Social Value at VolkerStevin
We are proud to embed social value into the way we deliver projects. We understand that addressing sustainability challenges requires collaboration. We actively seek partnerships with local environmental and community groups, charities, schools and colleges.
‘Opening our doors’ as part of Build UK’s Open Doors initiative. Each year, we get involved with Open Doors, educating school pupils about the endless career possibilities available within the sector and routes into the industry.
Education and employability - Encouraging the next generation
We build strong and meaningful relationships with schools and other educational establishments to broaden the minds of young students about the career opportunities in the construction industry. We want to stimulate young minds about the exciting world of construction, as well as supporting schools to meet Gatsby Benchmark requirements, to provide employer engagement and work experience opportunities for students.
We have held numerous fundraising events for Save The Children including Christmas Jumper competitions, raffles, costume competitions and bungee jumps.
Charity, volunteering and community engagement
Establishing meaningful relationships with charities and local communities enables us to develop mutually beneficial partnerships. Our work affects people lives – the areas they live, work and play in, and it is our goal to ensure this is done is a positive way.
The business has entered into a partnership with Save the Children and committed to raising £100,000.
The team working on the New Wear high-level Footbridge project continually support the Sunderland foodbank. The project has an integrated social value funding, which aims to create sustainable benefits that will positively benefit the community.
Calculating our social value contribution
We have an established partnership with Thrive who supported us in configuring a centralised reporting portal which was launched in early 2021. This enabled us to capture our sustainability and social value commitments, and use proxy values to calculate the impact of our activities aligned to the Impact Evaluation Standard.
Our actions are guided by VolkerWessels UK People-Planet-Purpose Sustainability Framework. The ‘Purpose’ pillar of our framework focusses on having a positive impact in the communities where we work, charity, volunteering, and community engagement, and sustainable supply chain and ethical procurement.
Upon completion of the Preston and South Ribble Flood Risk Management Scheme, we will have planted approximately 11,000 trees. For every tree which had to be removed during construction 12 have been planted.
Enhancing and improving our biodiversity
We work within our local communities to enhance and improve our biodiversity. Protecting and restoring biodiversity is not only an ethical imperative but also a practical necessity for ensuring the long-term sustainability of our planet and the prosperity of future generations.
Our Southsea Coastal Scheme regularly attend schools to engage with students, helping to educate and inspire future engineers.
Sites from across the business collected Easter Egg donations which they donated to charities local to their project sites.
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