For 10 years, the U.S. Chamber BCLC’s Corporate Citizenship Awards have demonstrated that businesses can do well by doing good. Past winners include the Abbott Fund, Allstate, Greyston Bakery, KPMG, Microsoft, UPS, Wegmans, and many others.

Until Wednesday, June 30^th, we’re accepting nominations for the 2010 Awards. Consider your company or chamber – and all of your partner companies or chambers – and see if you can answer “yes” to these questions:

1. Does your organization believe in community service, and have you had a specific community service program at any time in 2009 or 2010? (U.S. and international programs are eligible.)

2. Does your for-profit business work in partnership with a specific non-profit organization to make a difference on an important social challenge? Have you worked together in 2009 or 2010?

3. Does your company believe in operating ethically, engaging stakeholders in decision-making, giving strategically to the communities where you operate, and reducing your negative impact on your external environment?

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Inspired … That is how I felt after enjoying an evening at the Intel Science Talent Search Awards Gala on March 16 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The prestigious awards celebrate some of the most talented high school men and women scientists.

Forty bright scientists from across America were selected as finalists from 1,736 entries, their work involving research such as experimenting with drug resistances to breast cancer to creating software that would improve the orbit of spacecrafts.
 
The 40 finalists gathered in D.C. to present their projects to judges and to experience Capitol Hill meetings with members of Congress. The finalists were recognized and winners announced at the very special awards gala with Intel President and CEO Paul Otellili, Society for Science & the Public President Elizabeth Marincola, family, and mentors. “These young scientists are proof that curious, eager minds coupled with inspiring, knowledgeable teachers are the foundation for world-changing innovation,” praised Otellini.

The talented scientists also had an opportunity to hear from guest speaker Thomas Freidman, author and foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times. Freidman advised  the students to “surround yourself with highly motivated people…Inspiration to seek knowledge is the true essence of a scholar.” 
 
Learn more about the Intel Science Talent Search Awards and Intel’s commitment to supporting innovative young scientists.

On November 12th I posted notice of the opening of the 2010 Siemens Sustainable Community Awards nomination process.

Almost four months later, I’m posting one final notice about the 2010 nomination period (though there have been posts in between). After a two-week extension due to the Haitian earthquake, Award applications are due this Friday at 5:00 p.m. EST - you can get the nomination form here.

Don’t panic, there’s still time to craft your 1,000-word submission essay. You can then email your submission and as long as we receive it by 5:00 sharp on Friday, it will be considered (late nominations won’t be accepted).

The U.S. Chamber BCLC and Siemens seek applications from communities that have committed to achieving complementary economic, environmental, and social goals that will help build long-term competitiveness and success. Criteria are further described in the nomination form.

Meanwhile, information and photos from past winners are available online. Please email BCLC if you have any questions about the awards.

If you are planning to submit a nomination for the 2010 Siemens Sustainable Awards, please note the application deadline is extended until Feb. 12th (original deadline – Jan. 31).

In the past two years, 16 U.S. communities have ascended to national attention for their local efforts to blend economic, environmental, and social priorities and advance the overall sustainability and long-term success of the community. This is what the Siemens Sustainable Community Awards is all about.

Here is the type of information we seek for the 2010 nominations:

Read more…

We at BCLC want to help you get a jumpstart on 2010 by letting you know about some great upcoming opportunities related to corporate citizenship, CSR, and sustainability. 

Business Excellence: BCLC offers two awards programs to honor the social and civic efforts of companies and their government and nonprofit partners. The Siemens Sustainable Community Awards program recognizes public-private coalitions for taking on the 21st century challenge of sustainable development.  Be sure to nominate (PDF) your local sustainability efforts by Jan. 29, 2010.

The Corporate Citizenship Awards honor companies for excellence in four categories – U.S. Community Service, International Community Service, Business-Nonprofit Partnerships, and Corporate Stewardship. The 2010 nomination period will begin in March. In the meantime, learn more about the 2009 winners and finalists.

