Star Refrigeration Show Social Responsibility Credentials With Community Involvement Programme

Star’s Community Involvement Programme embodies the company’ commitment to supporting charitable, educational and community development projects.

Star Refrigeration have reinforced their social credentials with the introduction of the Star Community Involvement Programme (SCIP), a formal corporate scheme which has been recently rolled out across the company to formalise their long-standing commitment to socially beneficial programmes and practices.

While Star have been dedicated to fulfilling their social responsibility obligations since the company was first founded, nearly fifty years ago, the introduction of the official programme is further enhancing the opportunities for local development, revitalisation and growth by encouraging staff to help invest and give back to the communities the company operates in.

Star Community Involvement Programme is aimed at supporting charitable efforts, educational initiatives and community development projects all over Britain. It was instigated by the company’s Group’s Managing Director, Dr Andy Pearson with the express purpose of encouraging and enabling departments within the organisation to give something back to their local community.

Dr Pearson said, “SCIP support can take the form of funding, resources or time dedicated towards furthering a good cause that is in some way connected to the department or branch itself. The programme is open to any branch, office or department as long as the lead applicant is both a Star employee and personally connected to the cause, with registered charities and established educational organisations preferred targets of support.”

Star Community Involvement Programme has been running for a couple of years and in that time has supported a wide range of beneficial causes, fundraisers and schemes. To date Star has contributed over £10,000 to the good causes proposed by staff, not counting the time and material support also given. Here are a handful of ways in which donations from the SCIP have helped local projects, charitable endeavours and educational drives, enriching the communities through positive action.

• Macmillan Cancer Support. In September 2018, the Derby and London branches of Star Refrigeration held a coffee and cake morning complete with delicious baked goods, a raffle and prizes. The events raised £548 for Macmillan Cancer Support
• Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS). In support of the great care CHAS provides to families for children with life-shortening conditions, a team of 15 staff from Star Refrigeration’s Thornliebank office signed up for a day of volunteering in May. This involved helping the Robin House Hospice with a day of gardening as part of their spring tidy-up activity.
• Glasgow Kiltwalk 2018. In April 2018, Gary Beckwith of Star’s Bellshill branch completed the Kiltwalk, which was the biggest in its history and attracted over 10,000 participants. Gary raised just over £2700 for Chris’ House, a suicide awareness charity.
• Glasgow Kiltwalk 2017. To commemorate their late father Billy Campbell, who had served as executive director of Star Refrigeration, his daughters undertook the Kiltwalk in 2017 and raised an incredible £7,350 for the British Heart Foundation. Star aided their efforts with a donation from the SCIP fund.
• International Women in Engineering Day. In June 2017, Star organised an educational event at St Thomas Primary School in Glasgow to raise awareness about the valuable roles and rewarding careers that women can have in the refrigeration industry.
• Johnstone Jets Youth Cycling Club. George Hamilton, a draughtsman in the Thornliebank design department, received a grant of £500 in 2017 to finance the training of two new coaches for the youth arm of his cycling club.
• Diverse Abilities. Operations training manager Dave Bartlett recently set himself the goal of running 12 half-marathons in as many months and, along with the help of his daughter Abigail and the support of SCIP, not only achieved his own target of finishing a half-marathon in less than two hours, but also raised £1,575 for the charity.

In addition to the cases mentioned above, Star has also provided financial support, resources and staff time to a community theatre, a choir, a respite home, several junior sports clubs and other charities. In this way, Star hopes to continue to help revitalise local communities and ensure that youngsters have access to as many opportunities as possible now and in the future.