At makepositive we have always had a strong focus on environmental and social issues, we are all eligible to take three volunteer days a year to use at a charity of our choice and we pride ourselves on being environmentally friendly and a paper free office (I actually don’t even know where the printer is!) However, during an away day in September there was lots of feedback from employees that we could be doing even more to drive our charitable and environmental contributions.
With makepositive being makepositive, that feedback was quickly taken on board and actioned and a new role was advertised internally for an ESG Ambassador. The role of the successful applicant was to help drive ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) issues within MP, helping people use their volunteer days and promote all things environmental and social. In December I was lucky enough to be appointed to this role for the UK which I am incredibly passionate about.
Since taking on this role I have had the opportunity to discover some incredible charities and learn about some of the amazing initiatives that global companies are involved in to help ensure social and environmental values are at the forefront of business growth strategy. We have recently joined the Pledge 1% movement to make giving back a part of our company’s DNA. We’re very excited to join the #Pledge1 community and to donate 1% of our time back to the community.
We have already engaged with an incredible organisation in Manchester called Mustard Tree who help tackle the cause and consequence of poverty. Each month we send a couple of our Manchester team members to volunteer there, so far we have helped with their Food Club and collecting and delivering furniture and food throughout the Manchester area. We are very much looking forward to volunteering with them on an ongoing basis as they do such amazing work.
We are also in the process of organising ongoing volunteer opportunities with a large food redistribution organisation for our London team which we are very excited about.
As always at makepositive the Executive Leadership team are leading by example and we have a group going out to support Maggie’s at Bart’s Hospital in London for a day in March. Maggie’s provide emotional and practical support to people who have had a cancer diagnosis and their families. We also have a team supporting Maggie’s with their Leadenhall Abseil event in April, one of our team has even talked her husband into participating in the abseil!
As well as our volunteering initiatives we are also working closely with Demelza to raise vital funds for the amazing work they do in supporting children with serious or terminal conditions and their families. In the past six months we have raised over £2500 for them through raffles and other events and we have some great ideas in the pipeline to raise significantly more in the coming months. With that money Demelza can provide overnight care for a child with complex care needs, fund 15 support groups for family members of a child with a terminal illness and provide art and music therapy sessions for a child and their siblings.
We have also joined ecologi with our parent company Sabio to plant trees in forests around the world. We are looking forward to watching our virtual forest grow over the coming months and years.
I’m so happy to be in this role and am so lucky to work at makepositive where making a difference in the wider community is part of our ethos. I’m looking forward to finding even more opportunities for us to give back and sharing those with the MP family.
You can discover more about our CSR initiatives here.
