Heineken has become the latest major brand to start using a social platform that unites businesses with local community causes, projects and charities.
The brewer joins M&S and Starbucks among those organisations contributing their time, resources or funding to the scheme.
Neighbourly.com enables businesses to find causes that matter to them, manage their contributions, generate and receive content and measure the value of their participation.
Heineken’s involvement will see more than 2,000 employees across its seven UK breweries, cider plants and offices given the option to participate in community causes.
M&S, for example, has been using the scheme for several initiatives, including tackling food waste.
Projects in the area of food and nutrition include the Dalgarno Trust Food Bank in Kensington & Chelsea, Joseph’s Storehouse in Loughborough and Foyle Food Bank in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Heineken will focus on community engagement and give staff the chance to vote on local causes that matter most to them.
Heineken UK corporate relations director Jeremy Beadles said the company’s sites had been at the heart of local communities for years so it was “really important” it played its part in making them better places to live and work.
“With seven sites across the UK our partnership with Neighbourly will really help us connect with great local community causes around our sites so we can make sure our community investment has a real local impact, but on a national scale,” he explained.
Neighbourly founder Nick Davies said Heineken was a leader in sustainability and community involvement, “pioneering a number of best practices in the area of social responsibility and demonstrating a commitment to reporting and measuring the impact of its efforts”.
This made the company an ideal partner to join the Neighbourly platform, he said.
Neighbourly businesses have pledged about £2.2m, 9,246 volunteer days and 50 tonnes of food surplus and have backed 481 causes since launch in July 2014.
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