Yerra Solutions CSR Annual Report 2015 FINAL

Yerra Solutions CSR Annual Report 2015 FINAL

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  2015 Corporate Social ResponsibiltyReport Yerra Solutions Ltd +44 (0)191 500 7835 www.yerrasolutions.com | Strategy, Operations & Tecnhology for Legal & IP FEBRUARY 2016 | WWW.YERRASOLUTIONS.COM Adam Don (CSR Coordinator, Yerra Solutions Ltd) Yerra Solutions Ltd
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  Introduction At Yerra Solutions,Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a fundamental part of our business. We absolutely believe that our CSR practices have a positive effect on our environment and local communities and aim to make our CSR principles stronger and stronger every year. One of our core values is to build a positive team and community spirit and our CSR strategy contributes to the achievement of this. We also strive to be passionate, determined and to deliver excellence at every opportunity, which are the key values we base our CSR strategy around. We realise that having a robust CSR strategy can make change for the better and strive to achieve this as it is simply the right thing to do. In addition to our contribution of time and money to the local communities and the environment, we are very aware of the need to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees. We believe that by keeping the working environment pleasant and our employees happy, we can not only drive ambition but also fuel further CSR contribution and development. In 2015 we have endeavoured to make CSR an important and well recognised part of our business. We have been very active with our work throughout 2015 with specific projects highlighted later in this report. In 2015, we have raised a total of £3,259.90 for charity (including sponsored charity events), dedicated a full day for all staff working with local charities and hosted a luxury watch auction with all proceeds going to charitable causes. We have also implemented various company-wide policies to do our bit for the environment which includes recycling. 52 19 £3,259To Various Charities in 2015! We Donated 100 Specific fundraising days in 2015 Awards Granted in 2015 Toys Donated during the Christmas Toy Appeal between 12 Staff Members Working Hours Spent Volunteering for Charity Over
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  Annual Charity Day Yerradedicate one full working day per employee per year to help local charities by contributing time to help make a difference. A lot of local charities struggle to recruit volunteers to do hard work to help the charity survive. We hope by allowing all of our team to volunteer we will not only help the charity complete vital work, but raise awareness amongst our staff of the local charities and the benefits a small amount of time can do. We also raise awareness of the charity through our social media channels, which may influence our followers to consider helping out. For our 2015 charity day in April, the team decided to volunteer at an environment and wildlife preservation project in the local area. This was organised by the National Trust which is a dedicated charity that aim to preserve the environment and the wildlife within. In particular they look to keep sites with significant historical significance in good condition, as well as preserving the natural beauty of the UK’s countryside. The UK team volunteered for the National Trust at Hawthorn Hive, a local beach in the North East region that needed work done to preserve the cliff side. This would encourage wildlife to come to the area for the summer; in particular the Northern Brown Argus Butterfly, which is rare in Northern parts of Britain. The team’s job for the day was to cut down small trees and bushes that were endangering some of the wildlife. The work was strenuous with only small hand held tools to use, but the team worked hard to reach their goal. The team worked extremely well together, particularly by working in smaller teams to cover a larger area. At the end of the day, a tired team reflected on the day, which was enjoyed by all. Wayne from the National Trust spoke to us about Hawthorn and how important the work was for the preservation of the area. He also spoke of how significant the area was in the defence of Britain during both World Wars. Looking forward to 2016, we will increase our team’s time in which they volunteer by committing two full working days a year per employee to helping local causes. This will double the impact we are making in the local communities and we will target events to ensure we have the most impact possible on these two days. It is anticipated these days will take place in April and December 2016 (dates may be subject to change).
