Sustainability Report 2009/10

Community Investment

Through engagement with local community members, we let people know about the good things we are doing and ensure we understand their concerns about both our airport operations and wider community issues. This means we can tackle any problems (see the Noise and Air quality sections for further information) and direct investment to where it is most wanted. Our engagement takes a variety of forms, including outreach events, community newsletters and regular dialogue with local schools. All our airports also have independent consultative committees that bring together representatives from local community organisations to discuss airport issues with our senior managers.

Based on our engagement within local neighbourhoods, we have prioritised focus areas for community investment. These vary from airport to airport, but important to all four sites are education and employment and the arts.

Across these areas, our support can take the form of major financial investment, staff time or, through our community funds, smaller grants. Our philanthropy is not limited to these areas, however: if an important cause falls outside these categories, we may still support it. For example, when Oxfam and the Red Cross needed to fly aid packages to Haiti following the devastating earthquake in January 2010, East Midlands Airport was happy to do everything it could to make the flights possible and also waived all airport charges.

Our community investment programme is supported by two important networks: our Community Champions are employees who encourage their colleagues to volunteer and help match up community needs with employee development requirements, and our Airport Community Networks are groups of businesses from across our airports that collaborate on community projects to achieve more than individual companies could alone.

Andrew Cornish, Managing Director of Manchester Airport, was named HRH The Prince of Wales's Ambassador for Corporate Responsibility in the North West 2008-2009. The Ambassador awards recognise business leaders whose commitment to sustainability has inspired significant changes both within and beyond their companies. In his role as Ambassador, Andrew has led various community events including Seeing is Believing visits. These bring together executives from MAG and other local businesses to witness for themselves the social challenges faced in deprived areas. Andrew has led six visits, involving all his direct reports as well as over 30 local business leaders, and inviting them to join the community support groups he has set up to tackle these challenges.