On Tuesday, October 25^th, 2011 Chamber CSR Committee held its meeting devoted to presentation of the Corporate Code of Conduct by Carlsberg Ukraine as well as presentation of YMCA’s activity in Ukraine.

Yurii Bykoriz, Committee Co-Chair, Carlberg Ukraine informed participants that there are four focus areas in the Code of Conduct: human rights, health and safety, environment, and business ethics. In addition to the global Code of Conduct key areas, the Ukrainian document was amended by the paragraph on “business transparency”. This paragraph contains the information that supplier`s business processes must meet the requirements of Ukrainian legislation, particularly the Tax Code.  Namely, the supplier is obligated to transfer tax payments to the budget according to the Tax Code of Ukraine.

In his presentation Mr. Bykoriz demonstrated an example of the Code of Conduct contract signed by 55 suppliers of Carlsberg Ukraine.

As a result of the discussion it has been decided that Chamber CSR Committee will develop a universal Code of Conduct to serve as an example to all Committee members and make it available to the public.

To view the presentation please click here.

Please keep in mind that you have to be logged into the Chamber SharePoint prior to accessing the documents. In order to access the document, please enter you login and password, then return to the Update and click the link.

Continuing the meeting, Tetyana Kotneva, Mariya Polegenka and Oleksiy Blokhanov, YMCA Ukraine gave a presentation on the organization and its activity in Ukraine. YMCA is a youth movement established in London in 1844. There are YMCAs in 124 countries of the world with 45 million members. YMCA Ukraine is a youth movement which is open for everyone. Its activities are based on Christian principles of love, caring, honesty and respect.

Main projects for YMCA Ukraine in 2011-2012 include: creation of sport and recreation centers following the examples of foreign YMCAs, holding international camps (together with YMCAs of Canada, USA, Sweden, England and other countries), development of new kind of sports – floorball (floor hockey), «Don’t Laugh At Me» program – creating positive violence-free atmosphere in schools, social work in orphanages and boarding houses.

Speakers invited all Chamber members for cooperation and help in the development of youth and children as volunteers, partners or donors.

To view the presentation please click here.

Participants were also updated on Corporate Volunteering Conference and Corporate Volunteering Award held by East Europe Foundation aimed at recognizing and celebrating businesses with employee volunteering programs that are helping to solve vital problems in society. The initiative is also aimed at promoting volunteering among Ukrainian companies. For more information about the contest please click here.

We would like to encourage all interested Members to participate in the next Meeting and/or to suggest additional agenda item for discussion at the Meeting.

If you or one of your colleagues would like to participate in the Chamber CSR Committee Meetings and receive informational updates, please feel free to contact Antonina Kanchiy, Chamber Policy Officer (Committees).

It was devoted to the discussion of the following issues on the agenda:

I. Mr. Anton Usov, EBRD, Principal Advisor, highlighted the EBRD’s activities in financing, controlling and developing the project on overcoming the consequences of Chornobyl disaster at the present time. 

Mr. Usov briefed the Committee members on the history and main projects of the EBRD’s involvement into transformation of the Chernobyl disaster sight. Back in 1997 EBRD became the fund manager of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, a financial institution established for collecting and allocating donor commitments of international community. Since that time, following the step-by-step strategy, more than 297 activities have been implemented, which were aimed at the reducing the risk of imminent collapse and creating conditions for the construction of the New Safe Confinement, a new shelter for reactor 4.

The total cost for the Shelter Implementation Plan will be €1.54 billion. The New Safe Confinement is the biggest project under this complex action plan and will cost about two thirds of the total amount. Another major project is the construction of the spent fuel storage facility, which will provide dry storage for the more than 20,000 spent fuel assemblies from operations in reactors 1-3 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

These projects are realized with the help of the Project Management Unit (PMU) team, a subdivision of the state specialized enterprise “Chernobyl NPP”. PMU unites 200 Ukrainian and foreign specialists, working in the 1 km zone from the object Shelter and responding to the unique environmental, engineering and construction challenges of Chernobyl area. According to recent estimates, the New Safe Confinement construction project will be accomplished by 2015, with some preliminary construction stages to start as early as October, 2011. 

Please click here to download the presentation (ENG).

II. Ms. Anna Danyliuk, UN Global Compact, Coordinator, delivered a presentation “Environmental Initiatives within the Global Compact Network Ukraine”. 

In response to growing interest in corporate social responsibility in Ukraine, Global Compact Network Ukraine was initiated by the United Nations Office in 2006 and includes more than 180 members to date, represented by various stakeholders: businesses (multinationals and Ukrainian), business associations, NGOs, trade unions and employers’ organizations. GC Working Group on Environment was established to promote environmental issues in general CSR agenda. Its activities are aimed to stir collective action not only implementing environmentally-friendly initiatives on the company level, but as a business community as a whole.

