AmcoGiffen has entered into a partnership with national waterways charity Canal & River Trust to connect and enhance communities with the local environment, as part of their social value strategy.
The aim of this partnership is to create a library of community impact activities for AmcoGiffen’s maintenance teams to pick up and complete wherever they are working. Much of the work is reactive which means that social value is difficult to plan. This relationship will provide those teams with ready-made opportunities to deliver social value easily.
The agreement was signed at a special celebratory event at Britain’s longest, deepest, highest canal tunnel – Standedge Tunnel, in Marsden, near Huddersfield, a wonder of the 2,000-mile waterway network, which is looked after by the Canal & River Trust.
Attendees from AmcoGiffen and Canal & River Trust joined together to mark the start of the partnership. The idea behind the agreement is to connect and enhance communities with the local environment. As part of their social value commitments, AmcoGiffen will assist the Trust with projects where the charity would otherwise struggle to deliver these with their core funding.
In return, the Trust will be supporting AmcoGiffen with training and upskilling their team with specialist skills such as dry-stone walling.
As part of the partnership, AmcoGiffen has agreed to use its people’s well-placed skills and capabilities to carry out de-vegetation, repairs and maintenance, removal of graffiti, dry-stone walling and other small projects that can be completed using their community impact days (three per employee per year).
The agreement will start in Canal & River Trust’s Yorkshire & North East region and the aim is to extend it to the North West and West Midlands regions later. The agreement also aligns with AmcoGiffen’s social value commitments made to Network Rail for CP7 in bids.
Carl Chandler, National Principal Social Value Lead, AmcoGiffen, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to work together with clients as a social value partner to deliver meaningful outcomes for communities. It will allow us to deliver more than in isolation and share best practice with bigger outcomes.
“We recognise the importance of being in and around nature to benefit mental health and wellbeing and it’s of great value to communities that we help to look after and enhance the waterways to maintain outdoor space for people to thrive.”
Sean McGinley, director North East & Yorkshire for Canal & River Trust, said: “Our charity is working hard to develop innovative ways to continue looking after our 250-year-old canal network and historic assets and we’re delighted to be working in this new social value partnership with AmcoGiffen.
“We look forward to taking this exciting opportunity forward that will benefit our charity and AmcoGiffen by sharing best practice, skills and time while helping to look after waterways so they can continue to be enjoyed by millions of visitors and communities year round.”
AmcoGiffen carries out tunnel maintenance work on behalf of Network Rail at Standedge Tunnel. The tunnel is Britain’s longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel into which visitors can take boat trips, led by the Trust. A special educational guided tour was given to attendees and several AmcoGiffen civil engineering apprentices as part of the event.
The agreement is a crucial element of the community pillar of AmcoGiffen’s five-year social value strategy cleverly maximising cross-client, cross-border opportunities. It eliminates piecemeal and ad-hoc activities and brings about greater value and benefit for all.
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