Being part of a sustainable business

After India entered its nationwide lockdown, Refinitiv India raised over $35,000 for communities in need through a salary donation drive. Colleagues were given an option to contribute one day’s salary that would usually be taken as volunteer day or any amount they preferred. With an overwhelming response from our colleagues, the money raised provided 100,000 freshly cooked meals to feed migrant, daily wage workers and low-income households at risk during the pandemic. In addition, the team supports 5,000 police officers at more than 150 police stations across Bangalore city with vital protective equipment – comprising 100,000 face masks, 100,000 gloves and 10,000 sanitizer bottles.

Refinitiv Bangkok volunteers are supporting local hospitals and health care workers in the fight against COVID-19. Colleagues raised $5,000 by selling charity t-shirts through the Thailand stand together initiative. In addition to fundraising, 100 colleagues made 4,000 face shields for hospital staff in desperate in need of protective equipment. The face shields and all proceeds from the t-shirt sales were donated to the Thai Red Cross and Chulalongkorn Hospital.

Colleagues in our Refinitiv Philippines office are supporting project Bahay Eskwela – a series of free and accessible virtual interactive activities for kids (and kids at heart). The activities include storytelling sessions to help children and parents alike to understand, cope and discuss challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also run virtual arts and crafts classes, dance, yoga and exercise sessions to keep children entertained and active during the lockdown.

Since the start of the pandemic, our colleagues in Cape Town have been providing healthy food to people in need through the Ladles of Love Sandwich Drive. Refinitiv colleagues have now made well over 10,000 sandwiches for the soup kitchen and even participated in breaking a world record for the most sandwiches made in an hour - over 300,400 sandwiches. Each sandwich will feed hungry people in vulnerable communities across Cape Town. 

When a Bengaluru colleague decided to play his individual part in reducing the traffic in the city, he reduced his carbon footprint by carpooling - sharing almost 800 rides and lowering his carbon emissions by 1,300 kg. Inspired by the positive impact of this small change in his own life, he encouraged other colleagues to do the same, with over 2,000 people in the office now carpooling and saving over 40,000 kgs of carbon dioxide.

A highlight from this year’s fundraising initiatives by the Nottingham office - which raised $25,000 across a series of events. 22 colleagues took on the demanding challenge of trekking up Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, UK. The hike raised money for Cool Earth, a climate crisis charity that focuses on protecting endangered rainforest to combat global warming and protect natural ecosystems.

We have unveiled an ambitious Refinitiv Global Forest, with the first reforestation project in Creagan, Scotland.  Covering 20 hectares, the equivalent of 20 football pitches, with over 45,000 native broadleaf and Scots pine trees, every colleague at Refinitiv will be assigned a tree, as well as providing colleagues, customers and partners with the opportunity to continue to help us grow our Refinitiv Global Forest sites in a collective effort to reach our global 1 million trees target.

Our colleagues have already made some significant contributions to our 1 million trees target through support for reforestation projects across the globe. For example, the Bengaluru team have established a strong association with the community Hasiru (green) Mission, leading various environmental projects with a focus on tree planting. Our largest tree planting drive took place during our One Year Young global celebrations with 500 colleagues from Bengaluru, Bangkok and Manila planting a staggering 11,500 trees.

Our Sustainable Action team in Bangkok have been helping tackle forest fires raging in Northern Thailand through virtual fundraising. The team have purchased and delivered leaf blowers to support the more efficient removal of dry leaves and debris which contribute to the spread of flames. The virtual fundraising activities organized by the team are one example of how our colleagues are continuing to support their local communities in a virtual working environment during the coronavirus pandemic.

A colleague in Refinitiv’s Singapore office and his family acquired an area of degraded primary forest in Cambodia to start a forest restoration project, supported by the Singapore Botanical Gardens and a local international school. Since the project began five years ago, over 2,000 trees have been planted and 12,000 saplings grown in the nursery. As a result, there has been a marked increase in the population of wild mammals and birds in the area.

Volunteers from the Costa Rica Refinitiv office visited Pocora in the Limón province to carry out a tree-planting project, developed in partnership with EARTH University, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and Refinitiv. Our colleagues were joined by a local youth group participating in a social entrepreneurship project driving the EARTH Futures platform. During the day, 12 volunteers planted 150 trees, supporting the creation of a biological corridor that will allow biodiversity and conserve water resources.

