the participants.”

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CSR PROFILE TESCO IRELAND

We’re BIG

ON COMMUNITY As one of Ireland’s biggest supporters, Tesco Ireland works closely with thousands of groups and organisations across the country each year through its community initiatives. Lorraine Shiels, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, fills us in.

through our groundbreaking partnership with FoodCloud and putting the fun into fundraising for our charity partner, Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

WE’RE BIG ON YOUR COMMUNITY

very little help makes a big difference – it’s the value we live by at Tesco Ireland to ensure we serve our customers, colleagues and communities a little better every day. This value really captures how, when we add up all the small things we do, Tesco can make a big difference to the issues customers, colleagues, communities and wider society care about. At Tesco Ireland we are proud of the role we play

in supporting our local communities. With 148 stores nationwide and as Ireland’s largest private employer, we work hard to ensure that we make a positive contribution to the towns and cities we serve. We’ve developed our community strategy to support families and groups in these communities by providing financial donations through the Tesco Community Fund, food donations

The Tesco Community Fund is one of the ways in which we give back to our communities and is localised to each store so we can support those good causes that are really important to our customers. Through the Tesco Community Fund we’ve donated a2 million to over 5,000 local good causes across Ireland since July 2014; causes that include schools, choirs,

Bellurgan Football Club, one of the community groups that has benefited from the Tesco Community Fund

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karate clubs, elderly care centres, first responders, drama groups and much more. And it’s so simple to take part – customers and colleagues nominate local groups to take part and then every eight weeks each store chooses their three local causes to support. Each time a customer shops with us they get a blue token to vote with, and they cast a vote for their preferred good cause as they leave the store. At the end of the eight week cycle we then donate up to a1,000 per store pro-rata between the three good causes, and it all starts again!

WE’RE BIG ON LITTLE HEROES We have a strong tradition of supporting Irish charities that make a real difference to the lives of millions of people, young and old, across the country. As one of the largest corporate fundraisers in Ireland, we are proud to have raised over a15 million for national charities since 2001 through our Charity Partner programme, charities such as the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Hospice Foundation, Down Syndrome Ireland and for our current partner, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital. Embedded at the heart of | CSR AWARDS 2016

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CSR PROFILE TESCO IRELAND

our business, our Charity Partner fundraising programme is driven by our colleagues across our stores, head office and distribution centres, so it’s essential that they are fully engaged with it. In September 2014, Tesco colleagues overwhelmingly voted to choose Temple Street as our new charity partner and pledged to raise funds to purchase vital life-saving equipment such as patient monitors and incubators to treat the 150,000 babies and children who visit the hospital each year. And it’s clear that the children’s hospital has won over the hearts and minds of our colleagues as we’ve raised almost a2m for Temple Street in less than two years. To maximise our fundraising and to have some fun at work we’ve hosted some amazing events that mobilise our 15,000 colleagues across our 148 Tesco stores in one day, events including a nationwide cake sale – the Great Irish Bake on April 15th – through which we raised a155,000 and Ireland’s biggest fancy dress party – Fancy Helping Temple Street – on July 23rd which raised a150,000! The Tesco-Temple Street partnership has proven to be so successful that we’ve extended it until the end of 2017, making it our first three-year charity partnership and one through which we aim to raise over a3m.

WE’RE BIG ON FOOD DONATIONS Food Waste is a global

Myles Jordan (5), a patient at Temple Street Children’s University Hospital

issue that’s also of local importance. We want to lead on tackling food waste and we’ve set ourselves a big target – to ensure that no good food goes to waste in our stores that could have been donated to those in need by the end of 2017. We also have a target to become a zero carbon business globally by 2050. The nature of the food retail business means that Tesco Ireland will always have perfectly good, edible food that goes to waste at the end of every day. So to tackle this, we launched a groundbreaking partnership in 2014 with FoodCloud, an innovative social enterprise that links businesses that have too much food with people around Ireland who don’t have enough. This partnership sees

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Donating food as part of the FoodCloud partnership

our stores donate perfectly edible food at the end of each day to those in need, including meat, produce, bread, chilled meals and much more that would have otherwise been wasted. Over the past two years, through our partnership we have donated over two million meals to people in need and by reducing the amount of food being wasted and transported

for processing, we have reduced our carbon emissions by 2,590 tonnes. This is a long-term sustainable initiative for us at Tesco, and it’s been so successful in Ireland that Tesco UK has recently committed to rolling it out in all of their stores by the end of 2017, ensuring that no good food will go to waste at our stores in Ireland or the UK.

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CSR PROFILE THREE IRELAND

COMMITMENT

TO COMMUNITIES For Three Ireland, corporate responsibility is about showing a strong and visible commitment to communities across Ireland.

t Three Ireland, corporate responsibility is about showing a strong and visible commitment to the communities in which it operates across the country. The company’s focus on corporate responsibility begins with a simple commitment to principled decisionmaking in all that it does, and its corporate responsibility activities help Three to meet its customers’ needs, enhance employee engagement, reduce its environmental impact, grow community support and ultimately build a stronger company.

FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER Following Three’s acquisition of O2 Ireland in 2014, and recognising the important role of CSR engagement, the organisation commenced a process to find a new corporate charity partner for a three-year period. Following a detailed, employee-led process, which highlighted the importance of education and learning among disadvantaged young people to Three employees, An Cosán Virtual Community College (VCC) was chosen. VCC is a start-up education

initiative established by An Cosán with a unique vision – to eliminate poverty and social inequality using online and mobile technology. VCC provides online education to people from marginalised communities, empowering them to achieve their potential through virtual technologies, and Three’s work with the charity has led to a nomination for the CSR Excellence in Community (Partnership with Charity) award. The relationship is ongoing; a holistic partnership approach whereby VCC is completely embedded within Three as its strategic charity partner. Two senior managers from Three sit on the VCC Advisory Council,

monthly strategic planning meetings are held with VCC, and an annual donation is bolstered by fundraising events, an employee skills volunteering programme, e-mentoring and more. Having assisted in getting the programme off the ground, Three’s partnership with VCC continues to yield dividends. With the assistance of Three’s skills and consultancybased volunteering, VCC is on track to reach 1,000 students by the end of 2018. Last year, employee fundraising helped establish the Student Education Fund, benefiting 50 students to date. Research indicates that for every one student achieving an educational

Three employees at the Docklands 5k challenge for VCC

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| CSR AWARDS 2016

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CSR PROFILE THREE IRELAND

award it will have a positive impact on eight associates. Each student becomes an ambassador for the power of education, thus breaking the cycle of intergenerational educational disadvantage and resultant poverty in communities. “Being a small start-up charity working to tackle the issue of poverty at a grassroots level through education is never an easy thing, but the partnership with Three has given us so much inspiration to keep on pushing forward and reaching for what has sometimes felt like the unreachable. To say I’m grateful is an understatement,” said Liz Waters, Director, VCC.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Skills volunteering by Three’s employees has proved critical in the success of the partnership thus far, facilitated by Three’s provision of 15 hours annually for volunteering purposes. Employees have volunteered their time and skills in numerous areas to support VCC to date, including website design and build, social media training, virtual learning consultancy, copywriting, communications and marketing consultancy, legal and data protection advice, m-Learning advice and strategic support. The e-Mentor programme to support VCC students in achieving their educational goals is a great example of how Three’s employee skills are making a real and lasting difference. In November

2015, Three launched the first round of e-mentoring with a group of students based around Dublin, which has since expanded to include a group of students in Wexford. Through the e-Mentor programme, mentors and students discuss and agree a number of learning goals based on the students’ needs. Weekly sessions are set up during the course term and the mentor supports, encourages and advises their mentee to reach their learning goals. Skills for Volunteering for VCC also provides employees with a meaningful opportunity to give back to the community, and to develop their own skills and learn new skills, in a positive and supportive environment. “Volunteering for VCC has been a fantastic experience. I feel I’ve been able to give something back to the community and it’s been incredibly rewarding,” explains Three volunteer and social media executive, Elaine McDonagh. “I’ve also learned a lot about my own capabilities and grown in confidence as a result.” The VCC model is very relevant to Three’s business, and gives Three the opportunity to really support VCC by using its own services and employee expertise for social good. The firm believes that over a three-year period it can really make a difference in terms of helping to turn VCC into a sustainable educational entity, thus making education more accessible to disadvantaged communities and helping people from marginalised communities to escape the poverty trap.

