Aviva launches new charity partners to support its sustainability ambitions

Last year, Aviva launched its sustainability ambitions, one aspect of which saw it commit to being a net zero organisation by 2040. As outlined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, sustainability is about much more than just an action to tackle climate change. At Aviva, three strategic pillars underpin its sustainability ambitions: –

• Climate Action
• Stronger Communities
• Sustainable Business

Aviva is excited to launch a number of new charity partnerships with charities whose goals align with the ambitions above and with whom the company can have significant impact in the communities that it operates and where its employees work, and customers live.

Under the Climate Action pillar, Aviva has partnered with Foodcloud, an Irish not for profit social enterprise that creates solutions to redistribute surplus food. Through their warehouse and technology solution, they tackle the twin issues of food waste and food insecurity by redistributing surplus food from retailers and the food industry to their network of more than 600 charity and community group partners in Ireland.

Globally, food waste accounts for between 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions and in Ireland we waste around one million tonnes of food annually. With a vision of a world where no good food goes to waste, FoodCloud works with leading retailers, food companies, non-profit organisations, government and the wider business community to drive progress towards a Circular Economy for our food systems. Aviva’s employees will be volunteering across the three distribution hubs located in its office locations in Dublin, Cork, and Galway.

The stronger communities pillar means looking at how our community investment can have the most impact under the themes that we have identified as part of the sustainability ambitions and build climate, financial and wellbeing resilience in our local communities. Young Social Innovators works with around 7,000 teenagers each academic year, inspiring, empowering and equipping them to explore and take innovative action on social issues they care about. The year culminated in an Awards event each May to recognise the contribution of young people nationwide across a range of social themes.  Partnering with Young Social Innovators, Aviva are supporting young people’s projects submitted under the ‘strong and caring communities’ theme through which young people are co-creating and implementing solutions that improve the communities in which they live. In this way, Aviva is building helping to build community resilience and social capital.

The sustainable business pillar encapsulates all the things that one would expect to see from a socially responsible organisation. This ranges from who a company choses to do business with, environmental and human rights considerations included in the supplier on-boarding process, to how Aviva looks after its people with strong well-being initiatives as well as the training offered to employees. A particularly important strand of this pillar is Aviva’s goals around diversity and inclusion including female leadership within the business as well as the carers, balance, and pride committees that are already in place. To help Aviva achieve its goals in this area and give its employees expertise through skill sharing type volunteering. it has partnered with the National Women’s Council of Ireland. The Council’s annual activity will culminate in the FemFest event which focuses on barriers for women into leadership roles.

Speaking, Brian O’Neill,  Head of Communications, Sponsorship and Sustainability at Aviva Ireland said: ‘’We are delighted to announce these new strategic partnerships where we can support each other with our aligned goals and have the greatest possible impact in our local communities’’.

The engagement of Aviva’s employees is an integral part of the overall ambition and, although all three of its national partners have a presence in each of its office locations, the company wanted to maintain the successful regional partnerships.  Aviva has renewed its relationship with Galway Rape Crisis Centre and have newly partnered with Rainbow Club Centre for Autism, in Cork. Aviva looks forward to working with all its new partners to help achieve all combined goals.

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