For achieving its goals, Global Compact has developed and realized a number of effective campaigns:

• “Go Green” National Campaign. This initiative has the objective to raise awareness on ecological issues, promote changes in individual and corporate attitude to them and also reinforce the dialogue on climate change with participation of Government, business and public sector.
• Social Advertising. So far 3 social advertising campaigns took place: Campaign I: “You are Dangerously Armed” (2008), Campaign II: “Seal the Deal” (2009) and Campaign III: “We are cutting them out of our lives”.
• Green Office Initiative. Started off with the training “Green Office” for GC Members on the main concepts of responsible resource use, which was followed by GO brochure containing theory and case studies of Ukrainian companies. Starting in June 2011 Green Office 2.0 will be conducted.
• All Ukrainian Business Summit on Climate Change. Business summits on climate change which already took place in 2009 and 2010 united more than 650 participants from Ukrainian and multinational companies, NGOs, expert and international community.

Ms. Danyliuk emphasized that green technologies implementation in the corporate world can be used as a tool for cost savings, building corporate and brand reputation, improving employees and community health and sustaining the market in the long-run.

Please click here to download the presentation (ENG).

III. Ms. Galyna Panchenko, Kommersant Newspaper, Project Manager, presented a new long-term Project “EcoBusiness” launched by the Kommersant Newspaper.

Ms. Panchenko informed the participants that the Kommersant Newspaper has initiated a brand new project “EcoBusiness” which will serve as a professional platform for the companies operating in Ukraine where they would be able to share information, experience, ideas, and best practices in the sphere of making business in Ukraine “green”. She appealed to the audience with the provoking questions of how everyone can contribute to the energy and resources efficiency. Ms. Panchenko shared a couple of bright examples and numbers demonstrating that each company and its single employee have a choice to make their business activity “green”.

Moreover, Ms. Panchenko highlighted the favorable conditions, including introduction of “green tariff”, benefits for “green” investments, State Program on Energy Efficiency for 2010-2015 which are now developed in Ukraine and create a good basis for the further ecological business practices.

“EcoBusiness” is a new far-reaching project of the publishing house “Kommersant Ukraine” which aims at uniting representatives of business and ecological experts for the further cooperation on implementing new ecological projects in Ukraine, sharing innovative decisions, ideas, and ecological experience etc. Also Ms. Panchenko mentioned the key topics of the Project and information and promotional tools which could be used in its framework.

Please click here to download the presentation (RUS).

IV. Ms. Marichka Kucherenko, Galnaftogaz Concern PJSC, delivered a presentation "Development and Implementation of the Complex Ecological Program Based on the Example of “Green Office” Initiative of Concern Galnaftogaz”.

Ms. Kucherenko informed the participants about the Galnaftogaz Concern’s business and operation activities in Ukraine as socially responsible and “green”.  She explained the concept of “green office”, its aims and fundamentals. Ms. Kucherenko highlighted the audience on the main stages of “Go Green” project implementation on the corporate internal and external levels. She stressed the activities which were used during the project implementation and development, its results, and value.

Ms. Kucherenko concluded with the benefits which a company gets from “Go Green” projects among which there are creation of positive corporate image, significant cost saving opportunities, and, last but not least important, changes in behavior and attitude to more environment friendly and responsible. At the very end of her presentation Ms. Kucherenko gave some pieces of advice how to practically implement “Go Green” projects and shared with the participants the informational tools and best practices which are used by Galnaftogaz Concern in communications with its employees, clients, and partners.

Please click here to download the presentation (UKR).

On March 11^th, 2011 the Chamber CSR Committee held its meeting with participation of People`s Deputy Ms. Ksenia Liapina, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Industrial and Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship. 

The meeting was devoted to the presentation of the Draft Concept of the National Strategy of Business Social Responsibility in Ukraine developed by the Consultative Council under Parliamentary Committee. Please click here to view the document (UKR). 

Please keep in mind that you have to be logged into the Chamber SharePoint prior to accessing the documents. In order to access the document, please enter you login and password, then return to the Update and click the link. 

In her speech Ms. Liapina briefed the participants on the work on Draft Concept being done within the Parliamentary Committee for more than a year now, involving different groups of stakeholders, such as scientists, NGOs and businesses. The main driver of the efforts was the idea to provide a legislative definition of Corporate Social Responsibility and other issues connected with it, since the current legislation lacks it and thus any preferences for the companies engaging in CSR are not possible to adopt.  

Draft Concept of the National Strategy is aimed to lay the ground for the formalization of the process of CSR understanding in Ukrainian society as according to the statistical data revealed after conducting polls, the level of CSR comprehension in Ukraine is very low. 

The document was based on the new international standard on Corporate Responsibility ISO 26 000, which offers guidance on socially responsible behaviors and possible actions. 

