Principality’s £100k fund to help young
PRINCIPALITY Building Society has committed £100,000 to charities and community organisations to help young people across Wales.
The mutual has partnered with Community Foundation Wales (CFW) to supply grants of up to £5,000 for projects under the Future Generations Fund that will encourage young people to prepare skills for their future world of work, personal finances, finding employment, and living more sustainable lives.
Established in 1999, Community Foundation Wales awards provides more than £2.6m each year to charities and community groups to strengthen communities across Wales.
Vicky Wales, chief customer officer at Principality, said:“We have made a long-term commitment to help educate young people about finance to help prepare them for the future for almost a decade but this is the start of one of the biggest social ventures we have ever undertaken as a business.
“Thousands of households in Wales are considered to be living in relative poverty and with the support of CFW we want to reach the most vulnerable groups to develop their training skills to make them more employable, support their mental health and wellbeing, improve their financial understanding to be able to budget to have a more secure future, and build environmental, social and conservation awareness.
“Our view is that leading businesses in Wales such as ourselves should take the lead to help create a much fairer and co-operative society.
“It is impossible to do this alone and that is why we are proud that we will be able to collaborate with lots of community groups across the country who are doing such great work to help young people who need it most.”
Richard Williams, chief executive of Community Foundation Wales, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Principality, an organisation that shares our values and passion for strengthening communities in Wales.
“This new fund will provide muchneeded support for community groups and charities to make an even bigger difference to lives in Wales.”
Formed more than 20 years ago Community Foundation has invested more than £30m into local Welsh communities.
Moreover, Principality Building Society has become carbon neutral in its operations as it starts its long-term goal of reaching net zero status. It plans to reach net zero status by 2030.
This will be achieved through activities including reducing travel, use of paper, and ensuring its head office and branches are more sustainable, the mutual has said.
A company can achieve a carbonneutral status by purchasing carbon reduction credits which are equivalent to emissions released.
Principality partnered with ClimatePartner, which helps measure and accurately calculate the CO2 emissions from the firm’s operations, to help it become carbon neutral.
The emissions are offset by supporting a hydropower project in Virunga National Park in the Republic of Congo, which generates clean power for four million people who previously had no electricity.
Achieving a net zero status for the mutual will mean reducing emissions in line with latest climate science and balancing remaining emissions through carbon removal credits.
Julie-Ann Haines, chief executive at Principality, said: “This is new territory for us – the first steps of an exciting journey for our colleagues, and we are learning all the time about how we can be a better business for our environment here in Wales and globally.
“Our work with ClimatePartner will help us to understand what more we
need to measure, so that we can achieve our goal of becoming net zero in our operations by 2030.
“There is a team of environmental champions at Principality who keep the executives and board on their toes by telling us where we can improve, and a sustainability team who are driving us forward and training colleagues.”
Ms Haines added: “Switching to renewable energy, reducing travelling by working from home, using less paper, and ensuring our premises are more sustainable, are some of the ways we hope will help us to achieve our goals.
Emilien Hoet, head of ClimatePartner UK said: “It is always exciting to work with companies from day one, as they embark on their sustainability journey. Principality has shown a great eagerness to operate in a way that takes the future of our planet to heart.”