Award for Corporate Citizenship or Community Action
The Johnson Matthey Sustainability Award for Corporate Citizenship or Community Action recognises individuals, teams, sites or businesses that demonstrate commitment and excellence in developing sustainable relationships with the local community.
The judges were looking for evidence of:
- Benefits to the community and to Johnson Matthey.
- The social / environmental / ethical / financial impact of the entry.
- Employee engagement and involvement.
- The contribution the entry makes towards achieving the Sustainability 2017 Vision.
With an extremely high standard of entries in this category, two awards have been made:
Improving the Quality of Life in the Community
The Johnson Matthey Germiston site in South Africa won our 2008/09 Sustainability Award for Corporate Citizenship and Community Action thanks to its imaginative and closely targeted work among deprived communities.
One prong of its activities is working with schools. Dikatole is a local settlement made up of shanties and – as at other informal settlements – its schools do not get adequate funding. Johnson Matthey recognises the importance of educating children in a hygienic and decently equipped environment conducive to learning. This was far from the case at Ekurhuleni Primary School, where the toilet block or ablution facility was on the point of collapse. The Germiston site CSR team intervened to provide funds for a new block, rebuilt from the foundations up. It has also purchased portable cabins (which were previously rented) to house two additional classrooms and to increase the number of children being educated. There are further plans to give financial help for a school hall in 2009. Upgrading facilities in this way gives a real fillip to primary education – and the community generally – in the locality.
Elsewhere, the Germiston site has partnered with Eco-Access, a South African charity that helps disabled people, especially children, to understand the natural environment. The charity encourages schools and centres for the disabled to set up self sufficient green programmes and Germiston contributed R97,000 (over £7,000) towards the construction of a chicken run at Zimeleni School. At the Zimeleni and Ezibeleni schools, Germiston helped create vegetable gardens, setting these communities on the road to self sufficiency and enhancing their quality of life.
Following an employee survey that revealed a wish to alleviate the impact of HIV / AIDS, the CSR Committee provides support to St Francis, an AIDS care facility for terminally ill patients, and Lambano, an orphanage for children, most of whom have lost their parents through AIDS. Germiston employees have played a valuable role in identifying beneficiaries and giving up their free time to participate in work parties.
These activities have brought benefit to the institutions involved and in turn to Johnson Matthey, engaging local employees in the process and making Germiston a model of corporate citizenship and responsibility.
Commitment to Community Engagement at Clitheroe
Unstinting efforts to promote science education and environmental awareness has earned our Clitheroe, UK site the 2008/09 Award for Corporate Citizenship or Community Action.
Attracting young people to a career in science is an important part of maintaining a sustainable workforce. Catching them young, telling them what a career with a leading chemicals company is really like and offering well matched work experience placements are all crucial ingredients. Every year, the Clitheroe team aims to reach children at four secondary and nine primary schools – around 1,000 young people in all. While the topics involved have a broad range, including environmental weeks and anti-bullying campaigns, visits from schools (and to schools) are all-important.
Work placements were previously allocated by a local body on the basis of a standard form, leading to occasional mismatches. The Clitheroe site rectified the problem by going into schools and speaking directly to students, who then completed a role-specific application form and attended a short interview. This had the double advantage of giving students experience of job applications and interviews and ensuring that the work experience went to the students who would most benefit. Clitheroe’s mechanical and electrical maintenance teams spent one or two weeks with the students on site, while the projects and technical team took on enthusiastic students with an interest in engineering.
Other activities with secondary schools included visits to schools for Science in Industry weeks (and offering hands on work), mentoring schemes for GCSE students and participation in parents evenings.
At primary school level, the emphasis was on the environment. Working with a local primary school and the Wildlife Trust, Johnson Matthey has helped to create an eco-zone from a derelict wilderness, contributing both funding and manpower.
The company’s plant at Clitheroe is located in a close community where Johnson Matthey is a major employer and its future workforce is on its doorstep. Employees at Clitheroe made an outstanding contribution in 2008/09 in helping the younger generation to understand the place of science in industry while promoting the environmental sustainability that the business is committed to.
