Corporate Social Investment
Our responsibility to the nation.
‘Corporate Social Investment’ (CSI) is defined as any voluntary activity – in cash or in kind – beyond commercial and legal obligations that contributes to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the communities in which we operate.
In keeping with this definition, our CSI portfolio is designed to influence a wide variety of fields for the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago. Our support ranges from developing programmes to sponsoring the initiatives of hundreds of non-governmental and community-based organisations through grants and contributions.
Central Themes
Our CSI programme is guided by three main themes:
Sport
Many of our programmes are geared towards supporting athletes at the national, regional and international level.
Civic Life
This theme encompasses programmes that aim to enrich public and community life.
Empowerment
Programmes under this theme are designed to promote development by helping people, particularly the young, achieve their potential.
Corporate Contributions
In addition to developing programmes, we also make contributions to support a wide range of initiatives to benefit Trinidad and Tobago. As a result, a portion of our annual budget is specifically dedicated to these types of contributions. We consider all applications for contributions which we receive and use a rigorous screening process to help us evaluate and select beneficiaries. This process takes into account factors such as project sustainability, employee involvement, level of risk to NGC, level of positive impact on society, and relevance to established needs. In order to maximise our impact on communities, the programmes selected typically fit within our three main themes of CSI: sport, civic life and empowerment.
Further value is added through our Employee Volunteerism Programme which encourages employees to contribute their time and effort to the support of CSI programmes. In this way, employees become involved in our mission to enrich the nation and they increase the value of their generous actions by encouraging their families and co-workers to participate as well. Employees also take part in our Public Education Programme and are trained to become NGC Knowledge Ambassadors.
Our CSI Philosophy commits us to:
- being a leader and innovator in the field of CSI
- creating shared value for our company and our multiple stakeholders, with a focus on socio-economic and human development
- exercising responsible stewardship of the aspects of the national patrimony which we manage or which our operations impact
- supporting initiatives which preserve the national identity and heritage
- adopting a stakeholder approach to all CSI activities
- ensuring transparency and equity in our CSI approach and in the execution of all CSI projects
- seeking to be sustainable in the way our daily operations are conducted and in the social interventions we develop, implement and support