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MAKING A REAL DIFFERENCE For its final RBS 6 Nations championship as sponsor of the national Irish rugby team, Three wanted to challenge itself to devise an innovative campaign that would give back to society and create a lasting legacy. The company focused on the issue of homelessness, one of the major issues currently faced by Irish society. Noting the incredible work undertaken by Focus Ireland on a daily basis, Three leveraged its sponsorship of the Irish rugby team before and during the RBS 6 Nations championship to harness the goodwill, enthusiasm and passion of rugby fans, providing Focus Ireland with a €1 million marketing campaign comprising of advertising, digital, PR activity and a fundraising drive. Awareness was the main focus of the ‘Together We Can Tackle Homelessness’ campaign, which has been shortlisted for the CSR Excellence in Communication award, and to date over 6.5 million people have had an opportunity to learn more about the issue of hidden homelessness. The resulting shift in the public’s understanding of the issue has generated a marked increase in support for Focus Ireland, prompting over 47,400 donations. “We do not have the resources to launch a campaign anywhere near this scale, so Three’s generosity has gone a long way in helping us to achieve a new awareness of homelessness in Ireland,” said Ashley Balbirnie, CEO, Focus Ireland. “This was a very welcome opportunity to create an impactful campaign and raise funds that will ultimately change lives.”

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CSR PROFILE ESB

BUILDING A

Better Future CSR remains at the core of what ESB does, as the company seeks to build a brighter future for both itself and the nation.

SB’s position as Ireland’s foremost energy company makes it a vital cog in building a brighter, more sustainable future. CSR is at the heart of the firm’s business vision, and ESB invests significantly in its people and communities to help it reach its full potential. For generations, ESB’s Apprenticeship Programme has been part of this ethos, and thousands of staff have undertaken training – both practical and academic – since the establishment of the ESB Networks Training Centre in Portlaoise in 1969. Youth unemployment remains a huge social and economic issue in Ireland, but ESB’s Apprenticeship Programme actively works to assist young people in getting started along their career path. The programme, nominated for the CSR award for Excellence in Supporting Youth Employment, is open to young people who have successfully completed their Junior Certificate, offering an alternative path to further education and employment that is a better fit for many young people. At the end of the four-year programme, participants exit as fully qualified

026 InBusiness CSR 2016_ESB.indd 26

network technicians. With continued investment even throughout the economic recession, the programme remains a critical facet of the ongoing development and transformation of ESB. “ESB’s Apprenticeship Programme is a core part of how ESB ensures its longterm future and ability to successfully compete in the Irish energy market and serve electricity customers,” says Michael Conry, Training and Development Manager at ESB Networks. “ESB invests four years in the development of each apprentice, during which their first priority is to learn; from on-job rotations, from training in the ESB Networks Training Centre, and from external training delivery by external training partners.” Last year the company announced plans to recruit 300 new apprentices over the next five years, as part of a large scale recruitment and development programme. The desire to empower communities and enable people to reach their full potential has always been the central purpose of ESB and the programme enables young people in these communities to do just that.

Above and opposite: Children taking part in Tree Week activities

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Alongside a desire to empower individuals and communities, ESB is committed to sustainability and community engagement, highlighted by its development of a decarbonised electricity system for Ireland. As part of this drive, ESB took over the title sponsorship of Tree Week in 2015, an annual event organised by the Tree Council of Ireland (TCOI) and supported by Coillte, which aims to promote the planting, care and

conservation of trees. In the six-month period preceding Tree Week 2016 (March 6th-13th), ESB worked with the TCOI to create innovative and engaging experiences. The firm also developed a creative communications campaign which combined traditional activities such as tree planting events and talks with unique and engaging content to drive PR and social media coverage. The campaign included successful staff mobilisation, membership | CSR AWARDS 2016

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CSR PROFILE ESB

support, innovative partnerships with Spar and several independent coffee outlets, and staff-led events such as school visits, wind farm open days and other local events. According to the TCOI, 2016 was the most successful Tree Week in its 32-year history, thanks to ESB’s modernisation efforts, which widened the audience and boosted participation. The highest ever level of memberled events (198) was recorded, with over 20,000 trees planted and 15,000 seed packs given away, alongside excellent levels of engagement by ESB staff. “National Tree Week is a great fit for ESB as we share common values around sustainability and teamwork and, most importantly, being part of the community. Trees play a vital role in enhancing public health and wellbeing, but Ireland has very low levels of forestation compared to the rest of Europe,” explains ESB’s Bevin Cody. “Through our partnership with the Tree Council of Ireland, we wanted to highlight ESB’s commitment to a low carbon energy future while also encouraging communities around Ireland to get outdoors to learn about, grow and enjoy trees.”

SUPPORTIVE WORKPLACE ESB’s CSR initiatives also seek improvements within the company, with investment in its people a key priority. Constantly striving to create a happy and supportive environment

for employees, ESB remains committed to working towards an engaged, diverse and inclusive workplace, strengthened by its Diversity Strategy. Recognition of the challenges that employees face when they go on maternity leave and the difficulties in reintegrating back into the workforce has led to the development of the ESB Maternity Positive Programme, which has been nominated for the CSR Excellence in Workplace (LIC) award. Developed in conjunction with coaching consultancy Talking Talent, the programme consists of a series of workshops for employees going through maternity or adoption. To date, almost 100 participants from across the country have taken part. The programme has been endorsed by ESB’s Executive Director team, and a senior manager has been appointed as programme sponsor to ensure its continued success, highlighting its important role within the company. Since its official launch in 2015, the programme has had a positive impact, leading to an increased awareness of the importance of inclusion across the company, while a New Dads module is a recent

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addition to support all working parents. Effectively communicating such CSR endeavours is essential – it enables the firm to prove its commitment and multiply its impact. A great example is the work undertaken to highlight the impact and importance of the Energy for Generations Fund, which invests over a2 million annually across a range of community and issue-based initiatives, and which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2015. ESB celebrated this momentous occasion by engaging its staff, CEO, partners and other key stakeholders through a range of activities and events including CSR thought leadership panel discussions, media outreach, internal communications and much more. Such efforts have initiated a wider dialogue both internally and externally,

copperfastening ESB’s position as Ireland’s foremost energy company and the role it plays in building a brighter, more sustainable future. “For ESB, communicating our CSR is essential, as it enables us to prove our commitment,” says Anne Cooney, ESB’s Group CSR Coordinator. “I would strongly encourage other companies to adopt strong CSR practices. The direct benefits of CSR are limitless – it drives innovation, trust and transparency, ensures competitiveness and engages the workforce. Strong CSR practies can bring great positivity and enthusiasm to our workplace – and we all benefit from that.”

25/08/2016 17:04

Grow your business online through PayPal.

paypaljobsireland.com 1800 944 570

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CSR PROFILE PAYPAL

Powering Payments &

Promoting Inclusion At PayPal, inclusion means respecting and valuing uniqueness and diversity of thought, and it’s about including everyone – regardless of background, education level or circumstance.

ayPal is one of Ireland’s largest employers. Between its sites in Dublin and Dundalk, the global payments leader employs 2,500 people, who support customers and businesses right across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and North America. Since separating from eBay last year, the company has used its newfound independence as an opportunity to define its culture and the factors that shape it. Inclusion is a key part of that. Just as innovation and collaboration are crucial to PayPal’s success; so too is the wellness of its employees and the inclusivity of the

business. At PayPal, inclusion means respecting and valuing uniqueness and diversity of thought. It’s about including everyone – regardless of background, education level or circumstance. “At PayPal we don’t believe in pinning buzz words on our wall to keep up appearances,” says Louise Phelan, Vice President of Global Operations for Europe Middle East and Africa. “We believe in our cultural values and we live by them. Our decision to pull the planned expansion of our Charlotte site in response to the changes in North Carolina’s definition of discrimination was a prime example of that. Here in Ireland, our teammates bring

our culture to life every day. We have teammates of all backgrounds, genders and sexualities supporting our customers and businesses in 13 languages. We want each and every one of them to feel fully included in our business, in our environment and in our culture. “To support our inclusion strategy, we developed Diversity and Inclusion workshops, which all of our team leaders have participated in, and in June we celebrated Diversity and Inclusion Week. As part of these efforts to be a fully inclusive workplace, our offices contain features such as a prayer room and free international phone booths. We also have a women’s group, Unity, as well as an LGBT group, PayPal Pride. Last year we supported the ‘Yes for Business’ campaign

Raffaella Bonomonte, Director of PayPal in Ireland, is pictured with Louise Phelan, Vice President of Global Operations for EMEA at the signing of the Diversity Charter Ireland

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for marriage equality and this year we sponsored Pride Parade Dublin. I was extremely proud to march with over 100 of our teammates at the event.” Now available to people in more than 200 markets, it’s hard to imagine that PayPal was once a start-up. As a successful global leader, PayPal is in a position to give other early phase businesses the support they need to succeed. In addition to offering special rates and programmes for start-ups, as well as a personal service for small and mediumsized businesses, PayPal contributes to a number of business mentoring programmes. In Ireland these include Inner City Enterprises in Dublin’s city centre and Starting Strong, a programme designed specifically for female business owners. Meanwhile, Phelan mentors eight female entrepreneurs through Enterprise Ireland’s Going for Growth programme. Speaking about the time she dedicates to supporting women in leadership roles, Phelan says: “With every woman that makes it to the top of her game, we get that bit closer to changing the status quo.” She concludes: “From a business perspective, a culture of inclusion inspires richer ideas and drives stronger execution. But it’s also the right thing to do.”

