An Inspiring Year of Adventure
On 14 May 2007, a team sponsored and supported by GKN became the first to fly a powered paraglider above the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest itself. This record breaking flight, piloted by Bear Grylls, was more than just an incredible achievement, it was the focal point and inspiration for a year of extraordinary endeavour by GKN employees around the world.
The Challenge
GKN Mission Everest challenged GKN employees to do more for their communities by raising an additional $500,000 in money and time donations. GKN promised to recognise their local efforts by helping children in Africa. During the year employees far exceeded this target contributing an extra $1.7 million to their communities in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. This was in addition to their usual, long-standing projects to support people in need and the local infrastructure on which they depend.
The African dimension
Meanwhile, in recognition of our employees’ achievements, GKN, working with international charity Global Angels, identified five children’s charities in Africa and contributed $500,000 to provide dormitories, school buildings, fresh water supplies and protection against malaria and other diseases. We will provide a further $500,000 to children’s projects in Africa during 2008.
The Chevron Quest
To support the GKN Mission Everest project, GKN also launched what became known as the Chevron Quest. This was a unique project that saw a gold GKN Chevron visit plants all round the world to provide further stimulus for employees to engage with their communities on a huge scale. The Chevron set off from the Group’s annual European Forum in Paris in April and during the next seven months it visited 47 GKN facilities in 23 countries travelling a total distance of 148,740 miles — the equivalent of six circumnavigations of the world. From China to the US and from India to the UK, employees rose to the challenge, demonstrating both individual humanity and collective commitment to their communities.
Contributing to our communities
The many stories which demonstrate the compassion shown by our employees are too numerous to describe in this report but a few representative examples are given below. Others are featured on our website www.gknmissioneverest.com.
At our Driveline plants in India the entire workforce donated their earnings for one day to three local projects — to educate children of workers at a nearby brick kiln, to provide facilities for children with disabilities, and to help women learn new skills from which to earn a living. GKN Driveline employees at the Celaya plant in Mexico provided help and support for a local retirement home, made donations of toys to a home for handicapped children and distributed clothes and blankets to the poor during the Mexican winter.
In Germany, GKN employees from Offenbach saved a children’s playground from closure and also completely refurbished it. In the US, GKN Aerospace employees engaged in a similar project to upgrade an important public park in a city neighbourhood for African Americans. Hoeganaes employees played a part in the reconstruction of housing in New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Employees at our Wheels plant in Liuzhou, China, have taken to their hearts children at a local special needs school where they provide practical support, and Sinter employees in South Africa have provided financial and practical help to a children’s home called Molly’s Place. In Australia our Aerospace team established GKN’s Rural Connection to provide relief to communities affected by drought, bushfires, floods and other agricultural issues.
Trekking to base camp
Behind all these efforts lay the inspiration of GKN’s adventures in the Himalayas — not only the record breaking flight but also the GKN Trek. This saw a team of 20 employees come together to trek up to the GKN Mission Everest base camp — at a breathtaking altitude of 4,252 metres. Drawn from all round the world, the trek team played a major role in the flight preparations and embodied the sense of individual and collective endeavour that has characterised all aspects of GKN Mission Everest.
The team drew its members from the entire spectrum of the global GKN team. Several team members had won their place by entering a global competition and others had decided to pay their own way to be part of the adventure. During the trek the team were moved by the plight of an orphanage for girls in Nepal and succeeded in donating funds to complete its refurbishment.
Living the Values
GKN Mission Everest has proved to be an inspirational global success. It has brought the Group closer to the communities around the world in which it operates, it has drawn employees closer together and it has set a record for human achievement. But above all else it has transformed the lives of some of the world’s poorest children. It has also given eloquent expression to GKN’s Values which embody the power of team work and the obligation which companies have to contribute to the wider society of which they are a part.
Inspired by the achievements of GKN Mission Everest, the Group is launching a successor project in 2008 — GKN Hearts of Gold — to encourage and sustain a continuing high level of engagement by GKN people with their local communities and society at large.