Community
Our operations touch members of the community daily, whether as customers, neighbours, employees, businesses or residents. Good relationships with the local communities in which we operate are essential to supporting business growth.
Our investment in services is central to our contribution to the local community. We work with local authorities to improve punctuality and ease congestion. We continually consult with community members regarding route development and changes. We work to ease access to our services for those who most rely on them, including those with special needs.
In North America we work with city and state authorities and school boards to ensure that our services meet the needs of the communities we serve. In particular we have worked with schools, addressing broader community issues such as truancy and bullying.
We use our community partnerships to deliver positive change in our communities. We work with many groups to reduce the vandalism and anti-social behaviour, which damage communities and our business. We are keen to make a positive contribution, in particular by helping young people to understand the consequences of their actions.
We also have an ongoing programme of events to raise funds for charitable causes. For further information visit Community Programmes.
This year we have calculated our contribution to the local community in the UK using the London Benchmarking Group model. The model was established by 120 leading businesses to manage, measure and report their contribution to the wider community.
London Benchmarking Group breakdown of community investments *
| Investments | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Charitable Gifts | £474,138 | Intermittent donations of cash, product, facilities, or time to support a wide range of good causes in response to charitable appeals. |
| Community Investments | £1,614,492 | Long-term involvement in issues important to the company - e.g. projects to address education, health or environmental improvements - include the cash contributed through community programmes to achieve specific goals and other contributions central to the success of specific programmes. |
| Commercial Initiatives | £68,080 | Activities whose primary purpose is to promote or protect the commercial interests of the business by giving support to community causes, e.g. payments to charities as a result of cause-related marketing or other brand promotion, or sponsorship of charitable events where related to marketing strategy. |
The London Benchmarking Group represents over 120 leading businesses that have come together to manage, measure and report their contribution to the wider community using a standard methodology.
First's total value contributions including management costs = £2,235,830
* These figures exclude management costs.