Big Issues, Concrete Action – As an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, you can be sure BCLC will always bring the business voice to the table. Some of the issues that remain our strategic focus in 2010 include sustainability, community resiliency, global aid reform, community development, business and society relations. Visit our website’s different program portals for more information.

Thought Leadership – BCLC staff members and strategic advisors are public speakers and writers about leading corporate citizenship and CSR topics. Visit our Articles page and Staff/Advisors page to read recent articles and learn more about BCLC’s network of experts.

Connections and Networking – Whether you attend a conference or a webinar, participate in BCLC’s corporate working groups, or contribute to any one of our communication outlets, BCLC gives you an established platform to amp your corporate citizenship story. Check out — and participate in — this blog, our events, and the Company Library for a sampling of how BCLC connects people and ideas.

Happy New Year, and we can’t wait to work with you more in 2010.

Yesterday I wrote about a program by Health Care Services Corporation that helps foster health-conscious youth. Today’s post is about a corporate-nonprofit partnership formed to foster yet another positive quality in youth: acceptance of those who are different from you. 

6% of all U.S. children under the age of 12 have a disability resulting in functional limitation. Yet, in many communities, no fully inclusive playgrounds exist.

This means that a large population of children is currently excluded from playground play, one of the fundamental and essential parts of being a kid. Barriers such as these add to the considerable struggles that children with disabilities and their families already face in connecting with their communities.

CVS Caremark has partnered with Boundless Playgrounds, Inc.  for the past four years to bring more inclusive playgrounds to communities across the country. 

CVS Caremark’s signature giving program is “All Kids Can,” a five-year, $25 million commitment to make life easier for children with disabilities and to raise awareness about the importance of inclusion. Meanwhile, Boundless Playgrounds’ mission is to build inclusive playgrounds where children with and without disabilities can play together.

Given their common goals, CVS Caremark selected Boundless Playgrounds as a national partner when the All Kids Can program began in 2006, and so far has donated more than $2.75 million dollars to Boundless Playgrounds. CVS Caremark employees have also contributed to the planning and/or construction of more than 50 Boundless playgrounds across the country. CVS Caremark’s partnership also extends to the board level, where the company’s senior vice president, advertising and marketing, Rob Price, volunteers his expertise while serving on the board of Boundless Playgrounds.

Today, thousands of children are able to experience the joy of playing at Boundless playgrounds across the country. The inclusive playgrounds benefit both children with disabilities and their families, as well as other children – who often shed stereotypes about people with disabilities, form friendships with children with disabilities, and learn that those with disabilities are not so different from themselves, and in fact, have their own unique strengths and abilities.

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Meet Hardy Heart. He’s a wise guy … an OrganWise guy, and his job is to help foster health-conscious youth. 

Childhood obesity is a chronic problem, with 32% of children today considered overweight. Obesity at all ages has dire implications for individual health, creating an enormous strain on healthcare costs. Individuals, employers, and communities are all impacted by the costs, both financial and personal, of obesity. 

In 2006, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) piloted a school-based program to teach children to make positive choices that help them take care of their own bodies. 

Using imaginative and humorous characters based on the organs of the body, the HCSC OrganWiseGuys Community Outreach program inspires children to follow four rules: “low fat, high fiber, lots of water, exercise!”

The OrganWise Guys program is correlated with school standards in each of the states in which HCSC does business as the local Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan. HCSC funds the OrganWise Guys core kit for elementary schools with at least a 50% free lunch participation.  The kit includes books, videos, interactive games, and an OrganWise doll, available in various ethnicities. 

HCSC wanted to invest in a program that showed results. The company piloted the OrganWise Guys program in Texas with 20 schools. It was received so well by teachers and civic leaders that the program was expanded to four other states. Comprehensive research based on a four-year study showed statistically significant improvements in weight and blood pressure measures, as well as in test scores, of  children participating in OWG program schools.

Teachers embrace the program because it is easy to integrate into the classroom, often coming up with creative ways to incorporate OWG characters into lesson plans, such as organizing school plays around the characters or holding poster competitions.

