Our sustainability framework: Community

Cooperatives have always seen themselves as deeply rooted in the communities they serve. This is as important for us today as it has been for any time before because we are always local.

 It's where we're from

 Our strategy for community sustainability is based on three aims:

1. To build meaningful Society links with the community.
2. Supporting the Islands and championing key community topics.
3. Promote the Coop way 

Aim 1: To build meaningful links with the community.

What we are already doing

1. Allow colleagues up to 15 hours per annum for volunteering to support community projects.
2. Championing community engagement opportunities in our stores through bag packing and awareness days.
3. Supporting our islands food banks and charities with instore collection points.
4. Make it easy for our members and customers to support community initiatives via donations and charity share numbers.
5. Providing meaningful and fulfilling jobs.

How we will achieve our aims

✔ Build internal and external community networks to create better relations with other local organisations – for greater reach and inclusion.

✔ Grow our colleague volunteering hours from 500 in 2023, to an increase of 10% year-on-year over the next five years.

✔ Increase our CSR days to four in each island from 2023.

✔ Make it easier for members to support their community through a member app.

✔ Work with our community to support and encourage sustainable solutions.

✔ Showcase community groups and projects through our marketing and reporting.

 

Aim 2: To support the Islands and champion key community topic.

What we are already doing

1. Supporting the passions and endeavours of charities and causes regardless of their size.
2. Providing funding for local projects through our Community Fund, sponsorship, and donations.
3. Created a support framework that supports our community funding criteria.

How we will achieve our aims

✔ Commit to placing 1% of the income we receive from the sales of locally produced goods into our Community Fund, starting in 2024.

✔ Release funds from dormant accounts to support the community, local charitable-causes, environmental or social initiatives, starting from 2024.

✔ Create more virtuous cycles and enhance the ones we have already, so any success we enjoy commercially can be recycled back into our community.

✔ Regularly review our decision-making criteria for funding initiatives to ensure it is relevant to local issues.

✔ Create an agile community support framework that adapts to our islands’ changing needs.

✔ Increase visibility of funding initiatives through impact reports that will be published twice a year starting from 2024.

✔ Collaborate with other local funders and philanthropists to bring about bigger changes to our local communities.

 

Aim 3: Promote the Coop way.

What we are already doing

1. The largest supporter of Fairtrade products in the Channel Islands.
2. Passionate supporters of local producers.
3. We apply the Cooperative principles of cooperation and concern for the community in our community decision-making.
4. We distribute our profits back into the community through the annual dividend.

How we will achieve our aims

✔ Being ambassadors for environmental causes.

✔ Promote the Coop values and principles and what makes us unique.

✔ Train our colleagues in ethical decision-making.

✔ Increase local spend with producers and suppliers as a proportion of total spend.

✔ Engage with colleagues to live our values and encourage those we do business with to do the same.