Community case studies

Enduring

partnerships

Our 10-year partnership with Earthwatch

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Amcor’s partnership with Earthwatch. This partnership gives Amcor coworkers the opportunity to participate in scientific field-based conservation research and to live our core value of Social Responsibility. During FY2010/11, fourteen Amcor co-workers participated in Earthwatch fellowships at locations in Canada, Australia and Greece. Since our partnership with Earthwatch commenced, 90 co-workers have participated in 44 scientific expeditions around the world.

Franklin plant holds record-setting food drive

Amcor’s site in Franklin, Indiana, USA, held a 2010 Thanksgiving Food Drive that donated over 10 tonnes of food for the local community, the largest donation of its type in Indiana history.

The drive started as a team-building event to benefit the community. Four volunteer teams of employees quickly surpassed their initial goal to collect 2,000 pounds of food per team.

‘We became one team and collections jumped to an amazing 20,859 pounds,’ said Sandra Pyle, plant accountant and leader of the plant’s Philanthropy Committee. ‘Some employees even donated their Thanksgiving grocery gift cards, a present from the plant to the cause. People at our plant are so generous and never cease to amaze me.’

The plant’s customers and vendors also pitched in to help with donations.

The Franklin committee used a tractor-trailer to deliver the food to the InterChurch Food Pantry of Johnson County. It was enough to feed at least 600 families for three days.

The site’s Philanthropy Committee also manage other events including blood donation drives, an annual employee carnival, gift basket raffles and cookoffs, all to raise money in support of the local community.

Working together to create reusable shopping bags

Amcor’s site in Ushuaia, Argentina is working with the local community to create reusable shopping bags for local consumers. Local non-governmentorganisation (NGO) EN.JO.FUE transforms the surplus big bags, generated in Amcor Ushuaia’s operation, into shopping bags using an overlock sewing machine donated by Amcor. The reusable bags are sold at La Anonima Supermarkets without profit and are part of a broader push by the local municipality to eliminate the use of single-use shopping bags.

1800 reusable shopping bags were created from 600 big bags in a six-month period, providing employment for six people at the NGO during that time. The participants were trained in how to use the overlock sewing machine and Amcor provided additional training in how to recognise electrical risks.

Computers for kids

Amcor has helped connect a valued customer with disadvantaged children in northern Mexico.

The customer was seeking to donate some prototype technology touchscreen computers and Amcor was able to connect the customer with the Sordo Mundo school for the deaf and the Door of Faith orphanage, both of which are located in Northern Mexico. Amcor has had an ongoing relationship with both organisations.

The new relationship worked well for both parties; the customer found a way to put the prototypes to good use, without having to destroy them and the Mexican children gained much needed computers. The operating system language on the computers was changed to Spanish, making the computers more user-friendly for the children.

Amcor is proud have played a role in connecting their valued customer with a charity where they could make a real difference.

Jump on the recovery bus

Amcor showed its support for farmers affected by Cyclone Yasi in the areas surrounding Innisfail and Tully in Queensland, Australia, by deploying the ‘Amcor Recovery Team’. Keen to help their customers in the clean-up process, Amcor re-assigned 10 co-workers from nearby sites to assist in this effort.

Visiting one farm per day, the ‘Amcor Recovery Team’ spent three months working with cyclone-affected customers in their clean-up process. This equates to over 60 farms that received Amcor’s assistance in the clean-up. The team focused initially on banana farms, whose businesses were severely affected both structurally and financially.

The Recovery Team performed a range of tasks including de-leafing of banana trees, irrigation maintenance, re-building of infrastructure and cleaning of warehouses.

Orphanage receives helping hand from Amcor

Amcor's site in Harwidar, India, organised a charity event for the Vatsalya Vatika orphanage. Vatsalya Vatika is a place of refuge for a child in need. Currently there are 88 children and 10 staff.

Promotional Amcor items (displaying the company’s former brand and business names) such as hats, water bottles, watches, umbrellas and bags were given to children, as well as sweets and snacks. Senior site management attended the event and the children showed the Amcor team their amazing talents by participating in singing and playing musical instruments.

Chandra Pandey (Manager HR, AFAP India) said of his experience, “The greatest suffering for a child is to be unloved. Spending a few moments with the children brought smiles to their faces, because they probably felt they are not alone in this world.”

The contribution from the team at Amcor Harwidar, and spending time with the children, is a practical demonstration of their commitment to Amcor’s core value of social responsibility.

Bike building in Venice

Amcor's senior leadership team have proudly built and donated ten bicycles to charity. The bicycles were built during a team building exercise in Venice, during a global leadership conference and were presented to Don Guiseppe Gobbo of Radica Societa Cooprativa Sociale Onlus. The exercise demonstrated Amcor's leaders' commitment to our core values of team work and social responsibility.

