A TEAM from Alphabet’s Indirect Sales channels were inspired to ‘give something back’ by undertaking a ‘beach hoover’ operation to remove plastic from along the coast near Bournemouth.
With more than 20 volunteers from Alphabet Partner, the Business Partnership Programme and Alphabet’s Affinity Partnerships took spent a day removing plastic and rubbish from Durley Chine beach.
Head of Indirect Sales, Gavin Davies said: “Every Alphabet employee is entitled to a couple of ‘corporate social responsibility (CSR) days’ every year within their official ‘work time’ which can be used to support the work of local and national organisations. Earlier this year, during a team meeting someone suggested using one of our CSR days to do something to help address the rising problem of plastic in the seas and around the shores of the UK.
“Clearly David Attenborough’s ‘Blue Planet 2’ had really touched lots of people in the team and inspired us into action. We decided that a ‘beach hoover’ – where we collected up plastic as well as other bits of rubbish from the coastline – would a great way for everyone in the team to get involved and make a personal contribution to addressing the problem on our doorstep.”
Packing the plastic litter – one of Alphabet’s ‘beach hoover’ team
Graham Meeres, national development manager for Fleet Sales Partnership, added: “We contacted Bournemouth Borough Council and the local Tourism Office to organise the activity with their seafront team. Local people continually expressed how happy they were to see a business taking time out to make a positive contribution to reducing the amount of plastic and rubbish on the beach.”
Gavin Davies added:
“In the Indirect Sales team we have an approach we call ‘Limitless’. Because by working together, supporting each other and using our individual skills and strengths, there’s no limit to what we can achieve – and this was a great example of Limitless in action, with the team achieving a great result.
“As a company, we take responsibility very seriously – whether that’s as a lender, as an employer or as a business. But we also know how to have fun and at the end of the day we enjoyed a beach barbeque to celebrate and enjoy the beach we’d just cleaned. Rest assured we made absolutely sure we tidied up after ourselves and more!”
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