Our efforts in social responsibility are based on three main objectives. We ensure our employees are looked after properly. We manage our impact on our operational environment to the best of our ability. And we return some of the benefits of our success and expertise to the communities in which we work. Five years ago we initiated a partnership with the United National World Food Programme (WFP) in which we offer our logistics skills and other resources to assist WFP in its efforts to combat world hunger. We also support the North Star Foundation, which is addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa with a network of drop-in health clinics for truck drivers.
Moving the World
In December 2002, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and TNT launched a five-year partnership aimed at a single common goal: fighting world hunger. These five years have proven to be a success for both organisations.
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency and is the food assistance arm of the United Nations. WFP logistics is at the core of WFP operations. It addresses logistics needs during humanitarian crises for both food and non-food items with an aim to improving and enhancing the overall industry response and ultimately to save lives.
In 2007, WFP reached over 90 million people in more than 80 countries. Three quarters of WFP’s beneficiaries are people in emergency and relief operations. Almost 90% of the people supported by WFP are women and children. WFP provides help for most of the world’s refugees and internally-displaced people and leads the inter-agency cluster for humanitarian logistics. WFP coordinates with other United Nations agencies, governments and non-governmental organisations.
Since the start of the partnership, TNT has contributed a total of €32.5 million in-kind to WFP operations and €5.5 million in cash. Besides this contribution €9.0 million was raised by TNT employees and donated to WFP. This donation went to support the WFP School Feeding Programme in Cambodia, The Gambia, Malawi, Nicaragua and Tanzania. In these countries, 27 TNT employees volunteered in 2007 to spend three months working side-by-side with WFP on school feeding projects, where they witnessed the impact of the donations on children’s lives firsthand.
In 2007 we contributed €5.7 million in in-kind services. In addition, €1.6 million was raised through employee fundraising and donated to the WFP School Feeding Programmes in five countries. In the same year, 13 TNT staff assisted WFP in responding to emergency situations in six countries: Mozambique, Nicaragua, Sudan, Indonesia, Ghana and Bangladesh. TNT provided air, road and water transport and personnel in addition to a range of other ad hoc activities. In Ghana, TNT continued to provide warehouse space to WFP for storing emergency supplies. The depot will enable WFP to respond more quickly to emergencies in West Africa. In Indonesia we performed an emergency response pilot project together with other logistics companies.
Both parties benefit from the partnership. On a company level, our engagement survey released in 2007 indicated that 62% (excluding Mail Netherlands) of our employees had participated in the partnership by donating time or money (or both) compared to 47% in 2006 and that 61% (excluding Mail Netherlands) stated that the partnership increased their pride in the company compared to 41% in 2006. However this significant increase is mainly due to the fact that Mail Netherlands did not participate in the employee engagement survey. On an individual level, 75 TNT specialists and volunteers were able to improve their skills and increase their knowledge through their work with WFP.
In 2007, TNT and WFP evaluated the Moving the World partnership. Both parties expressed their great satisfaction with the achievements of the first five years and we have recently extended our commitment for further partnering. We will be looking to inject even greater energy into the partnership, generate stronger local connections and fit Moving the World into the larger social responsibility framework. As we move forwards, we have divided the cooperation into four portfolios. To drive further our commitment for each, TNT’s four board members have each elected to ‘sponsor’ one of the initiatives.
The initiatives are:
- Funds for Children (sponsored by Henk van Dalen, CFO). This sub-project will continue our work in school feeding, cause-related marketing and stakeholder involvement such as global events fundraising.
- a Movement against Hunger (sponsored by Peter Bakker, CEO). Here we will continue to support WFP in their fight against global hunger through flagship events such as Walk the World and leverage our strong position within the transport section of the World Economic Forum.
- Expertise for Impact (sponsored by Marie Christine Lombard, Group Managing Director Express). We will continue our efforts to improve WFP’s logistics efficiency and continue to add capacity in emergency operations.
- Responsible Transportation (sponsored by Harry Koorstra, Group Managing Director Mail). This project will deal with all transport-related issues, including matters such as HIV/AIDS, road safety and emissions. Responsible Transportation reinforces our overall SR priorities and ties in with our Planet Me programme as described in the case in this report.
The effect of climate change on WFP’s work is also seen as important. There will be continued emphasis on expert skills and other assets available at TNT to create social impact together with WFP.
In December 2007 TNT thanked all its employees for their efforts and commitment over the last five years of this partnership and the goals achieved. These include:
- funding 58 million school meals,
- helping over 1 million children,
- installing 60 water pumps,
- tackling over 30 emergencies,
- carrying out 10 emergency airlifts, and
- walking 10 times around the globe.
| Moving the world contribution1 | |||||
| (x €1,000) | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | ||
| Total in-kind contribution | 8,064 | 7,988 | 5,650 | ||
| Corporate donation and matching | 1,500 | 1,000 | 0 | ||
| Total | 9,564 | 8,988 | 5,650 | ||
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North Star foundation
Originally a Moving the World pilot project and launched as an independent foundation in 2007, North Star Foundation is mobilising commercial and humanitarian transporters to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa with a network of drop-in health clinics for truck drivers.
A complete overview of the partnership and its activities can be found at group.tnt.com/wfp.