Mercuria CSR Report 2021 - Flipbook - Page 76
Such initiatives are local communities with the purpose of bringing children and families closer to nature
through field trips, outdoor activities, organized hikes and other events that help people reconnect with
the natural world around them. Similar efforts are made to spread awareness of sustainable lifestyles
and practices at universities and in local communities through lectures, workshops, education at
primary schools on topics such as biodiversity and land and water conversation.
CWP’s approach to CSR in Europe has been mainly focused on community capacity building –
predominantly through education and youth empowerment. They believe that investing in a sustainable
future inherently includes investing in the education of youth who will lead the way towards sustainable
economic, legal, social, and cultural development of their communities. A part of each project budget
is earmarked to go to local community initiatives and supporting activities, services and infrastructure
development. On a broader scale, beyond the scope of specific projects, CWP supports talented youth
through partnerships with trusted NGOs and our own programs.
In 2020, CWP joined the UN Race to Zero campaign and committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse
gas emissions by 2040, ten years ahead of the timeline foreseen in the Paris Agreement.
How does CWP engage its employees around its mission?
A famouse quote by Alexander Den Heijer: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in
which it grows, not the flower,“ captures the philosophy of CWP in this regard.
For example, CWP invests in the education of their employees in matters of sustainability. They have
organized an in-person lecture and discussion for their entire global team on topics related to climate
change. They have also scheduled “Hike and Clean” trips for their Belgrade and Sofia offices for spring
of 2022.
The company also dedicates a great amount of their time and energy to ensuring that their working
environment is such that people can bloom, ie. develop their skills and talents and realize their potential.
In practice, this means allowing space for experimentation, promoting autonomous decision-making,
embracing failures as points of learning, and ensuring that each person in the company has a clear
channel of communication and access to every team members, including the Board of Directors.
To bring this culture on a higher scale, CWP recently started its Growing Together Initiative – a
knowledge-sharing program for exchanging unique skills, knowledge and talents within their global
team. Any person can step up and share their knowledge and interest via a webinar of experiential
workshops. One very successful webinar on the Foundations of Financial Analysis was organized their
Financial Analysis Department and covered the basic concepts in a very intuitive and clear way. One
team member organized an “Intuitive Painting” workshop. The idea of this workshop was to practice
the art of spontaneous self-expression through painting, with the final aim of nurturing creativity.
Creative problem solving is essential for the energy transition and is often stimulated from other
areas of life and work.
The idea behind the larger initiative was not only to share knowledge and interests, but to further
promote a culture of mutual support; to inspire one another and to provoke new thoughts and ideas. It
was also about empowerment and reminding themselves how much value is brought into a community
when people step up and share things that they are skilled at or passionate about. For CWP, the goal
is to have everyone understand how they are all interconnected in their mission to make this world
greener and a better place to be.
CWP is currently in the process of developing its CSR and ESG strategies for the next five years. Its
primary focus will remain on community capacity building and youth empowerment, as well as
developing environmental initiatives.
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