Developed from an initial idea by a Refinitiv colleague, TicketAid is an innovative, philanthropic alternative to the secondary ticket market. Unused event tickets from across our business and our partners can be sold at face value – with all proceeds going to charity. TicketAid is an open-access product developed with the simple aim of giving businesses and their employees a unique way to reduce corporate waste, boost employee satisfaction and raise money for charity all at the same time. More than 2,700 tickets have been sold through TicketAid, so far raising over $150,000 for charity.

Do you have tickets to donate or wish to be part of this initiative?

In Beijing China, the Green Actor Environmental Education Project uses Refinitiv’s ESG data and methodology to train and educate over 100 university student volunteers on core environmental and social issues. Once trained, they are tasked with sharing this knowledge across rural communities and with school students located around Belt and Road infrastructure projects. This initiative was founded by Refinitiv and the China Youth League Central Committee and has now positively impacted over 260,000 individuals.

In partnership with the English learning hub project, Refinitiv colleagues have established a videotelephony conference with two schools in Thailand to teach English remotely from the Bangkok office. Refinitiv volunteer hours are of vital importance to the schools, which lack a budget to hire English teachers, alongside donations which are made to improve the physical infrastructure of the buildings.

Our Refinitiv colleagues in North America partner with Habitat for Humanity to build strong and stable homes for families in need. With a several successful builds already under their belt, the Refinitiv team were entrusted to be one of the first groups back for a Corporate build day after a temporary halt due to the COVID pandemic. The work delivered in just one day would have taken almost three weeks to complete. In addition, the team raised $3,000 to support Habitat for Humanity’s vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Refinitiv Philippines have long standing relationships with local community organizations supporting some of the country's most vulnerable communities. Among the organizations is Kanlungan Ni Maria, which provides a home to the poor, abandoned, neglected, homeless and sick elderly. During the pandemic, our colleagues have been delivering fresh fruit and vegetables to the home and recently sponsored the construction of a motorized water tank at the facility to ensure the residents have a steady supply of clean water.

Taking on one of the world’s leading team endurance challenges, the all-female Refinitiv Ramblers team in our Sydney office completed the gruelling Oxfam Trailwalker course in just over 12 hours. They raised $7,000, helping to contribute to the overall $1.3 million event total. These funds will go towards Oxfam’s global work to help tackle poverty and transform lives across the world. Our Bengaluru colleagues also put forward an incredible 46 teams for the Oxfam Trailwalkers event, raising nearly $150,000 for the charity in the process.

Refinitiv colleagues in South Africa partner with the education charity SAYes to promote meaningful social change through mentorship for underserved young people. Refinitiv volunteer hours are being used by groups in the office to enhance young people's professional development skills, guiding them through resume or CV writing workshops, exploring various career options and conducting mock job interviews through panel discussions.

We have been reducing the 16 billion disposable coffee cups and 500 billion plastic cups used every year across the world by introducing multi-use mugs and bottles in all our major Refinitiv offices. Refinitiv colleagues in New York, London and in our Legal and Compliance teams took this one step further by providing their teams and co-workers with high-quality stainless-steel cutlery to encourage the team to bring less plastic into the office. Many of our colleagues are currently working in a virtual office environment due to the pandemic, however, Refinitiv remain committed to tackling plastic waste in a post-COVID world, both in the office and at home.

Our Refinitiv colleagues in Exeter, UK and Costa Rica participated in beach clean-ups to tackle the devastating impacts of marine pollution. Teams from both offices dedicated their volunteer hours to collect rubbish and debris that had washed up along their local coastlines – plastic was the biggest culprit. By eliminating this waste from our beaches, we are helping eliminate waste from our oceans and are protecting the future the marine environment.

Our colleagues in Poland are restoring natural spaces in Gdynia through regular clean days. Large swathes of rubbish are illegally dumped in Polish forests every year which damages ecosystems and destroys the natural beauty of local green spaces. The clean ups are a fun, safe way to volunteer and spend time in nature during the pandemic. The Gdynia team have found some creative ways to reduce waste in the home too - for example through the recent ‘curtain is the new bag’ initiative where colleagues collected old curtains and transformed them into nearly 700 reusable shopping bags.