We have a clear group-wide standard for social and economic investment in our communities. Our strategy for Growing community value around the world is intended to provide a framework for local businesses to use and adapt in developing their own approach, responding to local needs and reflecting their business' unique culture.
The strategy builds on our core purpose and values and explains the part we can all play to support communities. The strategy contains guidelines as well as ideas and suggestions for action to help our businesses to measure and manage their community investment.
Specifically it asks businesses to:
- Build community investment into mainstream business practice
- Aim for a contribution of around 1% of pre-tax profits
- Encourage the inclusion of community objectives in the development of brands, people and reputation
- Report details of community investment annually as part of Year End returns
We believe that community investment is a business imperative - not a nice-to-do or 'add on' activity. It requires the same standards, discipline and excellence as any other part of our business and needs to be managed just as professionally. We constantly try to improve the effectiveness, impact and social benefit of our community activities by sharing best practice across the business, monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of projects and applying lessons learnt from past projects.