October 2018 Newsletter

October 5, 2018
LBG Admin
Newsletters

Welcome to LBG Canada

Please join us in welcoming Emera, Tolko Industries Ltd., and Urban Systems to the LBG Canada Network!

LBG Canada Companies Recognized for Excellence in Sustainability Reporting

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) are a family of best-in-class benchmarks for investors who have recognized that sustainable business practices are critical to generating long-term shareholder value and who wish to reflect their sustainability convictions in their investment portfolios.

LBG Canada companies Astrazeneca, Telus and TD Bank Group were each included on the 2018 DJSI ranking, based upon the overall high quality of their sustainability reports. The DJSI looks for evidence of use of the LBG Model to inform how points are allocated for corporate citizenship and philanthropy.

To read the announcement, please click here. For more information on each company, click on their respective logos below.

By providing accredited third party assurance, LBG Canada helps companies report on their community investment, employee giving and volunteering. Join the conversation!

When Volunteering Transforms Us We Have More Community Impact

Research supports the benefits of volunteer experiences that transform us. We might change perceptions of others, improve job skills and even start to look at like through a different lens.

Lynn DeHoyos, Senior Manager, Corporate Citizenship, Deloitte Services LP, explores how transformative volunteering can increase impact in community, below.

Frequently volunteer experiences are episodic events that provide vital support to organizations, while offering volunteers valuable exposure to non profits. But what if more of our resources and those volunteering moments could also be used to boost the impact we can have as volunteers?

Enter the idea behind transformative volunteering.

Chris Jarvis, Co-Founder of Realized Worth and Executive Director of the RW Institute, believes transformative experiences provide greater capacity for empathy and opportunities to reflect on volunteer experiences, in ways that can ultimately change behaviours.

Interest in employee volunteering opportunities is real. According to the 2016 Report by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, 62 million people volunteered at least once, and 27% of those identified as employee volunteers. Want to create a transformative volunteering experience to engage your employees? The Triple Pundit article Why Transformative Volunteering is Good Corporate Citizenship recommends the following:

Identify volunteers who are authentically and personally motivated to get involved
Think intentionally about how you recruit, train and engage your volunteers
Encourage your volunteers to tell their story

To learn read the full article, please click here.

SAP Launches Multi-Company Collaboration to Support Agenda 2030

At the United Nations headquarters, SAP announced their multi-company, cross-industry collaboration project: “Corporate Champions for Education”.

Through their Social Sabbatical initiative, SAP has placed highly skilled professionals into pro-bono positions around the world. Now they are extending the program, looking for other companies to join them in this effort. The collaboration will send skilled corporate volunteers into short-term assignments into underserved communities.

Participants from several companies across industries will form diverse teams to work on specific projects, using their professional business and operational skills, during four week secondments with non-profit organizations in select underserved markets.

To learn more or get involved, please click here.

Social Impact Bond: Investing in Employment Among Veterans with PTSD

BNP Paribas operates in 73 countries, with more than 198,000 employees. With more than € 1 billion of commitments in support of social entrepreneurship and microfinance, serving approximately 1,500 clients and partners.

It most recently announced a $5.1 million anchor investor commitment in support of a social impact bond (pay for success program) to enable veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder to experience better employment outcomes.

For more information on the program, please click here.

New Technologies to Support Employee Engagement

The employee engagement space is attracting more and more technology investment! Salesforce and the United Way recently launched Philanthropy Cloud to enable employee giving, Realized Worth has launched Voyager, and we just learned about WeSpire.

Join Chris Jarvis (Realized Worth) and Lesa George (United Way of Calgary and Area) in mid-November to discuss the latest developments.

International Corner – Corporate Citizenship Launches Four Routes to Impact

Corporate Citizenship’s newsest research report: Corporate Community Investment: Four Routes to Impact demonstrates how the business community can engage in deeper, more collaborative and impactful corporate community investment programs.

To learn more and to access the report, click here.