Case study: Why SABIC's staff spent 1,800 hours volunteering in 2015

Firms wishing to encourage of a culture of volunteerism among their staff should not miss SABIC's latest corporate social responsibility programme.

“Lights of Our Future” is indeed a programme worthy of mention, and a part of SABIC’s global sustainability strategy supporting its vision 2025.

It was developed in line with two of SABIC’s CSR priority areas: science and technology education, and environmental protection, designed to leverage its unique technology and innovation expertise.

Through this bespoke programme, the company seeks a lasting impact by educating its future generation, heightening their awareness of sustainability, and encouraging creativity and innovation.

Lights of Our Future was piloted in late 2014 and expanded in 2015 in two of SABIC’s key Asia markets – China and Singapore, with plans to extend to other Asia markets in the next few years.

In Singapore, Lights of Our Future partnered with an NGO, Junior Achievement, in a community outreach programme to young students.

The programme targets to instil the principle of environmental protection and sustainable living in children aged 11 years, through an interactive customised curriculum developed by SABIC volunteers.

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The activity driven curriculum includes identifying real environmental problems around them, realising current efforts to alleviate them and the role of science.

The programme also serves as an excellent platform for cross-function collaboration among employees and for knowledge transfer on the company’s sustainability strategy.

More than 1000 students and 150 SABIC employees in Asia were engaged by this bespoke programme over 15 months as of November 2015, devoting more than 1,800 hours of volunteer time, exceeding the original target of reaching more than 700 students by the end of 2015.

In Singapore, teachers found inspiration in this alternative teaching method.

Unity Primary School teacher Elizabeth Ng said: “This programme greatly enhanced students’ knowledge on environmental challenges in addition to promoting values to sustainable living.”

This case study is one of the four best practice cases included in the Employee Engagement feature – other organisations include the National Kidney Foundation and SABIC.

For a step-by-step guide to implementing an effective employee engagement strategy and to have a look at the other case studies, read the full feature here.