The ORLEN Unipetrol Group launched an internal volunteer platform for its employees nearly three years ago. In this initiative, employees can submit applications for financial aid for their volunteer projects. More than 160 volunteers have joined these activities, working over 2,450 volunteer hours and implementing more than 100 charity projects nationwide. They focused on various charity activities, including the revitalisation of space for children’s associations, planting trees and greenery on public premises, building relaxation and playing zones, activities for senior citizens, trips for children from a children’s home, and providing help when organising general sports and cultural events.
“Over the three-year existence of the komUNIta platform, we can observe increased employee interest in volunteering. Volunteers from our Group keep coming up with new ideas on how to help in their surroundings. We will always be delighted to support such projects. We have already provided financial support of more than CZK 2.4 million to 90 entities,” says Katarzyna Woś, Vice-chair of the board of directors of the ORLEN Unipetrol Group. She adds: “Thus, we also seek to build good relationships with the citizens in the towns and municipalities around our production sites. This initiative is important to us, and we are happy to see the volunteering excitement and engagement of our employees.”
Any Group employee across the country can register to support a volunteer project using a form on the corporate intranet. Subsequently, ORLEN Unipetrol can provide financial aid to a selected non-profit organisation or institution to implement volunteer activities. The CSR Unit helps with granting financial support and project implementation and guides the volunteers throughout the entire project implementation process.
The volunteering initiative komUNIta follows the previous successful years of regular Volunteer Days held by the ORLEN Unipetrol Group for charities around the Group’s production plants. During Volunteer Days, employees give a helping hand when providing social services, maintaining buildings of non-profit organisations, and the environment.
The ORLEN Unipetrol Group also reaches out with its support to local communities near the locations where it operates with other activities. Each year, the Group provides donations to non-profit organisations as part of the Fulfilled Wishes project, in which over CZK 4 million have already been distributed. The Group also engages children from local primary schools who help anglers release fish into Bílina and Elbe rivers twice a year. The children also participate in honey harvesting at Spolana Neratovice. This year, beekeepers harvested 60 kg of honey. Besides volunteering, employees can also join the ORLEN Unipetrol employee sports club, within which the Group donates money to charity for each run or biked kilometre or other sports activity units.
The ORLEN Unipetrol Group is the largest refining and petrochemical company in the Czech Republic. It focuses on crude oil processing and the production, distribution and sale of vehicle fuels and petrochemical products – particularly plastics and fertilisers. It belongs among the key players on the Czech and Central European markets in all these areas. The ORLEN Unipetrol Group encompasses refineries and production plants in Litvínov and Kralupy nad Vltavou, Paramo in Pardubice, Spolana in Neratovice, REMAQ in Otrokovice, and two research centres in Litvínov and Brno. ORLEN Unipetrol also includes the ORLEN Benzina network of petrol stations in the Czech Republic and the ORLEN network in Slovakia and Hungary. ORLEN Unipetrol is one of the largest companies in the Czech Republic in terms of turnover. It employs almost 6,000 people. ORLEN Unipetrol is also a socially responsible company, particularly in the areas of supporting sustainable development, education, local communities and the environment. In 2005, ORLEN Unipetrol became part of the ORLEN Group, the largest oil refiner in Central Europe.