25/08/2016 17:05

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25/08/2016 17:15

CSR PROFILE TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

ACCESS

IS KEY

The Trinity Access 21 programme is helping people to reach their full educational potential through innovation, research and advocacy.

eading, writing and arithmetic are generally considered the mainstays of education. But as technological advancements change how we function in the world, it is clear that we must add new core topics to the national curriculum. These include science, technology, engineering, maths and computer science (STEM/CS). With this in mind, it is essential that students are leaving school collegeready and equipped with the skills to be productive in the jobs market once they graduate. The challenges facing the current education system includes integrating STEM/CS subjects into an already jam-packed schedule and fuelling students’ interest during primary and secondary school. Furthermore, there is a clear need to help teachers develop their own skills. It was against this backdrop that Trinity Access 21 (TA21) was launched in 2014. A collaboration between the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP), Bridge21, the School of Computer Science & Statistics and

the School of Education – and supported by Google Ireland – the project aims to be a catalyst for social transformation, supporting people to reach their full educational potential through innovation, research and advocacy. Involving more than 1,200 second level students from 11 Dublin schools, TA21 is an innovative programme with three, structured core practices: pathways to college, mentoring and leadership through service. It supports the development of a ‘college-going culture’ in schools with lower than average higher education progression rates. TA21 offers 1,000 teachers nationwide the opportunity to engage in a postgraduate certificate in 21st century Teaching and Learning to empower them to lead change in their schools and to create technology mediated learning environments. TA21 is supported by 320 volunteer mentors drawn from the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) alumni and supporters network including Trinity staff and students. As part of the programme, they meet throughout the year in twice-monthly online

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Students at the TA21 mentoring showcase

mentoring sessions, and again in person through events organised by teachers in the schools. There have been encouraging outcomes from the first year of TA21. The scale of interest in the STEM/CS workshops has been impressive. Key observations from year one include a recognition of the strong positive impact on teachers and students overall; participation in the STEM/CS CPD offerings increased teachers’ confidence to teach computer programming and to use ICT to enhance their classroom experience. Over 4,000 students had at least one STEM/CS classroom experience as a direct result of teachers’ engagement with TA21 and being part of the programme clearly impacted students’ college plans; it was reported that 100 more students intended to progress on to

college following year one. Trinity College Dublin believes that TA21 is a sustainable model and will continue to grow as schools discover its true value. “It has shifted the focus and ambitions of students, teachers and leadership, so that they are now all facing in the same direction – one that focuses on preparing all students for postsecondary education,” says Cliona Hannon, Director, Trinity Access Programmes. Hannon says the TA21 team has been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of teachers in schools nationwide who want to use the project as a catalyst to transform their schools. “On behalf of all our project partners – schools, students, mentors and Google as the key funder, we are really delighted to get this recognition from the Chambers Ireland CSR Awards.”

25/08/2016 17:05

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community...”

community. Cesar Chavez

We’re creating long-term relationships with our communities. Through our Building Partnerships initiative we donated over 2,500 hours to local causes in 2015.

International Ofﬁce Network

Belgium China Czech Republic India Ireland Poland Russia

Saudi Arabia Singapore Slovakia Turkey UK USA

The project delivery specialists www.pmgroup-global.com

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CSR PROFILE PM GROUP

BUILDING

PARTNERSHIPS PM Group’s CSR practices are helping the company forge links with the communities in which it operates and enabling the exchange of valuable skills.

s an international company specialising in the provision of engineering, architecture, project management and construction management services around the world, PM Group recognises that it is in a unique position to provide specialist advice and skills for community based projects. To that end, in 2014, the company introduced its Building Partnerships initiative with the aim of identifying and delivering specialist probono services on strategic building projects for charitable organisations. According to Cathriona Fitzsimons, Group CSR Coordinator, PM Group, the positive impact of the company’s community work goes further than direct financial donations. “The result of the initiative has allowed us to grow the number of hours spent on charitable building projects we support internationally

to 2,500 hours in 2015,” she explains. “In this way we have been able to provide tangible support that goes much further than cash donations can. In the process we have created opportunities for employee engagement that are really rewarding.” The number of charitable building projects that PM Group supports internationally has risen from two in 2013 to six in 2015. These projects include the Tallaght Hospital and Design with Dignity programme, Down Syndrome Association and Field of Dreams Project, along with other initiatives in China, Singapore, Poland and Czech Republic. “Like our company, our CSR Programme has gone from strength to strength in the last number of years,”

PM Group CSR in Numbers (2015)

2,500

Number of voluntary and pro-bono hours donated

Number of causes supported

90%

Increase in value of charitable donations

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40%

Increase in the number of people directly involved

PM Group’s Cork office is supporting the Cork Down Syndrome Association by providing pro-bono services for a horticultural training farm

says Fitzsimons. “With growth comes responsibility and we place a particular emphasis on supporting the communities in which our 18 international offices operate.” PM Group’s strong showing in CSR has coincided with a good year thus far for the company including the start of a recruitment campaign which will see it employ over 500 graduates by 2020. PM Group also continues to concentrate on its core sectors of pharmaceuticals, food, mission critical, medical technologies and energy, and has successfully completed a number of world-class projects for multinational clients around the globe including for GSK, Glanbia, Dairy Crest and Danone. New projects have also been won in a highly competitive environment where standards are

continually increasing. In terms of CSR, Fitzsimons believes there are a myriad of reasons why embracing responsible practices is important for any business – from employee engagement to developing skills – but cites the ability to build partnerships with the local community as the most important factor, and where possible, exchange skills. PM Group has been nominated in the Excellence in Community – Volunteering – LIC category for its Building Partnerships initiative, something Fitzsimons and her colleagues are thrilled about. “It is a great acknowledgement of the fantastic pro-bono work done by our employees across PM Group. They are the ones who go above and beyond to build great partnerships within our communities.”

25/08/2016 17:06

CSR PROFILE CMRF CRUMLIN

CMRF Crumlin:

Your Trusted Charity Partner in 2017 Sarah O’Suilleabhain, Head of Corporate Partnerships at CMRF Crumlin, outlines why forging a corporate partnership with the charity is a win-win for both parties.

t Crumlin, we have a job to do. We provide the best for our patients and families. We can only do this with your help. Our corporate partners make it possible for us to care for and cure sick children all over Ireland every single day. At CMRF Crumlin we are extremely proud of our track record of win-win partnerships with a huge variety of businesses across

the country. We understand that Irish businesses are seeking to enhance employee engagement, support your local communities and to show your business’s integrity through socially responsible activity. An effective way to meet these business goals is to develop a meaningful partnership with a wellrecognised, trusted charity that touches hearts in every corner of Ireland.

Each year over 130,000 little patients are treated at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin

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As a CMRF Crumlin partner, you can trust us to be well managed, well governed and transparent while delivering excellent support to ensure that you and your colleagues achieve your CSR goals.

WHO WE ARE CMRF Crumlin is the principal fundraising body for both Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin and the National Children’s Research Centre. With over 130,000 little patients being treated in Crumlin every year there isn’t a community in Ireland that hasn’t

been touched by the care of Crumlin’s staff, while the impact of our research is global. Our supporters and corporate partners are changing lives. Funds raised have built a state of the art National Heart Centre, which is carrying out life-saving surgery every day and upgraded our cancer ward bringing brightness, colour and the best technology to our little patients’ care. The Giggle Fund has provided softer comforts to patients and families such as pizza nights, face painting and birthday parties. Our supporters also make possible important advances in the understanding and treatment of chronic diseases of childhood at the National Children’s Research Centre. From better treatments for asthma to better pain management in the emergency room, research at the NCRC is ensuring that Irish children have access to the very best care, treatment and medications that are currently available. Sadly, with all that has been achieved, there is still so much more that needs to be done. We need the continued support of Irish businesses like yours | CSR AWARDS 2016

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CSR PROFILE CMRF CRUMLIN

to give every sick child every chance. This year alone the hospital has an essential equipment list of a2.2 million that is desperately and urgently needed. We believe that nothing but the best care is good enough for our little patients and that means using the most up to date equipment. Just as we strive to deliver excellence in facilities, care, experience and research to our little patients, we strive to deliver excellent care and communication to our corporate partners. We listen carefully to our partners to understand their objectives and will work with you to achieve great things for you, your colleagues, your business and of course for the countless families that need Crumlin’s help.

