Here is a radio interview I did with Together FM
Together Meets Clara Clarke – Together FM
So, What’s CSR?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined by the European Commission as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”. To fully meet this responsibility, the Commission states that, in addition to respect for applicable legislation and collective agreements between social partners, enterprises “should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders, with the aim of maximising the creation of shared value for their owners/shareholders, other stakeholders and society at large, and identifying, preventing and mitigating their possible adverse impacts”.
While this is a bit of a mouthful, basically it means that enterprises (businesses) should have in place ways and means to involve their staff in helping out in the community on social projects to make life better for everyone! Hey ho! Cycling Without Age meets the CSR profile perfectly!
To date (May 2022), at least six companies have sponsored CWA bikes in Ireland, donate them to the nursing/care home of their choice and send their staff as pilots as part of their CSR programmes. We are talking to several other companies who have expressed similar interest. The first corporate-sponsored trishaw bike by Canada Life Re-Insurance, in Dublin is at Sybil Hill Nursing Home in Raheny, and two community-based ones, in Clontarf and Dun Laoghaire. Hidden Hearing sponsored a bike for TLC Care home in Santry. Zendesk sponsor a bike for Belvilla Community Hospital on SCR, Dublin. In Cork we have two corporate-sponsored bikes in Cork City and a community-sponsored bike in Clonakilty. In addition, Healthy Ireland, www.healthyireland.ie has sponsored the purchase of at least twelve trishaws to date, via local Councils and Local Sports Partnerships. So we know that the model works, for them and for us.