Amcor's site in Lugo, Italy has forged a strong relationship with the Radica Societa Cooperativa Sociale Onlus, a local charity that works with 'at risk' children and places them with foster parents. The charity also runs children's summer camps, which are attended by many of the 'at risk' children and some of our Lugo co-worker's children.

Building a home for toys at an orphanage

At the Casa Transitoria orphanage in Brazil, a group of Amcor co-workers on the Amcor Ação community investment team arrived, planning to paint and decorate. They soon realized their efforts would be better spent contributing building materials to construct a new toy room.

The team purchased approximately 1100 bricks and 20 bags of cement and donated them to the orphanage for the project. They also spent a day with the children, preparing hot dogs, cakes, soft drinks and lot of candies, much to the delight of the children.

“Back to School” fundraiser for Manchester Area Students

Amcor Rigid Plastics in Manchester, USA, has donated forty-three backpacks and school supplies to the Manchester Family Services agency.

Manchester employees raised funds for the “Back to School” backpack drive through a combination of activities, including Blue Jean Fridays, raffles, and farmer's markets (where employee grown produce was sold and all proceeds donated to the fund raising project).

The backpacks were customized according to each child's suggestions for color, theme, and design, and were filled with school supplies appropriate for the child's grade.

According to a recent Manchester Enterprise article, “Amcor has been a generous contributor to the Manchester community and has maintained a long affiliation with Manchester Family Service. In addition to the children's backpacks and classroom donations, a $2,500 check was presented to Manchester Family Service to support assistance for local families.”

For many years, our Manchester co-workers have supported the Manchester Family Services agency with a very successful Holiday drive that provides holiday toys, gifts and meals to needy families in the Manchester, Michigan area. Recently, the team in Manchester discussed expanding the support of the community beyond the Holiday drive, and the idea of a “Back to School” backpack drive was generated.

Our “Godfathers” support families in Brazil

Co-workers at our AFEA business in Cambe, Brazil are working with local schools and charities. Called "Godfathers", Cambe has 16 employees involved in the site’s social outreach program. Their task is to represent one entity and provide a link between the entity and the Cambe site to:

Determine the needs of their assigned beneficiary organization, and to

Check how money is allocated.

Through the program, Cambe site has donated 349 kilograms of plastic and paper products to public elementary schools and nurseries for art and craft activities this year.

The site occasionally donates old furniture, equipment or money collected from the sales department. Each month the company offers a package of food to a poor family identified by a “godfather” or other site employee. Over 90 kilograms of food was distributed.

Safety Celebrations In Sync With Amcor Values

This spring, two Tobacco Packaging Americas sites hosted family health and safety days to promote awareness, share knowledge and demonstrate the value of being safe, whether at work, home or in the community.

In Reidsville, North Carolina (USA), the theme, “Always Safe in Every Way,” set the tone for a wide range of activities at the Family Safety Fair and Open House. More than 120 co-workers, family and friends attended the mid-April event. The local police shared information on community policing and bike safety, while the Fire officials brought a Safety Simulation House and a ladder truck. The local Rescue Squad brought an ambulance and a recovery truck, while the Sheriff’s Department talked about community awareness.

With a goal of spreading the Amcor Value of Safety to co-workers and their families on the home front, the Richmond, Virginia (USA), plant hosted approximately 120 people in late March. The Child Safety Officer attended from the local Police Department, while the Fire Department brought in a fire truck and equipment. The county Fire and Emergency Services team set up a Fire and Life Safety Simulation House. Safety literature, a craft table and plant tours were also available.

Pounding the pavement for our community

Amcor Packaging Distribution Buena Park have raised $4000 for the American Cancer Society (ACS). A dedicated team of co-workers participated in an ACS fundraising event, with the goal of having walkers on the track for 24 hours straight since cancer never sleeps. The Buena Park donation will support cancer research, education programs and patient services.

Across the globe, a number of our co-workers recently participated in the Relay for Life, raising money for the Cancer Council, with James Nicolas of Amcor Ltd’s Australian head office leading the fundraising charge on behalf of his children. The team, Jordan, 10 and Lauren, 7 walked in torrential rain raising $1600 in donations for the cause - $1200 from Amcor co-workers.

Victorian Fibre co-worker Zoe Rich received great support from her fellow co-workers as she raised money and ran in the Variety Club’s Santa Fun Run. The event saw hundreds of people take part in a Fun Run whilst wearing Santa Suits and raised awareness of the great work of the Variety Club. Zoe managed to raise over $3000, with over $1000 received from the generous donations of Amcor co-workers.

A wholehearted thank you to all co-workers who got behind these wonderful causes.

Supporting World Environment Day

In early June 2011, a number of co-workers at Amcor's site in Izmir, Turkey celebrated World Environment Day (WED) with their children by visiting a local nature park.

Once there, they shared a meal and marched in the park carrying colorful posters telling environmental stories.

Suppliers also supported the day contributing T-shirts, trees to be planted and small gifts for the children.