WHY PARTNER WITH CMRF CRUMLIN? A partnership with CMRF Crumlin makes sense. We have the experience and resources to support you while the impact of your support will leave a lasting impact on patients and their families as well as your employees and your brand. Scale: We understand that you need to work with a charity that is of a scale sufficient to support your organisation’s ambitions. At CMRF we have a dedicated team of corporate fundraisers to support your activities, with experience with staff led fundraising that can offer ideas and insights to help you with your plans. You will also be supported

by our marketing team and PR agency who can assist with communications and publicity to make the most of your support. Impact: Whether your partnership contributes a5,000 or a150,000, you and your colleagues will be making an immediate, tangible, meaningful difference to the lives of sick children. a5,000 could buy a piece of equipment that is essential to effective pain relief for patients throughout the hospital. a150,000 could upgrade a part of the hospital that hasn’t been updated in 60 years. It will provide comfort for upset parents, space for consultants to care for little patients more effectively and it will ensure that small children in our care are treated by our world class staff in a state of the art environment. While a400,000 would pay for the entire annual cost of the crucial Clinical Research Unit, which is responsible for getting the very latest treatment from lab to patient in the shortest time possible. Volunteering Opportunities: We are looking forward to welcoming corporate teams from across our partners into our offices and the hospital for a variety of volunteering projects. Our 60-year old hospital desperately needs a facelift and for that we need energetic, enthusiastic volunteers to roll up their sleeves and spend a day painting. We also regularly need teams of volunteers to support our nationwide

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Sarah O’Suilleabhain, Head of Corporate Partnerships at CMRF Crumlin

campaigns such as Crazy Hair Day and Crumlin Christmas Jumpers as well as events such as the Croghan Hill Challenge. We are also seeking volunteers to share their skills with us, which can in turn have a lasting impact on our work helping sick children. I ntegrity: We work hard to ensure that we are well managed, transparent and run efficiently. We are incredibly grateful for each and every gift we receive and we take great care to follow best practice when it comes to managing all donations. We abide by the CVC governance code for charities, which ensures charities have all the correct policies, procedures and rules in place to be open, transparent and fully compliant with all legal

obligations. You can trust us to put your donations to the best possible use to give every sick child every chance. CMRF Crumlin is synonymous with health, education, children and families. We are a cause that touches hearts and communities across the entire island of Ireland. We are proud of what our donors have achieved and look forward to helping you and your colleagues to change the lives of Ireland’s sick children. Please get in touch so that we can discuss how we can work together to build a sustainable, impactful partnership that will leave a legacy that you and your colleagues will be proud of. Email: sosuilleabhain@cmrf.org.

25/08/2016 17:06

CSR PROFILE SAOIRSE FOUNDATION

Delivering Compassion At BUMBLEance, CSR means ‘child plus smile equals reward’.

UMBLEance is the national children’s ambulance service. It operates across Ireland bringing sick children to and from hospitals, treatment centres, respite care and hospices. It also provides a special service called the Angel Trip, the final journey a child makes on earth before growing their ‘angel wings’. BUMBLEance is a free service for families and a trip in BUMBLEance is more than

a journey, it’s an experience. As CEO Tony Heffernan says: “We deliver smiles and compassion in equal measure and make every journey a little bit better.” The charity’s results are tangible, and for this reason Heffernan believes BUMBLEance makes an ideal fit for a business looking for a partner charity. “BUMBLEance is tangible, highly emotive and it delivers a unique service that’s simply priceless,” he says. “We tailor our activities and CSR campaigns to our partners, to develop and deliver sustainable objectives

which make a long-term difference for sick children.” BUMBLEance also provides full transparency and accountability, implementing the highest standards in fundraising – the voluntary governance code for charites – and providing the assurance partner companies need. So what are Heffernan’s thoughts on the rapid growth of CSR practices in Irish business? “We welcome it and how it is becoming a cornerstone of company development and growth,” he says. “At BUMBLEance we believe we have the

CSR FORMULA for our partners: it’s C+S=R; child plus smile equals reward.” 2016 has been an exciting year so far for BUMBLEance as it has already grown its fleet to four vehicles in less than three years and a new vehicle, the BUMBLEette, is being added to the fleet in the near future, which is the first of several regional based vehicles that it plans to develop across Ireland. For more information on how you can partner with Saoirse Foundation or support BUMBLEance call 083 0044444. | CSR AWARDS 2016

“My Business

helped safely

deliver

a baby in Find out what your business can do by partnering with Trócaire: Sinéad Christian, Company Giving Officer T: 01 654 9149 E: sinead.christian@trocaire.org

Somalia”

www.trocaire.org Photo: John Byrne,Owner Maynooth Bookshop, Trócaire Supporter. Charity Reg. No. CHY 5883

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09/12/2015 11:54 a.m.

25/08/2016 17:07

PROFILE WATERFORD CRYSTAL

Waterford Crystal

AT A GLANCE Having survived over two centuries – through good times and bad – there is huge pride in the Waterford Crystal brand at home and abroad.

ince the reopening of Waterford Crystal in 2009 and the subsequent purchase by Fiskars, Waterford Crystal has re-established near its roots, on The Mall in Waterford City. Waterford Crystal is now thriving again and it’s a good news story for Ireland. “A company that’s been around since 1783 is going to have difficult times and when we reorganised after 2009 and set up in the city, it was a proud day for all connected with Waterford Crystal,” explains David McCoy, Sales & Marketing Director of House of Waterford Crystal. “Those involved are so proud of the brand which is a product of the work of so many generations of local people over so many years. “We have a manufacturing plant and brand experience in Waterford, where we produce a lot of crystal and give visitors an opportunity to visit the factory and see how we make our beautiful products. A lot of work goes into producing a one-off piece including the design and manufacturing. This is something that we have expertise in and it’s the reason why people come to us to design and produce

their trophies, unique pieces and awards. We have a 12,000 sq ft showroom which represents everything we make in crystal, including a whole section on golf and sport, which is a major part of our business.” The list of famous awards and trophies produced by Waterford Crystal for the sports industry alone is simply staggering. Waterford Crystal also designs the pieces for the prestigious People’s Choice Awards, as well as the spectacular Times Square Ball – a crystal ball which forms a prominent part of a New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square in New

tom.walsh@wwrd.com or +353 (0)51 317043. The factory in Waterford City is home to a brand new continuous melt tank furnace that has been tailor-made for Waterford Crystal’s specifications and melts two tonnes of molten crystal every day. It uses leading-edge technology to deliver molten crystal of the highest quality for our skilled master blowers to hand-shape and mouth-blow Waterford Crystal’s range of premium products. Thousands of visitors travel from around the world, to see the famous crystal being manufactured at the factory in Waterford. Factory tours are available all year round, visit waterfordvisitorcentre.com or contact +353 (0)51 317000.

Waterford Crystal Retail Store

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York, colloquially known as the ball drop. There is huge pride in Waterford Crystal throughout Ireland and it’s little wonder that it is one of the most popular items used to mark such special occasions. Our corporate and gift awards programme can cater for rewarding your employees or clients. We can customise a piece from our core range that can allow you create your own unique message or logo on the item. Should you require your items gift wrapped and individual cards written, we can include as part of your order. Our worldwide shipping service allows you the flexibility to deliver 24/48 hours to Ireland, UK or USA. Our dedicated sales manager Tom Walsh can be contacted at

25/08/2016 17:08

Excellence in CSR COMMUNICATION BOOTS

ESB

KPMG

THREE IRELAND

Driving employee engagement and awareness of CSR

Communicating the impact of ESB’s Energy for Generations Fund

KPMG’s ‘Our CSR Story’

Together We Can Tackle Homelessness

KPMG sought to highlight the firm’s endeavors across its extensive range of CSR activities by creating a collection of short stories that would record its CSR programme in pictures and words. Across its broad spectrum of CSR initiatives, the firm mobilises 900 staff volunteers every year, with over 9,500 staff hours donated, and supported by the firm. Our CSR Story profiles KPMG’s awardwinning, skills-based CSR projects across a time period of 18 months and brings together the wide range of communities and charities which have benefited from the extracurricular and voluntary efforts of its people in a series of nine short stories.

Proud sponsors of Irish Rugby, Three wanted to approach the 2016 sponsorship innovatively and give something back. Homelessness is one of the major issues facing Irish society and to support and raise awareness of this worthy cause, Three handed over its assets and marketing campaign associated with the rugby sponsorship to Focus Ireland. In doing so, Three provided Focus Ireland with a 1 million marketing campaign entitled ‘Together We Can Tackle Homelessness’, which included a threeminute documentary-style advertisement, a TV, radio and digital advertising campaign, PR activity and a fundraising drive. Throughout the campaign, Three made its own ‘call’ to Ireland’s rugby fans and the rest of Ireland to help by texting HOME to 50300 to donate 2.

