Integrating community across the business
Sainsbury has developed a governance model which brings together all areas of its business, including HR, retail and distribution. The company’s Retail and Logistics Director is responsible for the ‘making a difference to communities’ value. This ensures that community investment is led from the top of the company and integrates into all areas of the business. To support this, Sainsbury has developed a Community Chest, which has been sent to every store, depot and store support centre. The toolkit equips the store manager to engage key stakeholders in local community activity providing each store with the same framework but the flexibility to individualise local support. Tools include information on how to access their local community, which includes their customers, government and community groups, and advice on how employees can get involved. By distributing this information across the organisation, Sainsbury’s aims to increase applications to schemes such as Local Heroes, which recognises employees who volunteer for good causes, by 10%.
Working in partnership
Sainsbury has developed a series of long-standing partnerships to enable the company to have the greatest impact on the social issues it seeks to address:
- The company supports the Scout Association’s Big Adventure programme, which aims to encourage more adults to volunteer in Scouting and help to reduce the Association’s 30,000 strong waiting lists. This forms part of Sainsbury’s wider commitment to encourage young people to eat healthily and live active lifestyles. Local Scout groups are also welcomed into stores to bag pack and support community activities in partnership with another partner, Fareshare. This is a significant source of income for many local Scout groups, raising £500,000 during Christmas 2010.
- Sainsbury works in partnership with Fareshare to provide food to charities. This Fareshare takes surplus food from the supply chain and redistributes it. In 2010, Sainsbury provided enough food to provide 1 million meals, saving community organisations receiving the food an average of £13,000 per year. The focus of this activity is on food waste in the supply chain and supports Sainsbury’s commitment to sending zero food waste to landfill. Each tonne of food diverted from landfill can provide 2,400 square meals and saves 4.5 tonnes of CO2. However, the company has now expanded the programme to include customers. Customers are encouraged to buy an extra item when shopping from a pre-set list, which is then distributed to local charities. £6,000 worth of donations was raised, 25.5 tonnes was collected, equating to over 60,000 square meals.
Engaging employees and customers
Sainsbury has showcased its leadership of the community investment agenda by engaging customer and suppliers in the development of its corporate responsibility strategy and providing direct support to communities most in need. The company has developed a series of CR dinners hosted by Sainsury’s CEO, Justin King, and Anna Ford, the company’s CR Committee Chair. Key stakeholders are invited to discuss issues with relevant business directors. The outcomes of these discussions are fed into the development of the company’s community strategy.
The Community Chest has also provided all managers with the tools needed to run local community meetings in store and depots to understand local community issues and talk about how Sainsbury can help. Similarly, the Community Chest supports local business units in engaging customers to choose the store’s Local Charity. Customers are invited to vote for local causes in their community most in need of support. One local charity partner is then selected by the store’s Colleague Council and is supported throughout the year with fund-raising and volunteering.
Sainsbury has taken a lead in understanding local community issues. The company has seconded four senior employees to Business in the Community as Business Connectors. Connectors act as a broker between local businesses and community organisations in areas of greatest need, matching the needs of the community with the resources businesses can provide. This enables Sainsbury to develop an in-depth understanding of the local issues and helps place the store at the heart of the local community.
For more information on J Sainsbury plc’s approach to community investment, please visit http://www.jsainsbury.co.uk/cr/
