Community Investments

Our community investments during FY2010/11, ranged from donations to national and international charities through to grass-root community activities. For example:

In Donora, Pennsylvania in the United States, we donated a new computer to local fire department volunteers. The fire department responds to emergencies at residential, commercial and industrial sites, such as our Donora facility.

Our Swan Hill site, in rural Victoria, Australia donated fertiliser to Tyrrell College's agricultural programme. The unique programme teaches student in years 10 -12 in a hands on environment about the agricultural industry, with students being responsible for cropping over 80 hectares around the school.

When major flooding hit the Queensland capital, Brisbane, many staff joined a 'Mud Army' of volunteers to go out into flood affected areas to help the local communities. More than 80 employees volunteered the equivalent of 125 days to assist the community in cleaning up after the floods. Around 10 additional days were donated to the preparation of vehicles and making or obtaining equipment. The Company also deployed qualified electrical engineers and electricians to assist householders in the community to safely reconnect to electricity. The team ran a fundraising event that raised over $30,000 for flood victims which was matched by the Company.

Similarly, when the destructive tornado hit Joplin, Missouri in the United States, 109 employees from our Carthage plant, which is only 26 kilometers away, volunteered over 4,000 hours help the town rebuild. A crew of three staff, using heavy equipment from the plant, worked the first week after the tornado to clear the roads and provide access for emergency crews and recovery activities. Other employees covered damaged roofs, cut down and removed downed and damaged trees, and provided housing to a number of displaced families and individuals. Employees provided essential supplies and clothing daily for the first week, and periodically for the next two months. Employees assisted with search, rescue and recovery activities for multiple weeks and also assisted in providing food and shelter to dislodged people and recovery personnel, including cooking food every weekend for more than six weeks.

Our recorded community contributions in cash, time, in-kind support and management costs totalled $767,352 for FY2010/11, as calculated by the London Benchmarking Group.

What we supported with our community contributions

IPL's Workplace Giving program enables employees in Australia and the Americas to donate a portion of their pre-tax salary to the charity of their choice. The Company then matches these donations on a dollar for dollar basis up to $100,000 per year.

As we are only beginning the process of centrally recording our community contributions, it is likely those recorded for FY2010/11 do not represent all or even most of the contributions that we actually made during the year.