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  Caroline O’Grady Chief OperatingOfficer Yerra Solutions Ltd “Our staff are very committed to helping local causes and to support this, we do everything possible to allow our employees to bolster their fundraising and volunteering efforts.’ ‘2015 was a strong year for CSR at Yerra Solutions. We hope 2016 can be even stronger.” “Corporate Social Responsibility is a key part of Yerra Solutions. We believe that having a strong CSR strategy should be imbedded in the very core of Yerra Solutions, making every day changes to guarantee a firm positive impact to our local communities.” Stacey Coote Chief Executive Officer Yerra Solutions Ltd
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  All Charity Daysand Fundraising Events In 2015, Yerra arranged five fundraising events in aid of charity in which every team member participated. We also sponsored charity events and raised money at our Annual Conference. We think it is vital that we support charities as much as possible. Even though we are a small company, we make every effort to fundraise for our chosen causes. Please see below for a list of these events we participated in during 2015: Event Charity Activity Date Money Raised Yerra Annual Charity Day National Trust Wildlife preservation work 10th April 2015 Donation of time – 1 full working day Allendale Challenge North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team Allendale Hike (26 miles) March 2015 £290 Brave the Shave MacMillan Stacey and Adam shaved hair off 10th August 2015 £820 Ethiopia Reads Annual Gala Sponsorship Ethiopia Reads Sponsorship of Annual Gala 25th August 2015 £653.78 National Cycle to Work Day N/A 4 members of team cycled to and from work to promote healthy lifestyles and alternatives to everyday commute. 3rd September 2015 N/A Jeans for Genes Genetic Disorders UK Pyjama day in office 18th September 2015 £100.20 Strand up to Cancer Cancer Research UK Bake off 7th October 2015 £101.02 Yerra Watch Auction Grace House / Fragile Suisse / Children’s Cancer Foundation Luxury watch auction with all proceeds split between the 3 nominated charities. 29th October 2015 £1000 Cycle to Edinburgh Children in Need Cycled the distance from Durham office to Edinburgh Castle. 13th November 2015 £238.49 Xmas Jumper and Toy Appeal Day Cash for Kids North East Toy appeal and cash donations 18th December 2015 £56.41 + 19 toys TOTAL FUNDS RAISED: £3259.90
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  Scott Anderson ofthe UK office undertook the Allendale Challenge, which is a vigorous 26 mile hike across mountainous terrain. This hike is around the North Pennines and is considered one of the most difficult in the UK. Scott encountered poor weather conditions and had to cope with a 40mph wind. Despite this, Scott finished in 9 hours and 29 minutes, raising £290 for the North of Tyne Mountain Rescue and Mountain Rescue England and Wales. Stacey Coote and Adam Don of the UK office took part in a national event organised by Macmillan Cancer Care and Support.‘Brave the Shave’occurs every year in August where fundraisers raise money to shave off their hair in support of cancer sufferers. Stacey and Adam raised £820 for this admirable cause. In September Stacey, Scott and Adam were joined by Joshua Scott for National Cycle to Work Day. The aim of this day is to encourage workers from around the country to cycle to and from their place of work, which improves the health and fitness of employees and reduces carbon emissions. 71 miles were cycled between them, meaning almost two gallons of fuel were saved on their commute. Following this, the teams’enthusiasm for cycling was harnessed to raise funds for Children in Need. The UK office were sponsored to get on an exercise bike and cycle the distance from our UK office in Durham to Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, a total of 164km. At the Yerra Solutions Annual Conference in October 2015, we auctioned a luxury watch which was kindly donated by DuBois et fils. All of the money raised at the auction was donated to charity and we decided that local charities would receive this in equal measures. As Yerra are based in three locations around the world, we asked each office to nominate a local charity. Grace House (UK), Fragile Suisse (Switzerland) and The Children’s Cancer Foundation (Singapore) were the nominated charities and shared a total of £1000. Yerra staff are also very active in their fundraising and charity work outside of working hours. As an example, Danni Slee took part in a charity boxing match to raise money for Cancer Research UK and managed to raise over £300.
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  Everyday CSR inour Offices Yerra Solutions do everything possible not only to help charities, but also to do our bit for local communities and the environment. This mind-set has seen many initiatives introduced which will do this every single day. We operate a policy of having paperless offices in all of our office locations. We operate a recycling scheme with an unavoidable paper usage that is required and will be looking to expand the scheme to include other materials in 2016. We are committed to reducing our carbon emissions in 2016 and have devised a plan to achieve this. Although our carbon emissions are low in comparison to other companies of our size, we still feel our emissions could be reduced. The business itself emits very little carbon, but the vast majority of our employees drive to and from work on a daily basis, increasing the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. To mitigate this, we have signed up to the Cycle to Work Scheme which makes it more affordable for employees to buy a quality bike to use on a daily commute. All Yerra employees in the UK can take advantage of this scheme, which will inevitably reduce CO2 emissions in the process. Before the scheme was introduced, some of the UK team decided to practice by taking part in the national Cycle to Work Day in September. All four participating members of the team usually drive to work, meaning in a single day almost two gallons of fuel were saved. If this occurred throughout the year with more employees involved, we predict more than 25 gallons of fuel could be saved over the course of a full year. Yerra Charitable Partners Over the last year, we have continued our partnership with two charities who our teams are keen to help and support. Yerra Solutions support Grace House; a local charity in the North East of England offering modern, purpose built accommodation and facilities for children with complex disabilities. Grace House provides constant support for these children and their families which we are proud to support. We have been to Grace House to see for ourselves the work they are doing, which provided the team with further inspiration to help out. In April 2016, the UK team will be attending the Chin4Jamie ball, which is a fundraising event for Grace House. We are also looking at other ways we can support the charity and hope to fundraise for them in the coming year. We also donate annually to Ethiopia Reads, a charity providing much needed in- language books to the children of Ethiopia. We sponsored their annual Gala in 2015, and hope to do so again in 2016, along with extra fundraising for the cause.
