Get WLT supporter news delivered to your desktop How does this work? » More WLT news feeds »

World Land Trust Supporter News

News and fundraising initiatives from corporate and individual supporters helping the World Land Trust protect wildlife habitats, as well as fundraising ideas for supporters wanting to do more. (See all our present and past corporate supporters.)

You are viewing the archived pages, return to the current supporter news here.

Supporter news on this page:

Monday, 12 November 2007:

International Conference Imposes Conservation Fines on all its Delegates 

Murray Colemen, CEO of Bovis Lend Lease UK, presents the cheque to WLT Trustee Simon Lyster.

Every cloud has a silver lining and that was certainly true of an unusual fund raising initiative at the recent Bovis Lend Lease UK management conference - OneUK.

As a way of raising funds for charity, during the 3-day event delegates were 'fined' by a Sergeant in Arms, who monitored their misdemeanours and mishaps with an eagle eye. In the process £2,250 was raised for the World Land Trust, and Bovis Lend Lease agreed to match the sum raised, bringing the total to a magnificent £4,500.

Project Director, Chris Howcroft was the Sergeant in Arms, and he was charged with ensuring that delegates arrived on time for the working sessions, always wore their name badges, fully participated in discussions and didn't use their mobile phones or Blackberrys during the sessions. But while housekeeping was an important part of the fining system, Chris instituted some innovative fines of his own, which included penalising delegates sneaking off to bed too early in the evenings, wearing attire that he personally didn't thing was suitable, telling unfunny jokes or, in one case, for simply being too tall!

Delegates, numbering 100, attended the conference in Oxford, coming from all over the country and representing all parts of the construction business. They were joined by colleagues from Bovis Lend Lease projects and offices around the world - bringing an international flavour to the event.

Over the 3-day event the attendees immersed themselves in current business challenges and opportunities, worked through some recommendations for improvements and even created some film adverts about the business - which were shown at a special Oscars evening.
Some former senior employees - termed as Bovis Lend Lease Legends - also came back one evening as special guests of honour to talk about their time in the business and inspire current employees to achieve the same successes.

All in all it was a great success, the delegates' enthusiasm and high levels of participation making it interesting, productive and great fun. We were really pleased to be able to raise so much for the World Land Trust too.

Michele Mervin
Head of Marketing and Communications, Bovis Lend Lease UK

This means that each participant donated on average £22.50 to World Land Trust, so we would like to thank them individually, as well as Chris Howcroft for enforcing the 'fines' so diligently, and also Bovis Lend Lease for matching the donation.

| Permanent location of this post | Post a Comment | Read comments (0) | Links to this post |

Share this post with your friends

Wednesday, 7 November 2007:

Website identifying ethical businesses launched 

Very few people believe the 'green', 'eco' or 'responsible' claims that practically every business now appears to make. However, increasing numbers of people care very strongly about Social Environmental and Ethical (SEE) issues and evidence suggests a growing number of companies are demonstrably committed to the best policy and practice in their business activities. But unless these passionate people and committed businesses can easily identify each other, SEE consumerism will only ever happen at the margin, genuine SEE businesses will lose market share to companies that just 'greenwash' and we will all suffer as a result.

Since 2005, World Land Trust has supported the development of the SEE Companies initiative. Participating businesses are required to answer the SEE Questionnaire - 35 questions across 7 Social, Environmental and Ethical topic areas - that has been developed with the assistance the World Land Trust and 15 other expert groups. Companies' responses, descriptions of the policies and practices in their own words, are published for public scrutiny and monitoring on SEEcompanies.com. Companies that are willing to be transparent and accountable in this way can be identified by the SEE Companies logo on their marketing and packaging. The logo will make it easier for people to make decisions about buying goods and services, making investments or even choosing a job, based on clear SEE criteria.

For more information, see www.seecompanies.com

| Permanent location of this post | Post a Comment | Read comments (0) | Links to this post |

Share this post with your friends