Scania announces community engagement programme and new charity partnership

Scania (Great Britain) Limited is delighted to announce a new community engagement programme, entitled Scania Community, whereby the business will begin an official partnership with leading UK charity, Cancer Research UK as well supporting environmental charity, The Wildlife Trusts. 

In addition, the company's Milton Keynes UK Support Centre and its five operational regions – Scotland, North, East, South East, South West – will also support their own chosen regional charities.  As a core pillar of Scania's community engagement programme, the company is encouraging its 1500+ UK employees to participate in charitable fundraising and volunteering activities. To facilitate this, Scania will donate 7.5 hours of each employee's time to a charity of their choice – employees may donate this time to a charity of their choice or to Scania’s official charity partner.

The selection of Scania's national charities was decided in a nationwide employee poll, where employees were given a number of charities to vote for in two categories – Society and Environment – two key pillars within Scania's ‘Driving the Shift’ sustainability strategy. 

Cancer Research UK, whose mission is to see all cancers cured, was the clear choice in the Society category, while The Wildlife Trusts, a federation of 46 regional wildlife trusts which seeks to make nature a part of life for everyone, was the standout environmental option.

"While Scania and its people around the UK have engaged in numerous charitable activities over the years, we have never before officially had a national charity partnership, so we are delighted to put this in place alongside a fully-coordinated nationwide programme of activities, whereby encouraging our teams to get involved and help to make a difference," comments Scania (Great Britain) Limited Managing Director, Martin Hay. "Now, we’re in a position to make significant contributions, both financially and in terms of volunteer time.  An additional benefit for our employees is that they will now have an opportunity to volunteer time to a charity of their choice with the full support of the company.  As such, we are delighted to be embarking upon this unique initiative and very much look forward to engaging and interacting with all our chosen charities going forward."

Gemma Kitching, Corporate Relationship Manager at Cancer Research UK, said, “Every two minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer. With the help of Scania (Great Britain) Ltd, employees will be able to contribute towards funding our continued research to help more men, women and children survive.

“It’s fantastic that Scania (Great Britain) Ltd has pledged to support us and strive to raise as much money as possible in the coming year and we wish them the best of luck with their fundraising efforts. The funds will go towards the charity’s life-saving research to beat over 200 types of cancer.”

“Although the number of people being diagnosed with cancer is increasing, the good news is that, thanks to research, survival rates have doubled in the past 40 years. More people across the UK are now beating the disease than ever before and Cancer Research UK’s work is at the heart of that progress.”