How our team ignites their passion, amongst our brand purpose work

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s how much we value human connection and shouldn’t take it for granted. This year, despite working remotely much of the time, my team at Reckitt banded together as humans to live our purpose and actively help others in the community.

When I asked my 16 volunteer-network of employees on the Purpose Council at Reckitt what they were excited about in 2021, the common theme was: ‘change’. To be a part of inspiring and creating change, or change that will leave a real impact, or changes being made that show their personal and professional purpose… that is what this year was about for our people.

I am so thankful to my team for embracing our goals and leading with passion to bring about change, every day. This year we have volunteered our time towards improving programs that advance several initiatives, reflecting our mission to lead the change towards ‘doing the right thing always’.?

Here’s how we did it, by the numbers:

• 1000+ vulnerable lives were impacted when over 60 Reckitt employees volunteered their time at Meals on Wheels locations around the country across 240 hours of ‘Give Time’, packing and assisting volunteers by helping load up the vans as they head out on their meal deliveries for the day.
• 300+ hours of ‘Give Time’ dedicated to Biodiversity Protection by 50+ Reckitt employees over two days when we managed revegetation of wildlife at Q Station in Manly. An activity that included an informative education session with WWF that continues to play on my mind whenever I’m enjoying Australia’s wildlife.
• Organisation wide Recycling Educational Sessions, in partnership with Planet Ark during National Recycling Week, with more than 70 pledges made and, best of all, our local Reckitt ANZ sustainability ambition locked in.
• 30,000,000 (!) steps taken throughout STEPtember for WWF, for whom we raised and donated $75,000 for conservation projects.
• Water Wise company webinar with Rural Aid and Smart Approved WaterMark, culminating in a Water Night Event where we all turned off the taps, and a Water Warrior Award for our most conservative employee.

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I’m thrilled to see our people get behind our purpose – and find their own in the process. The passion derived from this work has seen a flow-on effect to our household brands, and to the end-consumer so that we create real and lasting change.

It all started earlier in the year when we set ourselves a new challenge, that Reckitt would become renowned in Australia and New Zealand for a People and Purpose-led Performance culture, that our team takes huge pride in.

The New Dawn project was developed to complement our business’ purpose: to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world, alongside a fight in making access to the highest quality hygiene, wellness, and nourishment a right, not a privilege.

It is so important for leading brands to play a meaningful and positive role in society, and the first stop for marketers is to identify a genuine problem that their product or service can assist in solving. This year, we continued to put an emphasis on building purpose projects through thought-led initiatives to care for the wellbeing of the community and the environment:

Protecting Aussie farmers from water scarcity with #FINISHWATERWASTE

#FinishWaterWaste commenced in 2019 and alongside partners Rural Aid and Coles we have donated more than 14 million litres of water to Australian farmers in need. This year, we took a refreshed focus, looking towards the future to prioritise water security while La Ni?a delivers unprecedented rainfall across the country. Our goal is to make a positive impact on the lives of Australians in ways that they need, and sometimes this requires a pivot in brand strategy to make a true difference. When we first started #FinishWaterWaste, we delivered water to farmers in rural locations who had seen little rainfall. This year, with La Ni?a causing more rain than anticipated, we pivoted our strategy from water deliveries to water capture, helping farmers to build water security into the future by capturing this precious resource – ultimately helping those in need for years to come.

Proud to say the performance of this initiative has continued to create impact as designed. We look forward to year four in 2022! See more at this link.

Preserving Australia’s endangered native wildflowers with Botanica by Air Wick

Through a global partnership with WWF, Air Wick has worked to help restore wildflower habits and connect millions to nature – much needed after a few years indoors thanks to the pandemic. Together we have achieved a shared goal: restoring over a billion square feet of wildflower habitats across the globe.

Locally, we collaborated with WWF and seed scientists and conservation experts from the Australian Seed Bank Partnership on research and germination programs that support Australia's at-risk native wildflowers for the benefit of future generations. Together we embarked on a wide range of conservation projects including, preserving 22 species of endangered native wildflowers (of our goal of 120 species), by undertaking 36 collections.

We are one year into a three-year long project, I am so excited to see what 2022 holds for this. Follow along via this link.

Delivering disinfectant products to vulnerable Australians with Glen 20 and Pine O Cleen

In March we announced an award-winning partnership with Woolworths to donate 50,000 Hygiene Packs to vulnerable Australians via our partner, Meals on Wheels. Both Reckitt and Woolworths have been key supporters of Meals on Wheels during the Covid-19 pandemic and through this initiative, we worked together to help ensure the iconic service’s customers continued to have access to high quality disinfectant products for the home.

The partnership involved an in-store activation at Woolworths, whereby shopper purchases of products from our leading disinfectant brands, Glen 20 and Pine O Cleen, triggered donations of up to 50,000 Hygiene Packs.

See more about the great work Meals On Wheels do here.

I am so proud to reflect on our projects this year and acknowledge the ways our team has created long-term positive impacts through small – but important – shifts in consumer behaviour, which often help others. As the owner of Australia’s most trusted household products, it is important we continue to tap into our social responsibility and reflect the values of our brands, and in-turn, our people.

As we approach the new dawn of 2022, I’m excited to see our team continue to elevate purpose-led projects further and challenge our consumers to stop, think and do the right thing.