Our commitment
We are very much aware of our corporate responsibility to use our resources for the benefit not only of our customers and shareholders, but also for the wider community. We want to give something back to the communities we serve and last year, we invested more than 1% of pre-tax profits through our community programme. The programme aims to maximise our support and make a positive impact through a wide range of initiatives, a few of which are highlighted below.
Employee volunteering
Just an hour is Essex and Suffolk Water’s highly successful employee volunteering programme, launched in July 2002. We recognised both the need to take our community support beyond a pure donation of cash and also the wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise of our employees. A structured programme of employee involvement in the community designed to impact on education, the environment and the general well being of the community has been developed.
One of the main objectives is to add value to the community and to realise this, each of our employees has been given the opportunity to take at least 12 working hours a year to support community initiatives.
Since its launch, 31% of our employees have signed up and have committed 11,000 hours in support of the communities we serve.
The Just an hour programme was awarded the prestigious ‘Big Tick’ accreditation through Business in the Community’s Awards for Excellence in 2005.
Payroll giving
The Essex and Suffolk Water Payroll Giving Programme was launched in October 2005. Payroll Giving is a simple tax effective way that enables employees to make donations to their chosen charities straight from their gross salary. Employees donations are matched £1 for £1 (up to the value of £10 per contribution) by Essex and Suffolk Water and also by The Charities Trust. Every pound pledged by employees levers a contribution of £3 to nominated charities - we meet all administration costs.
Employee sponsorship – Cheque it out
We also support employees who are actively involved with local community projects outside of normal working hours. Employees can apply to Cheque it out, our employee sponsorship fund for a contribution to boost their own fundraising efforts. There are some terrific examples of employees requesting sponsorship to help their community. Employees can also request raffle prizes, volunteering from colleagues or appropriate use of company facilities.
Care for Safety Challenge
The Essex and Suffolk Water care for Safety challenge was formally launched in April 2004 in partnership with Mencap, a charity supporting people with a learning disability. As part of a health and safety initiative, the challenge was established to help raise awareness and improve our health and safety record whilst at the same time generating vital funds for Mencap. More than £85,000 has been raised.
Grant giving
We have established endowment funds, which are managed by the four Community Foundations within our areas of supply. These endowments provide an annual income to support community and environmental projects that fit with our criteria. Employee committees decide which projects should receive funding.
Community sponsorships
Many of our community sponsorships are focussed on health initiatives which reinforce our Water for health message.