As the Draft Concept stipulates, CSR in Ukrainian society shall function on three levels: 

1. Adhering to the lawful commitments to the state and society (payment of taxes, protection of health and labor protection, labor rights, consumer rights and ecological norms) as well as industries` standards.
2. Minimization of elimination of the negative impact of businesses upon the society and risks management (e.g. human rights infringement or environmental pollution).
3. Strengthening positive impact of businesses upon the society and formation of values through innovations, investment and partnership aimed at social and ecological welfare (e.g. creation of workplaces, social and economic development, resolving of disputes).   

While talking about the ways to make the draft document as a piece of legislation, Ms. Liapina mentioned that such conceptual document could be adopted by a Decree of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Parliamentary Committee has had negotiations with First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Ms. Iryna Akimova on the issue. 

Special attention was given to the issue of awareness raising and facilitating to the creation of the common understanding of CSR in Ukraine by all interested parties, especially bringing issues of CSR importance to the attention of the Ukrainian Government.  

Ms. Liapina called on Chamber CSR Committee members to get involved into the process of providing the input and recommendations to the Draft Concept as well as active advocating for its official status as one of the important components of investment favorable state.   

Discussing the issue of the possible support that the Chamber could provide in advocating for the adoption of the CSR legislation basis in Ukraine, the participants resolved to come up with the list of specific examples – CSR cases already implemented by Chamber Member Companies as part of the awareness raising efforts. The list will be incorporated as a Special Annex to the Draft Concept as examples of the CSR best practices for educational purposes of forming positive attitude of the government and society towards socially responsible companies.   

Please click here to view the minutes of the Meeting.

If you or one of your colleagues would like to participate in the Chamber CSR Committee Meetings and receive informational updates, please feel free to contact Valeria Tsyganenko, Chamber Committee Coordinator.

The Committee members emphasized the importance of socially responsible business and availability of non-financial reporting for companies, especially for the ones listing shares, and mentioned the necessity to focus the Committee activities on the development and promotion of CSR best practices in Ukraine. 

The participants were able to get acquainted with the results of the CSR Committee Survey completed by the willing members which was used as the basis for defining the priorities of the Committee for 2011. 

Please click here to view the presentation of the results.   

Please keep in mind that you have to be logged into the Chamber SharePoint prior to accessing the documents. In order to access the document, please enter you login and password, then return to the Update and click the link. 

The Committee members resolved that they would like the Committee to be involved in the lobbying activities on behalf of the business community that the Chamber represents, as well as providing environment for presenting best CSR practices as a good opportunity for other companies to learn the experiences. 

Above the CSR aspects, mentioned in results of the Survey, the Committee members also mentioned such issues worth attention of the Committee as: 

• protection of the labor rights and necessity to attract the attention of the government towards the compliance of the requirements set out in UN Global Compact and UN Declaration of Human Rights.     
• ethics of advertising as the component of socially responsible business. Committee members agreed to conduct meetings for sharing best practices of the so-called “responsible marketing”. 
• improvement of the legislation in the sphere of taxation of charity programs.   

The participants agreed to organize all next meetings of the Committee devoted to certain CSR topics of common interest to the Chamber Member Companies in order to learn the best international experiences. 

We would like to encourage all interested Members to participate in the next meetings and/or suggest issues, which could be raised for discussion or highlighted as the experience worth sharing with other Chamber companies. 

The Committee agreed to devote the next meeting scheduled for Friday, March 11, 4:00PM to the discussion of the work on the development of CSR legislation base in Ukraine and particularly invite as a guest speaker Ms. Ksenia Liapina, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Industrial and Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship. 

Please also note the preliminary planned dates and topics of the next Committee meetings, subject to later confirmation: 

• Consideration of environmental issues – Friday, April 8, 4:00PM;
• Responsible marketing – Wednesday, May 18, 4:00PM.   

Please click here to view the minutes of the Meeting.

If you or one of your colleagues would like to participate in the Chamber CSR Committee Meetings and receive informational updates, please feel free to contact Valeria Tsyganenko, Chamber Committee Coordinator.

The Meeting was devoted to the topic of Local Integration of Socially Disadvantaged Groups of People through their Access to Employment. The agenda included the following presentations:   

1. Presentation on Local Integration of Refugees in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine by  Ms. Meliha Hadziabdic, UNHCR Senior Regional Programme Officer and Mr. Sergei Lavrukhin, UNHCR Assistant Program Officer (Local Integration Project). 

Please click here to view the Presentation (ENG). 

Ms. Hadziabdic and Mr. Lavrukhin spoke on the legal definition and description of the notion “refugee”, durable solutions for refugees and their employment. 