A central element of Boots Ireland’s CSR communications agenda is engaging its employees. Boots partners with the Irish Cancer Society countrywide to raise funds for the charity’s Night Nurse Service while providing dedicated cancer support and advice in store through cancer information pharmacists and cancer beauty advisors. In addition, Boots Ireland supports education, work placements and women returning to work through initiatives like Business in the Community and Dress For Success. The impact of its CSR programme is driven by its highly engaged employees. An internal communication and engagement strategy was developed to ensure greater employee awareness and involvement across all 83 stores. The results have aided greater overall levels of engagement, while also achieving wider external accreditation and recognition among Boots Ireland customers.

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For ESB, CSR communication is essential and enables the company to demonstrate that communities are at the heart of its business vision. ESB celebrated ten years of the Energy for Generations Fund by engaging its staff, CEO, partners and other key stakeholders through a range of activities and events. These included cheque presentation events, CSR thought leadership panel discussions, media outreach, developing a series of videos, social media, internal communications and more. By communicating the Energy for Generations Fund and its positive impact, ESB aims to copper fasten its position as Ireland’s foremost energy company and the role it plays in building a brighter, more sustainable future.

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Excellence in COMMUNITY

LIC

PARTNERSHIP WITH CHARITY

BANK OF IRELAND Be Our Inspiration – Bank of Ireland and Barnardos Barnardos is one of Bank of Ireland’s five flagship charities. The ‘Be Our Inspiration’ project was created as an innovative way to challenge Bank of Ireland colleagues to go beyond self-imposed limits and develop their potential. Those that auditioned and were selected had the opportunity to learn a new skill over a 12-month period and leverage this experience to raise funds and awareness for the work of Barnardos in the community. The project culminated in a showcase event in The Helix in October 2015 when all 17 participants performed to a live audience of 2,000 people. On the night Fergus Finlay, Barnardos CEO, was presented with a cheque worth 101,805; a sum which he said would help permanently change the lives of hundreds of vulnerable children.

BON SECOURS

DATAPAC

Social Skills For Autism App

Transforming technology services for Barretstown

The Social Skills for Autism app has been developed by the Shine Centre for Autism and supported by the Bon Secours Hospital Cork under the Community Initiative Programme. The app teaches social skills to adolescents with high functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. Many children with high functioning autism and AS do not acquire social skills intuitively and so suffer from anxiety, depression and, in extreme cases, selfharming behaviours. These children are vulnerable to exploitation and bullying as they do not have the social skills necessary to see the dangers. The Social Skills app is designed as a fun and interactive way to learn these key social skills, so these children can operate in social situations. It has been hugely successful to date with nearly 20,000 downloads.

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Datapac worked with children’s charity Barretstown on a complete redesign of the IT infrastructure on the organisation’s 500acre campus. The ICT provider replaced an outdated system and implemented a worldclass technology upgrade including improvements to networks, servers, backups, PCs, laptops and the introduction of a first time high-speed broadband service. Staff at Barretstown now benefit from instant, secure access to their applications and data from locations across the campus resulting in improved communications, increased productivity and efficiency. The new technology has modernised the entire IT infrastructure at Barretstown and provides a platform to support the charity’s future growth and technological evolution. This ongoing partnership gives Barretstown constant access to a team of leading IT professionals ensuring the long-term success of the project.

CSR recognises our changing world and of the need for all sectors of society to recognise the rights and responsibilities now inherent in commercial and noncommercial activity.”

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Excellence in COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP WITH CHARITY

BOOTS

CSR touches on many aspects of our lives – the environment, the economy, the workplace, and society in general.”

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Partnership with the Irish Cancer Society In partnership with the Irish Cancer Society, Boots is working towards a vision to provide every person in Ireland with access to the best possible services and support when affected by cancer. For over 19 years in Ireland, Boots has used its pharmacy-led expertise to help improve the health and wellbeing of local communities. The aim of this partnership is to support people living with cancer in Ireland to increase awareness and promote prevention through the Boots Cancer Information Pharmacist while raising vital funds for their dedicated night nursing service. This service provides dignity and comfort to patients and families nationwide through free end-of-life care in their homes. Boots Ireland hopes for its stores to become communitybased destinations in the fight against cancer.

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC

HEINEKEN IRELAND

Charity partnerships across three Boston Scientific sites in Ireland

HEINEKEN Ireland and Cork Simon Aftercare Programme

Boston Scientific is dedicated to transforming lives through innovative medical solutions that improve the health of patients around the world. Boston Scientific was first established in Ireland in 1994 and has grown to be Ireland’s largest medical device employer employing 4,500 people across its three sites located in Galway, Cork and Clonmel. Following an employee nomination and selection process, these sites partnered with individual charities during 2015. The aim was to fundraise, volunteer and spread awareness of the selected charities. All projects supported during the partnerships are tangible and will have a long-lasting impact for the service users and their families. Through its fundraising and volunteering activities Boston Scientific has increased awareness of the services provided by each of the charities.

Since 2013, HEINEKEN Ireland has supported an Aftercare Programme with the Cork Simon Community to address the issue of alcohol related harm. The Cork Simon Aftercare Programme provides support to individuals experiencing homelessness by helping them address their addictions. This is a strategic programme for Cork Simon Community and is the only one available to people experiencing homelessness in Cork. The support from HEINEKEN Ireland, in helping establish this programme, is a very real and substantive response to address the issue of alcohol abuse. The Aftercare Programme, together with company-wide employee engagement and volunteering, is the focus of this partnership.

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Excellence in COMMUNITY

MNC

PARTNERSHIP WITH CHARITY

LIDL IRELAND Lidl’s CSR Programme Lidl is invested in developing a comprehensive CSR programme which focuses on giving back to communities all over Ireland. Lidl operates a CSR programme on five defined pillars: grassroots/ community, environment, employees, products and business partners. This centres on employees and grassroots/community which are deemed to be the most important. In 2015, Lidl launched Ireland’s largest cardiac screening programme in conjunction with Laya Healthcare offering free screenings to their team across Ireland. On the community side, Lidl developed a new structured food donation programme with Bia Food Initiative in Cork, while expanding its existing programme in Dublin with Crosscare. 2015 witnessed the last year of Lidl’s three-year partnership with Barretstown camps, which focused on reaching the ambitious 1 million fundraising target set when the partnership started in 2013.

TESCO IRELAND Raising funds for Temple Street Tesco Ireland proudly partnered with Temple Street Children’s Hospital on a three-year journey focused on raising funds to purchase life-saving medical equipment and raising awareness of the work that the hospital does for children across Ireland. Through colleague-led, fun at work fundraising initiatives, Tesco Ireland aims to raise as much money as possible by the end of 2017 and is delighted to be one of Ireland’s top corporate fundraisers, with 1.6 million raised to date. Tesco has truly integrated communications for Temple Street into its marketing, PR and internal communications agenda and has driven increased awareness levels with both colleagues and customers, bringing charity onto TV for the first time at Tesco in 2014. Tesco Ireland looks forward to the next step of its partnership with Temple Street and its little heroes!

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THREE IRELAND Strategic Corporate Charity Partnership with An Cosán VCC Three’s Strategic Corporate Charity partner is An Cosán Virtual Community College. The Virtual Community College (VCC) is a startup education initiative which has a unique vision; to eliminate poverty and social inequality through education delivered by online and mobile technology. It empowers young people from disadvantaged communities across Ireland to achieve their educational potential through virtual and m-learning technologies, going on to gain employment and exit poverty. Three brings a holistic partnership approach to VCC and utilises all available company assets to support the charity. From a company financial donation to employee skills based volunteering and fundraising, along with employee/ student e-mentoring and m-learning, Three concentrates on embedding the charity deep into the organisation and making a real and lasting difference to VCC.

CSR activities can be consistent with profitability and it is known that some of those companies most committed to CSR are also among the most successful and profitable.”

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Excellence in COMMUNITY COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

BANK OF IRELAND

Government support has been, and continues to be, vital for the active development of the CSR sector.”

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Enterprise Town Enterprise Town was created by Bank of Ireland to help people grow their local economies and foster a renewed sense of purpose and identity for the whole community. The Enterprise Town initiative has grown from one town in 2013 to a nationwide programme of 100 towns, representing an investment of over 1 million by the bank in 2016. Over 600 Bank of Ireland staff are involved in supporting the initiative, with 7,000 businesses, almost 4,000 sports and community groups, and some 200 first and second level schools participating in 2016. As Ireland’s largest lender, and with 250 branches nationwide, Bank of Ireland is a core part of the communities it serves. Through its Enterprise Town programme Bank of Ireland wants to invigorate and re-energise communities, showcasing what is on offer in these towns and supporting economic growth and development.

