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Shapoorji Pallonji Foundation - Creating a Sustainable Responsible business
What we stand for -
"We, at Shapoorji Pallonji are committed to being a socially responsible business. For us, at SP, business is as much about integrating societal, economic and environmental obligations as it is about creating value. Thereby contributing in our own small way to making 'our world a better place'"
CSR hence is not about investing part of our profits, rather it is our way of doing business.
Carrying this philosophy forward. The Group's CSR focus revolves around -
1. Improving employability and providing sustainable livelihoods (with special focus towards the marginalised and disadvantaged)
2. Enhancing health hygiene by providing quality healthcare, safe drinking water and sanitation
3. Empowering the country's youth through quality education and skills training
4. Supporting measures to ensure environment preservation
Making a difference
Sustainable Livelihoods : India's large young population, often referred to as 'demographic dividend' in fact is short-skilled. It is estimated that nearly 150 million youth will need to get vocational training by 2020 and a bulk of these would not even have completed formal education. Part of our skills building endeavor includes setting up a 5500 sq. feet
Construction Skills training center in Kolkatta with curriculum certified by the CITB-UK. The 22-week programme includes technical sessions and on-site exposure including a stipend to all participants. Post training and certification, the person has an opportunity to work with SP. A similar such Center is under construction at Chindwara- Madhya Pradesh as part of the CII Training park facilities.
A new initiative in progress is a Construction Skills training cum placement programme exclusively for under privileged rural youth. The project will be in partnership with a skills development and training institute and once the pilot is found successful, we have plans to extend similar across different parts of the country.
Livelihood opportunities for the challenged : While we may well be the world's fastest growing economy, we have nearly 70 million challenged people of whom a meager 1% is employed. EuroAble is one of India's first call center operated by physically challenged youth. Supported by Eureka Forbes Ltd (a group company) who has invested extensively in infrastructure, training and motivation of these youth, the center has invited acknowledgement and praise from other corporates in India and internationally. Spurred by the positive response and functioning of the center, the company plans on extending number of seats and offering their expertise to other organisations as well.
Supporting the mentally-challenged : Guided by our vision of sustainable development, the Group has been supporting an institute in Mumbai that works with mentally challenged children and adults. It supports and encourages the vocational training center which teaches skills to the challenged, thereby aiming to make them financially independent in the long-term.
Healthcare and safe drinking water : It is estimated that there are over 38 million Indians suffering from water-related diseases, 72% of our citizens lack even basic sanitation facilities. Health and sanitation is therefore integral to our development focus. "Safe drinking water for every village in India" is a pledge that the company is seriously engaging in through the Community Fulfillment model pioneered by the group company-Eureka Forbes Ltd. In addition, we support awareness programmes on safe drinking water and hygiene, providing water purifiers to schools, orphanages, old age homes, police stations.
Health awareness programmes at construction sites : Ongoing community awareness drives are conducted at all labour camps to spread awareness on topics like AIDS, maternal health care, vaccination, tobacco/alcohol addiction. Medical camps, health check-ups are conducted at the labour camp regularly. Also the employees regularly participate in blood donation drive, health run etc
Education and child-care : India's education scenario is quite dismal and while the government school enrollment rate has gone up thanks to the government's awareness efforts, the most neglected are children of migrant labour. The company has consciously cultivated and set up non-formal education centers and creche facilities at all major project sites. Children from age group below 1 year to 13 years are offered nutrition, meals, medical check-up and interactive learning at these centers. While initially the center is managed by professional NGOs/partners, since the company wishes to make the center sustainable, it also invests in training local women/youth to manage the center so that even after the project gets completed the center manages to operate independently.
Environment preservation : Guided by a vision that says, "Unpolluted water and air is our children's birthright", we have been engaging in environment awareness programmes and green building projects. EFIE is an independent association set up to constantly work on environment preservation and rain water harvesting projects. The focus has mainly been on generating awareness through initiatives like Enviro-Quiz, the Pollution Index (run on a popular national news TV channel since the past 8 years), School awareness programmes.
The Group is now embarking on a Carbon Footprint Map-n-Cap project aimed at reducing carbon emissions as an organization and also engaging all employees to measure and reduce their own personal footprint.
Community orientation : Goes beyond just our immediate worker community to extend to society at large. One of our group company's - Afcons which is a pioneer in infrastructure-related projects, has helped in constructing living accommodation, camp, offices, approach roads etc for the BSF and CRPF security forces in Kashmir.
Disaster Support : In times of calamities (flood, tsunami) the Group and its companies extend support in multiple ways, safe drinking water thru filters and community water plants, blood donation drives. This support is extended not just to within India, but also to countries like Thailand (recent floods), Africa (health facilities)
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