Lendlease Gives Back to Local Communities at Community Day 2018
On October 4, 2018, more than 250 of our Lendlease employees in Singapore participated in our annual Lendlease Community Day. A long-held tradition over the past 23 years, Community Day is a very special occasion for our organization, as it is a day when we set aside time to make a difference in the communities where we live, work and play in.
- 21 Oct 2018
- by
- Lendlease Author Better Places
Through these initiatives, our employees had the opportunity to reach out to senior citizens and the underprivileged, as well as raise health and environmental awareness.
This year, seven employee-led community events were held across the island, with over 1,300 hours volunteered.
An interesting new initiative started by a group of our millennial employees was inspired by a new global fitness trend: “plogging”. Originating from Sweden, plogging combines jogging and picking up litter at the same time. With growing concerns over a rise in plastic waste in Singapore, this was a particularly meaningful activity that inspired over 50 volunteers to sign up.
Michael Long, Head of Sustainability, Asia, commented: “At Lendlease, we really value health and wellbeing, and we recognize that the millennials are certainly interested in working for places where they can make a genuine impact on their community and connect to a sense of purpose. Plogging is an ideal opportunity to be outdoors and to be active, as well as to actually leave a measurable legacy behind, with a clean beach and clean shores.”
“The plogging activity at Community Day allowed us to walk the talk, reinforcing our core value of environmental sustainability,” added Liz Chua, Graduate Analyst, a co-organizer of the plogging initiative.
Our ploggers ran approximately 9km along East Coast Park, and picked up a total of 145kg of trash, that were later segregated for recycling.
Over at Willing Hearts, 40 volunteers donned aprons at the soup kitchen, which distributes 5,000 meals daily to 40 locations island-wide. The volunteers helped to prepare and pack local dishes, such as satay and spring rolls, which were delivered to the elderly, the disabled, migrant workers and low-income families.
For the fourth year running, 60 volunteers came together to tend to the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Community Herb Garden. This unique garden grows more than 300 types of herbs and tropical plants with natural medicinal properties. These herbs are distributed to the campus community for research as well as visitors.
Other community projects led by employees in Singapore included spring cleaning and organising social activities for the Thye Hua Kwan Senior Activity Centre in Bedok; volunteering with GoodLife@Marine Parade, a network of programs managed by Montfort Care seeking to improve the lives of individuals, families, and the community facing transitional challenges through various activities; and recycling with a community of senior residents at the Yuhua Senior Activity Centre.
At the Yuhua Senior Activity Centre, volunteers from Lendlease designed various creative and fun ways of turning sorted trash into something useful for the household, to raise awareness on the benefits of recycling within the senior community. They also brought the senior residents on a tour to the Food Waste Recycling Centre @ Tampines Hub to gain insights into food waste processing in Singapore.
Community Day projects are sourced and initiated by Lendlease employees, giving them the ability to choose where they want to lend a hand and where they can be most helpful.