Community plan
The Co-operative Community Plan
For us, supporting communities is at the heart of our co-operative heritage.
During 2008 The Co-operative invested £11.5m in the community, which is equivalent to nearly 10% of our pre-tax profits.
In February 2009, after consulting more than 50,000 members, customers and colleagues, the new Co-operative Community Plan was launched. We will focus our investments on the following key themes: Combating climate change, Tackling global poverty and Inspiring young people.
Combating climate change
Left unchecked, climate change is the greatest threat we face, and has the potential to wreck livelihoods and ecosystems. As we're one of the world's leading businesses in the fight against climate change, we're working hard to reduce our emissions, help communities to reduce theirs, and campaigning to get the right laws in place to speed up the transition to a low carbon economy. Our projects, on Walking Buses and Green Energy for Schools, highlight our work in local communities.
As part of our Customers Who Care campaign, we are inviting customers to join together to take action on issues like toxic fuels.
Tackling global poverty
When undertaken equitably, trade has an unparalleled capacity to lift people out of poverty and enhance the quality of lives across the world. However, business pressures and the demand for cheap goods can mean that workers in the developing world are often denied the basic living standards that most of us in the UK take for granted. We recognise that our activities have an impact on international development, and we believe that we can make this impact a positive one.
Find out how we put this global issue into practise by clicking here.
Inspiring young people
We want to support the positive contribution that children and young people can make to their local communities. This year, The Co-operative is supporting community programmes such as:
The Co-operative Streetgames Young Volunteers- a unique sports volunteering programme that gives young people from disadvantaged communities the chance to make a real difference. So far, The Co-operative StreetGames Young Volunteers have donated thousands of hours of their own time, helping to bring sports opportunities to thousands of children, and improving their own self-esteem and confidence at the same time.
Waste Works - an education programme where young people are invited to learn all about sustainable living and see first-hand how recycling works. Waste Works is based at The Co-operative Recycling Centre - the largest in-house office-waste recycling centre in the UK. We bring waste paper from our head offices here to be recycled into toilet and kitchen paper, which is then sold in The Co-operative Food stores.
Responsible Driving - we are working with road safety charity Brake on the 2 young 2 die responsible driving campaign. The campaign has been running for approximately four years covering a number of different aspects associated with responsible driving such as the impact of drink driving, speeding, driving without insurance and more specifically the increasing numbers of road deaths involving young drivers/passengers.
If you are or know a young driver and want to find out more, visit the 2 young 2 die website, sponsored by The Co-operative Insurance.
Feel free to visit some of our other campaigns:
Plan Bee - The Co-operative has launched Plan Bee, a Membership campaign and 10-point plan to help save the bee population. Find out more about Plan Bee.
Marine Reserves Now! - Join our Marine Reserves now! campaign and lobby your MP for a strengthened Marine Bill.