DPS DPS CSR Student Support Programme The DPS Student Support Programme was established in 2015 as part of the DPS Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. Through working in partnership with parents, schools and other key stakeholders from the education sector, its vision is to support students in areas of educational disadvantage to achieve the best Leaving Certificate results possible and increase their chances of progressing to third level university and further education. It is an exciting programme aimed at encouraging young people to reach their full potential both academically and socially while promoting equal opportunities and providing financial support, mentoring, and guidance. The DPS programme endeavours to develop and nurture student’s cultural capital, self-belief, attitude, hopes and personal skills.

LAYA HEALTHCARE Super Troopers with Laya Healthcare Laya Healthcare promises to ‘Look After You Always’ and to become the future of health insurance in Ireland. With this in mind, Laya Healthcare is committed to supporting greater physical activity among school children and tackling the growing concern of childhood obesity. Safefood Ireland has determined that 80 per cent of all school-aged children in Ireland do not meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity leading to one in four children being overweight. Super Troopers with Laya Healthcare is a ‘health homework’ programme developed by education, psychology, nutrition and wellbeing experts to support greater physical activity among school children. Super Troopers is the first ever health homework programme run in Ireland, with 180,000 children in over 1,000 primary schools around the country participating in the initiative.

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Excellence in COMMUNITY

MNC

COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

KBC BANK

MICROSOFT

Bright Ideas

Tech4Good

Bright Ideas is a community challenge created by KBC which affords consumers and communities the opportunity to have their say about the types of CSR activity that is important in their area. Organisations and individuals apply for funding by presenting an idea to improve their community. Bright Ideas is a unique community celebration platform and it allows KBC to directly empower people to make a difference to what matters to them and their community. The Bright Ideas community fund has to date awarded 185,000 in funding to 68 innovative local projects across Ireland who have developed unique initiatives, delivering a real and tangible impact.

The Tech4Good programme is operated by Microsoft globally. In Ireland, the programme is providing free access to software and latest technology to non-profit organisations nationwide. The programme also sees Microsoft employees donate their time and skills to train staff and develop solutions for these organisations so they can ably use the software donated to them.

ORACLE IRELAND Mission Employment

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Oracle Ireland’s Mission Employment programme is a long-term skills based volunteering programme which was developed to address the issue of unemployment in the community. It is a replicable and sustainable initiative which empowers Oracle employees to share their skills, competencies and experience with jobseekers. The objective is to support a diverse range of Dublin based jobseekers to gain confidence, learn new skills and leverage social tools, thus maximising their opportunities to find or reenter employment.

Many very worthwhile initiatives are only made possible by the alliances that have formed between communities, voluntary organisations, government and business.”

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Excellence in VOLUNTEERING

It is important that the real value of CSR is communicated to all participants in a way they will readily understand.”

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ARTHUR COX

PM GROUP

The Arthur Cox Zambia Project

Building Partnerships Initiative

Celebrating nine years, the Arthur Cox Zambia Project is a trainee-developed initiative raising standards of living in the most rural regions of Zambia. Hand-in-hand with local communities it develops sustainable health, education and agricultural infrastructure. Recently, the project altered its focus from healthcare to education, following a successful community handover in the Mwandi region. The project has returned to Arthur Cox’s burial site in Chikuni – in partnership with the local Jesuit mission – to build solar-powered radio schools. These schools provide government approved curriculum to children who cannot attend formal schools due to geographic or financial barriers. To avoid dependence, the project’s initiatives aim to become self-funding in accordance with a carefully devised community handover strategy. Community decision-making and ownership are key pillars of the project, ensuring its sustainability.

PM Group’s Community Support Programme is firmly based on supporting worthy causes located in the cities and regions local to its international office network. Its experiences have shown the real difference to the localities, and the positive impact on the development of participating employees. As an Irish company specialising in the provision of engineering, architecture, project management and construction management services around the world, it recognises its unique position in providing specialist advice that can be preferable to direct financial donations. In 2014, it introduced the PM Group Building Partnerships Initiative to provide specialist support on strategic building projects, probono, for charitable organisations. The result of the initiative has allowed it to significantly grow the number of charitable building projects it supports internationally.

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Trinity Access 21 (TA21) Trinity Access 21’s vision is to be a catalyst for social transformation, supporting people to reach their full educational potential through innovation, research and advocacy. This innovative mentoring programme was launched in 2014 involving more than 1,200 second level students from 11 Dublin schools. It aims to support the development of a ‘college-going culture’ in schools with lower than average higher education progression rates. TA21 is supported by 320 volunteer mentors and adapted from a model developed by a US educational nonprofit, College For Every Student. The CFES model was successfully piloted in St Joseph’s Secondary School in Rush, Co Dublin in 2013. The model is grounded in the belief that cultural change is achieved through three core practices: mentoring, pathways to college and leadership through service.

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Excellence in VOLUNTEERING

MNC

ABBOTT IRELAND

SSE AIRTRICITY

THREE IRELAND

Sharing our talent, experiences and resources in our local communities

Be the Difference volunteering programme

Sharing our talent, experiences and resources in our local communities

Abbott Ireland employees share their company’s commitment to creating healthier communities worldwide. They give their time, expertise and enthusiasm to numerous community based initiatives. They aim to ensure that the opportunities available match both their needs and interests and their professional skills and expertise. Abbott is committed to ensuring that it continues to deliver programmes that create impact across the 11 locations where Abbott Ireland sites are based.

The SSE Airtricity Be the Difference project is a volunteering initiative designed to support employees in giving their time to a charity or local community cause. The programme is employee driven which ensures high staff involvement and appreciation for the project. In the last year, 51 different charities/ community groups were supported with many having several events throughout the year. This approach spreads the impact around several different causes in the community. As a result it helps to nurture more relationships within the community and touches more hearts by helping causes which are personal to staff. High participation levels and development of community relationships ensure that the project is invaluable to the business and will continue to receive support going forward.

ELI LILLY Eli Lilly Day of Service On the annual Eli Lilly Day of Service, Lilly employees take time out from daily work to assist the local community. The Day of Service began with a group of 12 volunteers in 2009 assisting Kinsale Tidy Towns. Since then, a wide range of projects have been carried out, most aligning with one of four themes: assisting youth, senior citizens, social interaction or the environment. In 2015, 150 people from multiple disciplines helped improve the community that they live and work in by constructing a play-garden for Kinsale Community Playschool, outdoor cleaning and painting the local Brothers of Charity Respite day centre for disabled children.

ORACLE Sales Skills for Community and Voluntary sector The master class in sales with professional mentoring is a strategic multi-year project in the Oracle CSR portfolio. The initiative’s aim is to give sustainable, replicable and long-term support to the community and voluntary groups. It also aims to infuse new skills and strengths in the participants to overcome professional and sectoral challenges. This is a high intensity, high impact programme offering in-class training and a business mentoring package in a full and lite format. The initiative is born from the sustainable vision of transferable skills and the inspirational Chinese proverb, “give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” | CSR AWARDS 2016

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VCC’s goal is to eliminate poverty and social inequality through education using online and mobile technology. Three’s Employee Skills Volunteering is a bespoke volunteering programme for VCC that looks to address and support the specific needs of the rapidly growing charity. Three’s employees have volunteered their time and skills in numerous areas to date, including; website build and design, social media training, virtual learning consultancy, copy writing, communications and marketing consultancy, legal and data protection advice, m-learning advice and strategic support. The e-Mentor programme to support VCC students in achieving their educational goals is another great example of how Three’s employee skills are making a real and lasting difference to VCC and the people they aim to help through virtual and online education.

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Excellence in ENVIRONMENT

SPONSORED BY THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

DAA

DAWN MEATS

ESB

ROADBRIDGE

Travelling towards Sustainability

Carroll’s Cross – Resource Management Excellence

ESB Tree Week

Roadbridge Energy Management Programme

daa (Dublin Airport Authority) is an airport management company, with in excess of 3,000 staff. With 2015 being a record year for daa with 25 million passengers eating, drinking and shopping at Dublin Airport, waste management is a key environmental concern. daa’s vision is to deliver a quality airport experience to the best international standards, thereby contributing to Ireland’s economic growth. daa’s policy is entitled ‘Travelling Towards Sustainability’. Responsible waste management is essential in the delivery of this policy, which commits the daa to communicating and promoting sustainable practices amongst all airport users. Through its waste management strategy and initiatives, it has increased recycling at the airport to 30 per cent and has achieved zero waste to landfill. This is just the beginning of daa’s journey towards sustainability.

