Lend Lease | Our Contribution Detail
Our Contribution
Detail
Contents
- Community Day
- Community Grants
- Millers Point Youth Employment Partnership
- Building Schools for the Future, Lancashire, UK
- BeOnsite
- Rebuilding Tsunami Communities
Highlights of our social investment and contribution to philanthropic activity include:
- More than AUD$3M contributed to philanthropic activity globally FY09
- 33,000 employee hours spent on Community Day in 2007 with a value of AUD$3.47M.
- Over the past 11 years, more than 425,000 employee hours have been dedicated to Community Day worldwide
Many of our businesses, projects and employees have made significant contributions to the communities in which they live and work. Lend Lease has many best-practice examples of philanthropic activity and activity, which contributes to the long-term development of communities.
We are currently assessing the measures that will provide information about the impact of our company's philanthropic and social investment activity and inform a globally consistent approach to social investment programmes in line with our business strategy.
Until now, our philanthropic and social investment activity has been integrated into our business planning minimally. At project level, our businesses take a sophisticated approach to community investment, but there has been no guiding principle that unites the approach from one Business Unit to the next.
We have spent the past year developing these social investment and philanthropic principles and reviewing the social and ethical considerations that should guide all of our investment decisions, not just community investment.
Additionally, representatives of our businesses have been working together to share experiences in community investment and to develop a globally applicable "tool box" of methods and measures that will help to replicate the best practice in projects around the world.
We are, for the first time this year, able to report a reasonably accurate global philanthropic cash contribution of AUD$3M. Our Business Units will provide this information from now on as a measure of our philanthropic and social investment.
We are yet to quantify the value of time Lend Lease employees volunteer in the community.
While many of our employees spend thousands of unaccounted voluntary hours participating in community engagement and philanthropic programs, all 12,000 employees around the world share the focus in Community Day, a flagship programme of the Lend Lease's Foundation.
Community Day—employees donating time, skills and resources
We think it's important to understand and contribute to the communities in which we operate. After all, our local communities represent the people who live and work in the buildings that we create and construct, so they are critical to the long-term success of our business.
Since 1996, we have held an annual Foundation Community Day across the world. It's a day when our employees are invited to take time out to match their skills and experiences to many worthwhile causes that need our assistance.
Employees are encouraged to choose projects that have geographic, personal and professional relevance; collaborate with the community organisation to ensure we support them in a meaningful way; match employees' skills with respective community projects and look for projects where a community partnership already exists, or could be formed.
Guided by our employees, we have supported many different community groups and organisations that need our help, from local schools, to shelters for abused women and children, to homeless centres, to environmental regeneration projects.
We are particularly proud to put our construction skills to good use by upgrading important community facilities, building cubby houses for children's hospitals, providing sanitation for schools in developing areas and building housing for low-income families.
Employees value this highly rewarding experience, where they can personally make a difference to the community, learn new skills, build on a strong team spirit and learn more about the communities around them.
It's about rolling up our sleeves and getting involved. And to date, we estimate that our people have volunteered more than 425,000 hours of their time to community initiatives via Community Day alone.
Community Day allows us to have a better appreciation of each other's needs; it develops employees and connects them with the community in ways that make a genuine contribution, and it promotes mutual understanding, respect and well-being.
Community Grants—supporting our employees' community contributions
Wherever we have a presence, we want to be a good community neighbour and work towards improving the quality of people's lives. We encourage our employees to identify community projects, groups or causes they care about or where they believe they can make a positive difference.
Lend Lease's Foundation Community Grants programme supports employees already volunteering for worthwhile causes in their community. Foundation will make a financial contribution to the community organisation nominated by the employee for a specific project. Employees must contribute at least 50 hours per annum to a voluntary service or registered charity to be eligible for the grant.
We have made donations to many different causes, including food for the homeless, vacation camp for respite care, building materials to improve community centres and guide dogs for the blind.
Year round, Community Grants provide much-needed support at a grassroots level. They help our employees to generate local benefits and support them in their efforts to create vibrant, resilient and sustainable local communities.
Millers Point Youth & Employment Partnership, Sydney, Australia
Lend Lease facilitated the establishment of the Millers Point Youth & Employment Partnership (MPYEP) in November 2003, following extensive community consultation in preparation for the development and relocation of its head office to The Bond in Sydney’s Millers Point.
