How to connect with your community

“It is always sound business to take any obtainable net gain, at any cost and at any risk to the rest of the community.” A century after American economist Thorstein Veblen penned this phrase, business is looking beyond the rape-and-pillage model. No, they’re not perfect, but the advent of concepts like corporate social responsibility sees them treating their communities a whole lot better.

Given community means different things to us all — our nation, neighbourhoods, and workplaces — it’s not surprising that companies, too, are poles apart in how they define their community. It is the towns or the countries they operate in; it’s their staff, their customers, their stakeholders, but it’s more than that. A cynic might say it’s about looking good. Profile polishing. But Sustainable 60 contenders aren’t just throwing a few bucks to a local charity — they’re connecting with, listening to, involving and giving back to their communities in ways that matter.

Take our biggest company, Fonterra — winner of the Sustainable 60 community category. While its community doesn’t end where the ocean begins, it’s New Zealanders — particularly children, the biggest dairy consumers — who are the heart of its community. So a community-needs meeting was called in 2008 by new corporate marketing manager Sarah Rissell. How might Fonterra do its bit? By concentrating on kids and on what Fonterra is good at. Namely, science and milk.

Today the Fonterra Science Roadshow tours experiments, demos and interactive exhibits to 96 school halls countrywide to get kids excited about science, and to address declining levels of school science achievement.

And, evoking those school-milk days of yore, Fonterra’s KickStart Breakfast scheme serves up a free breakfast (Sanitarium chips in with Weet-Bix) to thousands of kids in 300 low-decile schools once or twice a week. Mushrooming since its April 2008 pilot, KickStart is set to reach 500 schools in 2010 and put a serious dent in an awful stat: that 10% of Kiwi kids start the day hungry.

Yes, there were hurdles to clear first. To avoid stigmatising empty bellies, KickStart was presented as a fun, competition-packed club fronted by cartoon character Eddie. And rather than patronising parents, it got them involved. Mums, dads, teachers and other community members volunteer to help student leaders run the clubs. “The schools and communities really took ownership,” says Rissell.

As did staff. Building support for KickStart through the Fonterra and KSB websites and staff magazine Big Picture, Fonterra also encouraged staff to take part in competitions and a ‘tell us your breakfast stories’ campaign. Out in the countryside, enthused farmers who had read all about KickStart in shareholder publication Farmlink started referring schools and volunteering on KickStart mornings.

Coordinators, parents, teachers and students are kept up to date via the website and e-newsletters, and are regularly interviewed by phone to help fine tune the initiative. This year that’s seen Fonterra answer the call for more curriculum materials.

Another company that can vouch there’s more than a verbal tie between community and communication is Mt Maunganui-based design-and-development company Locus Research. In May, it launched the Sustainable Design Group for New Zealand: a group that represents the local design community and champions sustainable design in Aotearoa.

Although Locus managing director Timothy Allan offloads credit for the idea to the Sustainable Business Network’s Rachel Brown, he admits he has driven the group’s creation. “Rather than send our guys off to volunteer at Trade Aid, we want to influence the products we design that people use all the time.”

At every juncture, Allan has ensured that everyone in New Zealand’s design community knows what’s going on and has a say. In June, the group’s first physical get-together, an educational and professional development forum, got different ‘thought leaders’ — design professionals and design schools — brainstorming the group’s vision, objectives, image, agenda, action plan and management, as well as the future of sustainable design in New Zealand. Such face-to-face meetings can’t be replaced by virtual interaction, Allan says. “They’re how you thrash out the big issues and part of building consensus.”