Dawn Meats’ CSR Committee – comprising the most senior directors across the group including the CEO – has set itself the goal of being Europe’s most sustainable meat company. Central to achieving this goal are its five pillars: Resource management; sustainable sourcing; animal welfare; people and community; innovation and nutrition. This project provides an example of how one site is supporting this mission through a) achieving fossil fuel free status; b) sourcing quality assured product; 3) increasing recycling; 4) passively treating waste water; 5) engaging staff to deliver resource management excellence; and 6) enhancing on site biodiversity.

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ESB Tree Week is organised by the Tree Council of Ireland, supported by Coillte and sponsored by ESB. Its purpose is to encourage people to go outside, learn about, grow, and, most importantly, enjoy trees. As part of ESB Tree Week, hundreds of partner events and initiatives nationwide encouraged participation and celebration of nature’s greatest asset: trees. This partnership allows ESB to engage with communities across Ireland, and to demonstrate its strong focus on sustainability, and its commitment to leaving behind a positive legacy for the future. During Tree Week 2016, 20,000 trees were planted and over 15,000 seed packs were distributed nationwide. ESB Tree Week is an opportunity for all to harness the potential of Ireland’s nature so that it can thrive and be enjoyed for generations to come.

In June 2015, the Roadbridge Plant Department came up with an innovative, in-house developed solution under the leadership of Sean Liston called Roadbridge Plant Manager. This innovative programme involved providing a battery-based power source for off-peak/ night-time energy and lighting requirements for compound offices, canteen and IT servers. The initiative was developed to counteract remote work areas and reliance on generators to power their compounds. These generators are traditionally inefficient in terms of energy performance and costly to run. The inverter system is now in place on ten of the projects and has led to potential savings of 377,140 or 2,710 tCO2e per year. The associated benefits to the local community are almost zero noise at night and reduced risk of disturbance through laying cables from main roads to site compounds.

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Excellence in ENVIRONMENT

MNC

SPONSORED BY THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

ABBOTT IRELAND Abbott’s journey to achieving 2020 environment goals Abbott in Ireland is committed to reducing their global environmental impacts across the business. The Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) teams across the six manufacturing sites continue to lead a wide range of best practice projects that positively impact the environment, the business, communities and employees. Abbott has a strong tradition of environmental stewardship and their sites in Ireland continue to implement excellent projects to ensure we continue the journey to achieving their 2020 environment goals.

IBM IRELAND IBM Smarter Cities Challenge Dublin IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge is a philanthropic grant that aims to help cities around the world deal with pressing municipal problems. Through the grant, IBM experts provide consulting services valued at $500,000 over a threeweek period. The Smarter Cities Challenge took place in October 2014 after Dublin successfully competed to be one of only 16 cities selected globally from over 100 applications. The IBM team made a series of recommendations to Dublin City Council regarding the harvestable energy potential of the city’s assets, promoting greater use of solar energy to save on its own costs. Solar panels have been installed at the Civic Offices, Wood Quay, at Cabra, Raheny and Coolock libraries and Irishtown Stadium Leisure Centre. Dublin City Council continues to work on additional recommendations.

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TESCO IRELAND Reducing carbon emissions and food waste Tesco Ireland is proud to partner with FoodCloud to deliver a ground-breaking, innovative way for retailers and food businesses to donate their surplus food to those in need. Since 2014, Tesco Ireland has worked with FoodCloud to implement a new process of food waste donations, maximising the amount of surplus food donated and as a result minimising their carbon emissions. Embedded in each Tesco store’s operational process, colleagues are key to its success by processing food waste every evening and working with the FoodCloud app to reach out to local groups and organisations who collect it from stores nationwide. Tesco Ireland has donated 1.7 million meals to those in need across Ireland whilst simultaneously saving 2,590 tonnes of carbon emissions through less waste processing and transport.

For more organisations today, a significant part of their value no longer lies in plant and machinery and bricks and mortar, it’s actually in the intangible thing of what their brand stands for.”

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Excellence in MARKETPLACE A&L GOODBODY

Younger people today have a more holistic view of life, and the reality of it is that they will not want to work for organisations that don’t have a focus on some of the things that they believe are important.”

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Collaborative project with the Irish Refugee Council’s Independent Law Centre A&L Goodbody’s pro-bono practice is at the centre of its community programme, Step Up, providing high quality legal services to community and voluntary organisations working for disadvantaged and marginalised people. In 2013, A&L Goodbody (A&LG) began a collaborative project with the Irish Refugee Council’s Independent Law Centre to develop a unique probono service for people claiming refugee status in Ireland. A&LG provides pro-bono early legal advice and representation to asylum seekers who have recently arrived in Ireland, fleeing persecution in their home countries.

ARTHUR COX

KPMG

Helping to Change Irish Legislation on Human Rights Around Immigration

Going for Growth

Arthur Cox has been working with the Immigrant Council of Ireland since 2013 and runs a secondment programme focused on changing Irish legislation on key human rights issues around immigration. This relationship with the Council is part of Arthur Cox’s commitment to providing pro-bono legal services as part of the firm’s CSR policy. To date, five members of Arthur Cox staff have been seconded, each for a three to six-month period. This has enabled the Council to expand its much needed services to migrants as well as its capacity as an organisation to carry out policy work. The results of this programme are of huge benefit to the many migrant families that access the Council’s legal services annually.

KPMG Ireland supports Going for Growth, an innovative initiative that encourages female entrepreneurs to be ambitious and supports them to achieve their growth goals. Participants are offered a unique learning environment with a peer led approach based on the shared experiences of both a lead entrepreneur and other participants facing common challenges. Going for Growth is designed to be action and results oriented, and to go beyond the classroom. The round tables are based on experiences that have worked in real life situations. Since KPMG’s involvement began, over 130 female entrepreneurs have participated in a cycle of Going for Growth. Participation has translated into practical changes within their businesses, with many reporting increased turnover, more export activity and an increase in jobs created across Ireland.

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Excellence in WORKPLACE

ARTHUR COX

EVERSHEDS

KPMG

Shared Parenting Leave Policy

Workplace Wellbeing Initiative

KPMG Ignite – Empowering Young Women

Arthur Cox launched the first Shared Parenting Leave Policy in Ireland in 2015. The policy allows an Arthur Cox employee who is a father, adopting parent, foster parent or same sex parent the opportunity to apply for fully paid leave after the birth of a child. The purpose of the policy is to enable fathers to spend more time with their children when they are young, while also making it clear to female employees that the firm regards parenting as a shared responsibility.

BANK OF IRELAND Be at your Best Workplace Wellbeing Programme Be at your Best (BAYB) is Bank of Ireland’s employee wellbeing programme. Launched in January 2014, it was developed to help colleagues be at their best around three pillars of wellbeing; mind, body and career. The bank supported colleagues to increase their overall physical and mental wellbeing enabling them to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive and changing working environment. The initiative combines supported exercise, nutritional, career and mindfulness programmes, underpinned by expert seminars on relevant topics including changing lifetime habits and increasing resilience. The programme is supported by a BAYB champion structure with 168 champions actively engaged in promoting and encouraging participation.

ESB Maternity Positive Programme CSR is at the heart of ESB’s business vision, which makes investing in people so important. Managing successful maternity transitions is a key priority for ESB to ensure employees and managers feel supported. ESB recognises that organisations risk losing female talent if maternity transitions are not managed effectively, including challenges in reintegrating after maternity leave. The Diversity and Inclusion team within ESB has developed a Maternity Positive Programme for employees going though maternity or adoption and for line managers/HR business partners, new dads and the ESB Executive Coaching Panel. The series of workshops provides participants with the knowledge and tools to navigate this transition smoothly. All participants also have access to an online portal with supporting reference material. | CSR AWARDS 2016

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Eversheds launched its health and wellness initiative on National Wellness at Work Day 2015. The aim was to educate its staff on the importance of exercise, nutrition and mindfulness whilst also providing them with an environment that supports this culture. Over time the firm hopes that this will reduce potential health problems for its staff and increase their job satisfaction. To encourage staff participation, Eversheds has created a series of unique and dynamic programmes that include health, wellness and nutrition seminars, training courses and supervised fitness programmes. These are designed to provide employees with a supportive environment that gives them control over their health and wellbeing. The firm’s arts and culture programme is also aimed at improving work/life balance for staff.

LIC

The KPMG Ignite programme is the first of its kind in Ireland and comprised four workshops in the Jesus and Mary secondary school in Goatstown, Dublin. The workshops were held for female transition year students and aimed at empowering women at a formative stage in their career development. Developed in the context of KPMG’s strong commitment to a range of gender diversity programmes, the workshops were a major priority. Each week, successful female role models spoke to the students about their individual journeys, incorporating valuable tools and tips to improve confidence and boost the aspirations of the participants. One hundred per cent of participants enjoyed the programme and found it beneficial, with 57 per cent saying that it vastly improved their confidence levels.

