InterCement Institute celebrates 3rd anniversary benefiting communities
What makes your company unique? What makes it stand out from its competitors and live in the minds and hearts of consumers? What makes it so relevant in its field of activity that it becomes stronger in the most turbulent and uncertain times? I believe the answer to these questions is in the clearness of purpose. If the company is clear that it serves society with its product or service, and that this activity helps improve quality of life, the company is capable of attracting the most talented people, the best partners and suppliers, increase its reach of clients and act in locations that are strengthened from its local presence alone.
This is part of the aspiration held by InterCement, who created its Institute 3 years ago as a vehicle of innovation in the social field, helping it produce and distribute cement with the most positive social impact possible, aligning its efforts to the Objectives of Sustainable Development, especially the 1st, which is to reduce poverty.
InterCement is present in eight countries and 38 communities, 80% of which are small or medium-sized, and identifies an opportunity of local transformation when its business is aligned with the needs and potential of such locations. One of the main potentials is its high-performance teams with high social engagement and the creation of platforms benefits this transformation, through CIVICOs — Incentive Communities for Volunteers and Community Interaction, CDCs — Community Development Committees and GAIVs — Ideal Voluntary Action Groups, whose intentions and activities actually generate impact.
Long before the creation of InterCement Institute, the company stimulated public practices by encouraging volunteering. It’s been 10 years of activities in the Day of Doing Good (Dia do Bem Fazer), a broad community campaign that promotes actions to benefit the people and that resulted in renovations in parks, schools, halls, shelters and public libraries, as well as renovations in private institutions serving low-income families. Activities went beyond physical interventions, since these past 10 years brought shared experiences that brought together worlds, overcoming boarders and preconceptions. Serving each other, understanding each other’s point of view and being empathetic helped those of us who volunteered to change for the better, a benefit that was shown to be unanimous in the testimonials we received, far more than what we donated.
The capacity to mobilize people and resources for a common purpose based on planning, execution and assessment of the process and results means that each Day of Doing Good brings in more people, including three times the number of volunteers beyond InterCement employees. And that’s not all. The Day of Doing Good was created to increase awareness for employees first and foremost, including of the possibilities and potentials of volunteering. To continue to increase this awareness for those are already encouraged, the Institute provides an engagement platform by forming Ideal Voluntary Action Groups, with and without InterCement employees who organize their activities continuously and independently. Every year, these GAIVs can submit their actions for appraisal by the Idealist Award (Prêmio Idealista), an acknowledgment for the hours dedicated and transformed into results for the partnered organization. There are currently more than 80 GAIVs continuously supporting organizations, schools, clinics and community colleges of the 38 communities in which we are present. We learned from this multitude of actions that the challenges of the organizations aligned with our operations can be overcome when we bring together our willpower, courage and discipline. We learned that interactions with partners that create a supporting framework transform time actions into sustainable ones, and we have active parks, functional schools and clinics and expanded community colleges as evidence of the impacts generated from the collective actions of people motivated to improve their communities.
In 2017, we received the support of 3,700 professionals in at least one action in our Community Development initiatives, which represents almost 50% of the total of the company adhering to a cause. The best corporate benchmarks point towards the participation of 10% of professionals in Volunteering Days, which makes InterCement a company that works extensively for public benefit. There are 576 continuous volunteering actions, which is a source of pride and inspiration for others to take a similar path.
We aim to constantly innovate by incorporating new concepts and continuously reassessing our operations, offering as many opportunities as possible for the communities and contributing wit the strengthening of people committed with overcoming challenges. In Brazil, we have been training culture and sports organizations to present fiscal incentive projects that may have the support of one of the local tax agencies (ICMS), broadening financial resources for these actions. In Argentina, our employees are supporting community colleges to submit proposals to modernize and renovate equipment based on fiscal created granted to companies. In Mozambique, our GAIVs are teaching schools how to plan the improvement of their physical spaces with a qualification project that teaches how these spaces can be more playful. In South Africa, the Community Trusts, that is, the Development Committees led by the community – have already started using the criteria definition logic to choose which projects adhere the most to the needs and principles of development. In Cape Verde, the framework promoting the healthy childhood alongside the Ministries of Health, Education, Family and Social Inclusion, the First Lady, UNICEF, WHO and social organizations such as Aldeias Infantis and Acarinhar, organize the Baby’s Week and contribute towards the creation of services supporting infants and children. In Paraguay, there is a similar network focused on an action that will be taken at the end of the month and on the Day of Doing Good, in partnership with an organization that serves people with disabilities, which helped renovate a public park in Villa Hayes, making it the second inclusive public park in Paraguay. In Portugal, emergency actions such as fire fighting showed the local capabilities of rapid response, and book donation and CV campaigns showed the local ability for solidarity beyond borders.
Thinking back on it, we can see that this has been an incredible path, which will encourages us to strengthen these volunteering effort and focusing on how much potential the places we are present in can have to promote community development. Along with our partners, clients, suppliers and, more importantly, our employees, we aim to continuously increase this network of social transformation and leave a legacy of innovative solutions that can help us fight poverty.
Carla Duprat
Director of InterCement Institute.
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