Among the covered issues were:  

• Labour rights of refugees in Ukraine;
• Labour market niche for refugees in Ukraine;
• Unique competitive advantages refugees can offer to the employers,
• Programs supporting refugees integration; their benefits for the potential employers of refugees. 

2. Presentation on Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities through Access to Employment by Ms. Olena Ivanova, National Manager and Ms. Olga Inozemtseva, PR Specialist of a joint UNDP, International Labor Organization and Public Employment Service Project, Senior Lecturer at  the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. 

Please click here to view the presentation (ENG). 

The Chamber Members had an opportunity to learn firsthand:

• How to get benefits of a meeting a requirement of a 4-percent quota to provide jobs for people with disabilities according to Ukrainian legislation;
• How to find new subordinates with disabilities who will meet employer’s requirements and whose professionalism and responsibility will make employer feel confident about.  

If you or one of your colleagues would like to participate in the Chamber HR or CSR Committee Meetings and receive informational updates, please feel free to contact Yaroslava Marusyk, Chamber HR Committee Coordinator or Valeria Tsyganenko, Chamber CSR Committee Coordinator.

1. Organization "International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine" presented the Project "Improving children's health by involving children into a healthy and active lifestyle, including primary HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support activities based on Scouts' movement in Ukraine" aimed at improving the health of children by supporting Scouts' movement and also primary HIV/AIDS prevention and focused care and support for the children affected by HIV/AIDS. 
   Please click here to view the presentation.
2. Organization "Children of Chernobyl" presented the Telemedicine Project, aimed at connecting the pediatric cardiologists in Ukraine and worldwide for increased patient comfort, instantaneous consultations, expert and accurate diagnosis, exposing medical personnel to new methods and the best world medical institutions. 
   Please click here to view the presentation.
3. Organization "Child Wellbeing Fund" presented the Project "Aflatoun, Child Social & Financial Education in Ukraine" aimed at giving knowledge and skills to children, which help them to control and manage their own lives and offered within this Project to assist in distribution of the game technologies for children, directed at learning save behavior, child's trafficking prevention, saving child health and the health of others. The Project presupposes conducting trainings for adults on usage of the games in communication with children. 
   Please click here to view the presentation.
4. Organization "MAMA 86" presented the Project "Demonstration Centre of the Ecologically Friendly Technologies" aimed at creating, maintaining and servicing the information and demonstration centre of ecologically friendly technologies for dwelling and household activities. 
   Please click here to view the presentation.
5. Organization "ISAREdnannya" presented general information about the organization and its projects, namely "School of Community Funds" and "Worthy being for country dwellers". 
   Please click here to view the presentation
6. Organization "Greencubator" presented general information about the organization and its projects.

The Committee Members expressed their comments on the presentations and agreed to consider additional Project proposals before choosing one Project for further implementation.

At the beginning the Committee Members mentioned the importance of CSR initiatives development and stressed the role of the local and international businesses in the foundation and further development of philanthropy and charity in Ukraine. The main factors preventing the successful implementation the CSR initiatives came out from current legal framework including taxes to be paid for making donations, lack of cooperation between business structures and the NGOs, as well as absence of socially responsible business, capable of achieving social aims beneficial for the population, society and business itself.

Further, the Committee Members discussed the idea of the project “From Words to Deeds” aimed at setting up NGOs/charitable programs in local communities and developing consolidated and systematic approach to the existing charitable programs from CSR community. The process of project implementation includes determination of the corporate CSR priority issues for the Member Companies and further cooperation with an experienced charitable organization to design, implement, monitor and evaluate a sustainable, community-based social investment project from start to finish. The Committee Members determined the three CSR priorities, namely environmental protection, health and child care and education and agreed to further invite speakers from the charitable organizations capable of presenting their vision on the implementation of the above mentioned project within the three priority directions.

• The aim of the Project is to encourage a long-term employee engagement into systematic CSR activities within the Chamber;
• Before launching, the CSR Committee Members will be able to choose between several options (e.g. orphanage) where the Project might be realized;
• Maintaining volunteer and mentorship training within “Volunteer & Mentor School”;
• Project successes reporting on a monthly base.

2.      Discussion of the CSR Committee priorities, goals and objectives according to the Chamber CSR Committee Survey results.

 3.      Presentation prepared by All-Ukrainian Charity Organization "Peer to Peer"(UKR), speaker Ms. Natalia Leschuk, Chairwoman.

Special attention was given to transformation of orphanage system in Ukraine. Mrs. Tatiana Kondratyuk explained peculiarities of government policy towards facilitation of child adoption. Committee participants, who, in terms of their social responsibility programs, support orphanages, had excellent opportunity to pose questions, or to share information on current problems of orphanages and to give some practical advice to the Ministry.

Mrs. Tatiana Kondratyuk was very satisfied with the professionalism and involvement of the Chamber Members into social policies, and invited the Chamber to join the Ministry's Public Council.