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When treatment systems recycle wastewater into clean water, cities like Lima, Peru, are able to safely irrigate nearly 1,000 acres of farmland per day. This is a prime example of how one of BCLC’s 2009 Corporate Stewardship Award finalists addresses a pressing global issue: water scarcity. 

ITT is a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company that specializes in water and fluids management,  global defense and security, and motion and flow control.  It is also a company helping to bring safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education to more than 300 schools in Asia and Latin America – improving the lives of more than 100,000 children and their families.

ITT is committed to safeguarding the climate, communities, and resources while also focusing on sustainable growth and development. Additional ways the company took on the water challenge in 2008 included:

* Supported 52 schools in Latin America and Asia with safe water, sanitation and hygiene, directly impacting

A council meeting to plan a new well and its management

more than 36,000 students.

* Provided safe water to more than 190,000 people following emergencies.

* Sent the first wave of ITT volunteers to Honduras and Guatemala in April 2009 to work alongside Water For People’s team of World Water Corps workers to evaluate water availability, sanitation conditions and hygiene practices, take photographs, collect water samples, and interview students and community members in towns needing assistance

Read more…

Ford was another finalist in the 2009 Corporate Citizenship Awards program is Ford, along with its nonprofit partner, the National Latino Children Institute. Like UPS, Ford and NLCI also have a road safety program. This one, called Corazon de mi vida, is dedicated to protecting children as they ride in vehicles with their parents.

More on the partnership:

Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for Latino children; most are due to improper or lack of use of child passenger safety (CPS) restraint systems (car seats, safety belts, etc.).  Contributing factors include economic, cultural and language barriers. 

Since 2003 Ford Motor Company Fund and the NLCI have joined forces with a nationwide network of safety advocates and community groups to raise awareness among Latinos about the important role safety seats and seat belts play in saving children’s lives.

The Corazón CPS model was developed after conducting focus groups with Latinos in 12 cities which found, among other things, that mothers believed children were safer in their laps than in a car seat and that there was a cultural and linguistic divide. For many, the notion of having their newborn ride in the back seat facing backwards came across as cold and distant. 

As such, it was important to ensure Corazón tackled such misperceptions through in-culture instruction.  The research-based Corazón model consists of components that address the cultural nuances of Hispanics.  It takes place during a weeklong series of events aimed at training local bilingual technicians and providing information and car seats to families.  Both components are done in an in-culture context as follows:

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Last week UPS won the 2009 U.S. Community Service Award, part of our annual Corporate Citizenship Awards, for a teen safe-driving program that models the safety techniques of its global corps of drivers. Lisa Hamilton, who is an originator of the community program, happily accepted the award (watch Lisa’s video remarks).

The teen-focused program is called “Road Code.” Here’s the story:

UPS Road Code is a national program designed to teach safe-driving techniques to teens. Developed by UPS and the UPS Foundation, the program helps prevent teen injuries and deaths by teaching the defensive driving skills that make UPS drivers the safest on the road.  UPS safety and training experts adapted UPS’s world-class defensive driving methods, including the interactive tools developed for UPS’s newest generation of drivers, into UPS Road Code.

Road Code is a four-week teen safe-driving course. During one session per week, UPS’s volunteer driving experts present two hours of classroom instruction to young people ages 13 -18 at their local Boys & Girls Club.

Parental involvement is key and at the end of the final session, students, parents, and UPS volunteers participate in a graduation ceremony. Top achievers are recognized with small incentives. Each student receives a UPS Road Code certificate. Parents also receive a copy of the Novice Driver’s Road Map safe driving booklet. 

In support, the UPS Foundation has given Boys & Girls Clubs of America a three-year $1.5 million grant to bring this program to teenagers across the U.S.  And UPS’s most famous driver, David Ragan, serves as a spokesperson for the program.

In this first year, more than 150 UPS volunteers will reach 1,200 teens in 10 U.S. markets through Road Code, and plans are in place for expansion in 2010. 

Both UPS and The Boys & Girls Clubs have received positive feedback from teen participants and UPS volunteers, along with requests from across the country to expand the program to additional sites. Importantly, the program is changing behaviors, making teens — and their parents — more safe on the road.

Read more…