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Excellence in WORKPLACE

ABBVIE The AbbVie Ballytivnan Culture Teams AbbVie Ballytivnan, a medical device centre of excellence in Sligo aimed to empower their employees, drive innovation and improve processes by utilising its most powerful resource, its staff. The Ballytivnan ‘culture teams’ was an idea born from the identification of key areas of focus: innovation, training, communications, business process governance and team spirit. Five teams were created from employees, leaders were identified, structures were put in place and powerful, innovative and impactful projects came to fruition. Employees became leaders, and leaders became mentors. Time and cost savings quickly followed and employee morale was exceptional. The success of the culture teams was a key factor in AbbVie jumping nine places to 3rd in the 2015 Great Places to Work awards.

LIDL IRELAND/ LIDL NORTHERN IRELAND

PAYPAL

We Are Lidl

In Ireland Paypal has proven its commitment to inclusion at a local level. The company is a diverse employer with teammates from around the world based in its Dublin and Dundalk offices. It developed and rolled out an intensive two-day diversity and inclusion training workshop for its people leaders. It has an active women’s network and supports women in business through mentoring programmes. PayPal supports labour market activation measures and 50 per cent of its English speaking roles are filled from the Live Register. PayPal is a Silver Sponsor of the 2016 Pride Parade and was a vocal supporter of the marriage equality referendum. Inclusion helps PayPal retain top talent and increase employee engagement. It is committed to continuing this strategy to ensure that all its teammates feel included.

Through the ‘We Are Lidl’ strategy, employee health and wellness has become a key part of Lidl’s people strategy going forward. To coincide with National Workplace Wellbeing Day 2016, Lidl launched their Work Safe. Live Well. health and wellness strategy. Throughout 2016, Lidl will continue to focus on its team’s wellbeing through tailored initiatives, such as smoking cessation, fitness and nutritional support and a focus on mental wellbeing. The Work Safe. Live Well. strategy is designed to help colleagues take positive steps to improve their wellbeing depending on their own individual needs and with the full support of the business.

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Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

ZURICH INSURANCE PLC Zurich Wellbeing Matters The Zurich Wellbeing Matters programme is a holistic, people focused, employee wellbeing programme, incorporating fitness, nutrition, personal budgeting and mental health. The programme takes a three-pronged approach to supporting the wellbeing of employees – providing them with the knowledge, resources and opportunities to make positive changes in their lives, influencing their physical and mental health and wellbeing. Zurich has put a unique emphasis on turning knowledge and resources into action through a number of exciting events and initiatives. The programme keeps the employee experience at its core and makes wellbeing engaging and fun while bettering the lives of Zurich employees. By working with effective wellbeing campaigns and embedding wellbeing into Zurich’s DNA they enable a truly compassionate environment that achieves business goals by helping people to do their best.

| CSR AWARDS 2016

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Excellence in SUPPORTING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

DIAGEO IRELAND

MICROSOFT

ZURICH

Learning For Life

Youth2Work

Zurich Youth Activation

Diageo Learning for Life (LFL) provides young people on the Live Register with the skills, training and experience to take up employment in the tourism and hospitality industry, to which Diageo and its brands are proud to be intrinsically linked. Since 2014, 175 young people have partaken in the programme with 70 per cent securing part-time or full-time employment in the hospitality industry, either with their work experience partners or through their own initiative.

Youth2Work is a Microsoft and Fasttrack to IT (FIT) initiative, run over the last three years, which was established with the ambition to equip 10,000 young people with the technology skills that are in demand from employers all across Ireland. In 2015, as the programme entered its third year, the GAA collaborated with Microsoft and FIT to grow the initiative and reach even more young people. Focusing on the local communities of Cavan and Monaghan, a pilot of Youth2Work was delivered with the support of the Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board. The Youth2Work initiative is on track to have trained 13,500 young people by the end of summer 2016.

ESB ESB Apprenticeship Programme ESB’s position as Ireland’s foremost energy company makes it instrumental in building a brighter, more sustainable future. CSR is at the heart of ESB’s business vision and it invests significantly in its people and communities. ESB is well known for its high-quality apprenticeships resulting in electrical and mechanical trade qualifications. Based in the ESB Networks Training Centre in Portlaoise, the ESB Apprenticeship Programme sees participants complete four apprentice training levels totalling 23 weeks training in addition to state training. Last year, ESB announced plans to recruit 300 new apprentices over a five-year period.

MERGON INTERNATIONAL Building for the Future at Mergon International Mergon is an Irish owned company that prides itself on innovation in technical plastic moulding solutions. Since 1981, the company has focused on hiring high calibre talent from the institutes of technology, universities and through apprenticeship programmes. More recently, its approach has become more structured expanding to incorporate an innovative youth reach partnership programme (Step Up), a new Leaving Certificate Vocational Program (LCVP), an internship programme and a global graduate excellence programme. Building a strong pipeline of talent is vital for Mergon’s ongoing success. It recognises the value in developing partnerships with Solas, Youth Reach, Institute of Technology Sligo and Athlone, Dublin City University, University of Limerick and local secondary schools. | CSR AWARDS 2016

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The Zurich Youth Activation programme takes a multi-layered approach to addressing youth unemployment in the south-east region. A work experience programme for transition year students, a traineeship programme and an apprenticeship programme combine to address the issue at a number of levels. The programmes provide young people with the opportunity to gain the skills and experience required to secure a rewarding and successful career within the insurance industry and beyond. This guidance is given at various points in their development; while making career decisions in school, upon leaving school and/or going through career transitions. Working closely with its local youth employment stakeholders, Zurich has designed each initiative to deliver on the desired outcomes for the participants, with a strong focus on employability, while delivering innovative and exciting opportunities.

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Excellence in CSR BY AN SME

CAREY BUILDING CONTRACTORS Implementation of resource efficiency strategies Carey Building Contractors’ project examined the feasibility of implementing resource efficiency strategies to reduce the environmental burden of construction activities while increasing the competitiveness of the process. Through resource efficiency audits, shortcomings were identified with the current procedures and quick win low cost/no cost solutions were suggested in order to improve environmental performance and reduce costs. The implemented initiatives produced a cost saving of 8,834.64 which represented 0.55 per cent of the project value and 18.41 per cent of a theoretical project profit margin of 3 per cent. The initiatives saved 6,028.59kWhrs of energy, prevented 164.03 tonnes of materials from being placed in site skips and reduced CO2 emissions by a total of 16.43 tonnes.

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COLLINS MCNICHOLAS Partnership with Pieta House Over the last 26 years it has been central to the ethos of Collins McNicholas Recruitment & HR Services Group to get involved in the local community. As one of the leading recruitment companies in Ireland, it has seen first-hand the stresses and strains that unemployment can place on people from all walks of life. In 2013, Collins McNicholas established a long-term partnership with Pieta House to help raise awareness for the prevention of suicide and has continued this partnership into 2014, 2015 and beyond. To help promote the charity, Collins McNicholas has ensured that Pieta House events are continually featured on its website and social media and it spreads the word to its clients, candidates and colleagues on a regular basis.

EARTH’S EDGE Kilimanjaro Equipment Lending Programme Earth’s Edge is Ireland’s only fully licensed adventure travel company. The Equipment Lending Programme was established to help porters who work on Africa’s highest mountain. At 5,896 metres, climbing Kilimanjaro is a serious challenge especially for the porters who have the additional task of carrying heavy loads. Earth’s Edge identified a need to supply porters with mountaineering clothing. It partnered with Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP), an American-run, Tanzanian-based NGO that has an equipment lending programme in place for porters. Earth’s Edge will be sending the equipment from Ireland with their climbing teams throughout 2016.

JOHN CRADDOCK LTD Homeless Care in Kildare John Cradock Ltd (JCL), an SME civil engineering contractor based in Kildare, engaged with a local youth homeless charity whose services were threatened due to lack of funding. The involvement of JCL initially secured the immediate future of the much needed services targeted at young people who had been through the State care system. This resulted in the development of Homeless Care CLG, a Kildare charity targeting at-risk youths in Kildare. The project is on track to enable this charity to enhance its services greatly and offer a comprehensive live-in care programme aimed at enabling vulnerable youth to reach their full potential.

THREE Q PERMS & TEMPS The Business of CSR in our Business Three Q PERMS & TEMPS’ CSR framework, ‘The Business of CSR in our Business’, is the basis for all of the company’s CSR projects under its three pillars: unemployed, in-demand jobseekers and hiring charities. Its projects are driven by Three Q’s greatest asset: its people. As a recruitment agency, Three Q is ‘in the business of jobs for people’ and its CSR work is further commitment to this goal. The CSR strategy is embedded in the way it does business and its actions must reflect this core vision and purpose. Three Q operates in a way that values people and builds up people in the process. | CSR AWARDS 2016

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