community involvement
“We are delighted to be taking our partnership with Tarmac to the national level. This academic year will see over 4,000 young people tackling challenging sustainability issues and developing innovative, entrepreneurial solutions with the help of their business mentors.”
Jen Baughan, CEO, Solutions for the Planet
highlights
Every site makes sure it keeps its local community informed and connected by developing a site-specific Community Engagement Action Plan. Led by our local site managers, the plan helps us to work with communities on the issues that are important to them. They provide a framework for community involvement through activities like liaison meetings, open days and major community events. They also identify where we can support communities through direct and indirect investment, employee volunteering and charitable donations. At some of our larger operational sites we also have site-specific websites, newsletters and social media accounts to keep everyone informed
In 2017, our employees spent over 4,600 hours volunteering to support the local community and the business made donations of over £1 million to charities and community projects, directly, with in-kind contributions of materials and labour and through the Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund.
Young people are our future and so we believe in opening up opportunities for learning and gaining experience of our industry and business. We work closely with local schools and colleges to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and host open days and site visits for school children for them to learn about the essential role our materials play in everyday life. These visits provide a great opportunity for us to showcase the types of career and employment opportunities we offer to encourage the next generation into the business.
We support the award-winning Solutions for the Planet schools programme as their first national partner, where mentors from our business support young people to develop sustainable business ideas and present them at the Houses of Parliament. We also run a Forest School Programme at our outdoor classroom in Panshanger Park, Hertfordshire.
We understand the importance of the natural environment on all our lives and aim to make a net positive contribution to biodiversity, leaving our sites in a better condition than when we acquired them. We also want to use our skills and resources to enhance the environment for those in the communities around us. One way we do this is by working in partnership with local community groups and local and national environmental organisations that share our view on the importance of community involvement and the provision of volunteering opportunities in nature conservation. We work with organisations like the Wildlife Trusts, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Groundwork; helping communities find practical solutions to some of the challenges they face. We also promote opportunities for public access to our sites by including them on the Mineral Products Association’s National Nature Park.