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  Therefore, our targetfor 2016, is to get as many employees as possible to register for the scheme, and then to save 25 gallons over the course of the year. We are also committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle to all of our employees. Our initiatives in this regard have been recognised by Simply-health UK, who have granted us a Healthy Workplace Award! Yerra also supports the local community by offering apprenticeships and internships to students at the University of Sunderland and Sunderland College. In the North East of England, opportunities for young people and graduates are limited, so Yerra offer as many of these as possible to support employment in the region. By December 2015, 64% of our employees in the UK started their employment at Yerra Solutions as either an apprentice or an intern. We are proud of this and hope to offer many more apprenticeships and internships in 2016. We believe that our apprenticeships and internships are successful due to the fantastic training that we offer young people starting their employment with Yerra Solutions. Each employee is placed on a training scheme with a senior member of the team as a mentor. This allows the employee to learn from an experienced member of the team to ensure the best possible learning. We have been awarded the Investors in People Gold Standard due to the emphasis we put on developing young people at Yerra and the quality of our learning and development programmes. We aim to give young people the best opportunity and experience to build a future career, whether that be with Yerra Solutions or not. We will always do our utmost to offer these schemes and expect to see further success stories in the near future. “We aim to give young people the best opportunity and experience to build a future career, whether that be with Yerra Solutions or not. We will always do our utmost to offer these schemes and expect to see further success stories in the near future.”
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  Looking Ahead to2016 We are committed to making an even stronger CSR impact in 2016 than we have previously and will be monitoring our efforts to ensure this is the case. In the short time Yerra Solutions have been in business, we have already made a significant impact in our local communities. We are making progress in strengthening our relationship with our local communities and charities, with particular emphasis on our designated charitable partners. We will continue to do this by fundraising, volunteering and doing everything we possibly can to do our bit. After consultation with our staff, we have decided to implement a slightly more focused approach to CSR in 2016. This year, all of our fundraising efforts will be for charities and causes that are based in the North East of England. We are proud to be based in the North East of England, and want to give back to our communities. Our staff have nominated four local causes which have a particular impact in the North East, and we will focus on one of these per business quarter. The four causes we have chosen to support are: poverty, causes for children, health and mental health and armed and ex- services in the North East. Planning is currently in progress to support these causes. For regular updates on these events and all of our fundraising efforts, please see the CSR page on the Yerra Solutions website, and our social media pages. The Yerra Donation Scheme In 2016, we are introducing the‘Yerra Donation Scheme’. We are committed to encourage all of our employees to help charitable causes in every way possible. The Yerra Donation Scheme is designed to provide additional funds for those members of staff who undertake external fundraising activities in aid of charity. The employee can apply for this scheme for each individual fundraising activity they undertake. If the application is successful, Yerra will provide a further donation to the cause. Each of these applications will be looked at on a case-by-case basis and reviewed by the panel. It is anticipated this scheme will be introduced in the first few months of 2016. Our CSR targets for 2016: Raise £4,000 for charity To establish a scheme for employees that promotes personal health and fitness To strengthen our links and contacts with local charities in the North East. Encourage our employees to cycle to work more often, with a target of saving 25 gallons of fuel, equivalent to 1,000 miles Establish the Yerra Donation Scheme and start contributing to our employees’fundraising To donate two working days in 2016 where our staff will spend this volunteering for charity To expand our recycling schemes company-wide to include other materials other than paper Poverty Causes for Children Health & Mental Health Armed & Ex Forces Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
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  Follow us @yerrasolutions ContactUs: By Telephone: +44 (0)20 3728 6920 Visit Our Website: www.yerrasolutions.com By Email: [email protected]