Millers Point is a unique community with a rich industrial heritage. The area has undergone considerable change in recent years, and features a mix of affluent residents and businesses, as well as a large number of people living in public housing.
The unique partnership of 13 participating organisations, from large corporations to the city authority and other groups delivering community services, developed out of a recognition that more could be achieved for the young people of the area and their families through acting collaboratively. MPYEP is considered an excellent example of a community-inspired public and private partnership, bringing together diverse parties with a common interest in creating a sustainable, positive and progressive community.
Mentoring Programmes
MPYEP’s mentoring programme falls into two different age groups: career mentoring (aged 14+ years) and Reading Friends (primary school children). More than 75 Lend Lease Sydney–based employees have volunteered their time as mentors and have received training.
The Reading Friends programme was launched in April 2005 and has two functions: it provides a positive adult role model for children and focuses on the positive aspects of reading. By 2007 all 70 students at the local primary school had a Reading Friend mentor.
In addition to the mentoring programmes, MPYEP has also:
- Sponsored young people to attend a leadership camp
- Supported local youth groups to hold cultural festivals with performances from the young people in the area
- Operated a homework club with the youth centre, supported by Lend Lease volunteers
- Organised volunteers to staff a breakfast club at the local high school
- Facilitated employment and work experience through Lend Lease and City of Sydney Council for several local young people
More information on MPYEP can be found by clicking here.
The experience of establishing MPYEP has been used to develop a similar model of community engagement at Lend Lease’s new Melbourne HQ, The Gauge.
Building Schools for the Future, Lancashire, UK
Lend Lease employees are also part of a team of volunteers from the companies leading Lancashire County Council's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme who mentor more than 70 pupils at 12 schools in and around Burnley, UK.
Catalyst Lend Lease has been appointed by Lancashire County Council to build nine new schools in East Lancashire over the next three years. The 35 mentors come from three businesses: Catalyst Lend Lease, which is responsible for developing and running the new BSF schools; its construction partner, Bovis Lend Lease; and architect Capita Symonds, which has designed the schools.
The mentoring programme, which aims to leave a skills legacy on completion of the project, helps the present generation of school pupils to think about their possible careers and the sort of work they may want to do in the future.
Mentoring is just one aspect of the community involvement that forms a key part of the BSF scheme, which also includes training and apprenticeship opportunities with local firms working on the schools.
BeOnsite
Our UK business is addressing the growing skills shortage in the construction industry with the establishment of not-for-profit company BeOnsite. Sponsored by Bovis Lend Lease UK, the organisation aims to offer on-site industry-specific training and employment to people looking for employment, especially young people and those considered long-term unemployed.
Set up with support from our supply chain, BeOnsite has been formed in partnership with Jobcentre Plus, ConstructionSkills, the London Development Agency and the Learning and Skills Council.
ConstructionSkills estimates more than 85,000 new entrants per year are needed within the UK construction industry, and many of these entrants will need new skills with an increasing focus on new prefabricated building techniques, smart buildings, sustainable development and environmental technologies.
A key objective for the new organisation is to work hand-in-glove with the supply chain to map the exact skills that are needed and then identify how these skills will be provided through specialist-accredited training providers, giving companies a direct opportunity to shape the learning and skilling of potential and current employees.
BeOnsite will pay particular attention to the skills gaps where no specific training currently exists. It will also provide a coordinated single point of contact for access to local labour.
For many people, particularly the long-term unemployed, BeOnsite provides a unique opportunity: training for jobs where there is a very real shortage of qualified workers, and the full support of both people in the industry and the community in which the industry operates.
BeOnsite will take full responsibility for supporting and employing the trainees on their journey from worklessness to employment.
View change agent story—Val Lowman by clicking here: Val Lowman.
Rebuilding Tsunami Communities
Following the devastation of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004, Lend Lease formed a partnership with the United Nations Habitat Agency. The agency had declared the Tsunami-affected zones a disaster area and was struggling to cope with the overwhelming devastation.
Realising that it had more to offer than simply a cash donation, Lend Lease entered into a partnership with UN Habitat, providing financial support and the skills and experience of Lend Lease employees, who were seconded to aid in the rebuilding of some of Sri Lanka's hardest-hit communities.
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