Benefiting communities

We recognise that the key to long-term success lies not only in doing responsible business but also in supporting the quality of life in the locations where our company operates.

We understand corporate social investment (CSI) as targeted investments aiming to increase prosperity of local communities and their welfare that would not be achieved through the usual activities of the company. It is a contribution or investment of cash, knowledge, employee time and equipment to people or communities to enable them to flourish and help sustain environment in which Plzeňský Prazdroj can be a successful business.

Supported projects should reflect the visions, missions, values and sustainable development priorities of Plzeňský Prazdroj, priorities of local communities and all partners involved.

OUR INITIATIVES

Plzeňský Prazdroj is one of the top corporate donors of the Czech Republic (among top 15 according to the Top corporate philanthropist). The company is one of the founding members of DONATOR , a club of corporate donors established at the Czech Donors Forum, aiming to develop corporate philanthropy in the Czech Republic, set transparent standards and principles of corporate community investment and influence this sphere positively. 

The company has implemented a methodology of systematic measurement of responsible company standards (SOF) to monitor the cost and measure their effects. The system is applied successfully in the European Union countries, USA, Canada and Australia and has been implemented in the Czech Republic by the Czech Donors Forum. 

In 2011, Plzeňský Prazdroj contributed CZK 53.79* million to the support and development of local communities.

The prosperity of our companies and of the communities in which we operate are interdependent. Our social investments are designed to improve the lives of people in these regions and help create durable relations in the areas where we work.

PRAZDROJ LIDEM
The PRAZDROJ LIDEM (Prazdroj to the People) program is core to this project, supporting community development programmes which share the same goal. In order to secure transparency of decision-making we invited employees, regional representatives and the public to help us choose the most deserving of the projects that applied. Over nine years the program has granted more than CZK 60 million to 274 projects. The programme provides financial grants to activities of regional authorities and non-profit organizations that contribute to development of education, culture and environment, sports and welfare.  

Good neighbour
Trucks with Radegast beer now travel to the breweries along a brand new motorway. Together with the Moravia-Silesia Regional Authority the brewery built a new transport connection for the brewery from the motorway leading to the Nošovice industrial zone. To the total costs the brewery contributed CZK 37 million. The new motorway will be of great environmental benefit to the town, which will be spared much of the daily traffic of large goods vehicles. 

The Velké Popovice brewery gave the municipality CZK 300,000 to purchase land for a pedestrian route from the petrol station to the brewery ponds, to develop a project for a roundabout and also to improve the washroom facilities for the local primary school.  

Run for Paraple in Pilsen
The event to raise money for the Paraple Centre (charity organisation for handicapped people; umbrella in English) was held in the courtyard of the Pilsen brewery for the third successive year. A record number of runners attended and the record sum of CZK 47,000 was raised. People from Pilsen supported the event as did Czech celebrities such as the actor Pavel Nový and the paraplegic downhill skiier Anna Kulíšková and Pilsen ice hockey players. The Pilsen band Semtex played for the runners.

Become a Donor!
In cooperation with Birell, the Association for Transfusion Medication at the Czech Medical Association of J.E. Purkyně organised the second year of the nationwide “Become a donor” campaign promoting non-contributory blood donorship. Everyone who, in summer 2010, donated blood in one of the 45 hospitals attached to the project received a can of Birell and information materials on blood donorship. Birell supported the campaign in the media and on the Internet and contributed 50,000 cans of non-alcoholic beer. The number of new donors rose by 3,830, an increase of 14 %. Several Plzeňský Prazdroj employees donated blood in the Vinohrady Hospital in Prague.

Gambrinus helping to clean the Vltava river
Last year, Gambrinus presented the first year of the Summer on the Vltava, an event designed to make water sports on the river more enjoyable. And because we realise that nature should not be simply used but needs looking after in all respects, we decided to combine it with the Cleaning the Vltava river event, which is traditionally the close to the boating season. As the title suggests, the event involves the mass cleaning of the river, and for this purpose Gambrinus fitted out two rafts with a crew to clean the river around Český Krumlov. The success of their mission was evident from the seventeen sacks of waste they returned with.