At BHP, we’re dedicated to giving something back to the communities we work in and to supporting the charities that our staff care passionately about.
We’re proud to provide our people with lots of fundraising and volunteering opportunities to enhance their experience at work, and we’ve enjoyed a full summer of CSR activity.
It all started with our Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in May, when 58 of us travelled up to the Yorkshire Dales to take on the peaks of Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. Almost everyone completed the gruelling 24.5-mile route and the team collectively raised more than £20,000 for charities across the UK, which was a really fantastic effort by everyone involved.
The event was a huge success and you can get a sense of the achievement in our video here.
Back in June, the whole team got together in person for an afternoon at the funfair at Bert’s Barrow Farm near Leeds. We organised some fun party games for charity and raised almost £500 for Cavendish Cancer Care and Martin House Children’s Hospice.
In August, we entered a team of 26 runners in the BHP York 10K Corporate Challenge, which is organised in conjunction with Jane Tomlinson’s Run for All. As the main sponsor of the event for the third consecutive year, the pressure was definitely on Team BHP, but everyone did a brilliant job and we won the challenge in a time of 43:29!
Everyone at BHP has the opportunity to take a paid day to carry out voluntary work for charitable organisations, and we took full advantage of the benefit this summer. One group took part in a ‘Wild Work Day’ at Rothwell Country Park in Leeds, and another completed a beach clean in Scarborough.
Our first event in Leeds saw 18 people spend the afternoon removing invasive plants from the park. Despite a few nettle stings and insect bites, the team enjoyed getting stuck in and worked really hard to clear a large patch of Himalayan Balsam from the wooded area.
In September, a group of staff from our York office headed over to the Sea Life Centre in Scarborough and worked all day to clear rubbish from the beach. Our volunteers started off along the sea front and cliff top before making their way to the beach. Some of the rubbish they picked up during the day included a welly, an old football, four umbrellas, a pair of pyjamas, a bucket and lots of plastic and cans. The team did a fantastic job, collecting around 20 bags full of litter – and luckily the weather was kind to them!
There will be even more to report in our next update, with plenty of other activities planned for the coming weeks, so watch this space!
