CSR

DHL EXPRESS

103InBUSINESS | Q3 2016

At DHL Express Ireland, corporate responsibilty is an integral component of our

corporate strategy, which is specifically called ‘Living Responsibility’ within our group. In particular, we work closely with our nominated charity, Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, to help lighten the financial burden on the families who are battling childhood cancer.

So far this year, DHL employees have taken part in close to 20 CSR initiatives by fundraising, offering corporate gifts, throwing parties, volunteering and visiting sick children on St. John’s ward in Our Lady’s Children’s Crumlin Hospital. These initiatives include weekly lotto draws, raffles, hospital visits, hospice painting, delivery of care packages, bake-offs, climbing mountains, running marathons, providing support vehicles and some larger events such as the DHL Plane Pull in July and most recently the Race Around Ireland in August and September.

The Race Around Ireland is one of Europe’s toughest endurance tests where cyclists partake in a 2,150km route around Ireland, unsupported, over four days. Despite battling the elements, exhaustion and an abundance of blisters, our UK and Ireland team, Speed of Yellow, successfully completed the race in a fraction over 84 hours! Thanks to their determined efforts, they managed to

raise over d20,000 for Aoibheann’s Pink Tie from this event alone.

The staff of DHL has demonstrated time and again how they can overcome the odds to achieve something special. At DHL, we are dedicated to making a difference in a variety of ways:• Every year, over 5,000 charity initiatives take place across the DHL global network.

• Last year, as part of our Global Volunteer Day initiative, over 110,000 employees provided support to non-profit projects in their communities. This amounted to more than 260,000 volunteer hours in more than 2,000 projects.

• Funded entirely by employee donations, our internal relief fund, ‘WE HELP EACH OTHER’, provides financial support to colleagues who are victims of natural disaster. When called upon by the UN, DHL has a disaster response team who can be on the ground and operational within 72 hours anywhere in the world.“As a business we can really

make a positive impact on our local communities by utilising our logistics expertise and leveraging our employees’ experience and enthusiasm, so it’s great to see so

many colleagues getting involved and taking advantage of the support we offer them through the DHL Corporate Responsibility Programmes,” says Bernard McCarthy, Managing Director, DHL Ireland.

Some of the other initiatives as part of the ‘Living Responsibility’ initiative include ‘GoTeach’, which aims to improve educational opportunity and employability of young people. When it comes to our GoTeach activities, our employees share not only their time but their own individual skills and experiences. Some of the local projects DHL are involved in include interview skills workshops, postgraduate workshops and transition year student work experiences.

Our environment protection programme, GoGreen, calls for us to improve our carbon efficiency by 30 per cent by the year 2020. In an effort to reach this target, we develop and implement measures to improve the carbon efficiency of our air and ground operations as well as that of our buildings and facilities. This approach allows us to uphold our responsibility to the environment and strengthen our own market position at the same time.

DHL Express is utilising its logistics expertise and leveraging its employees’ enthusiasm to have a positive impact on its local communities, writes Brand, Communication and Marketing Manager Alison Moore.

DHL in the COMMUNITY

DHL staff help support the company’s nominated charity, Aoibheann’s Pink Tie