News

Supporting our communities in 2020

21 December 2020

In 2020 Urenco continued providing practical and financial support to a wide variety of organisations through our volunteering and donations programmes in the hope of easing the hardship being felt by so many.

This is in line with our strategic objective to create better mutual understanding with our communities, which is essential to our social licence to operate.

Beneficiaries included cultural institutions, such as the Science Museum in London and Chester Zoo (UK); cross-cutting local community support organisations, such as United Way (US); community health facilities, such as St Josef Hospice (Germany); and environmental initiatives such as reforestation projects (the Netherlands).

Some highlights from each of our sites were as follows:

• To mark the 50th anniversary of our founding treaty being signed, €50,000 was donated to a variety of local charities at each of our locations.
• A donation of €40,000 was made to the IAEA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme to increase the participation of women in nuclear science by providing scholarships in nuclear related subjects.
• UUSA employees contributed to the United Way Campaign to support local non-profit organisations that help people in need, raising over $420,000 including employee contributions and matched donations from the company and a local private foundation.
• A global Health and Fitness Week was held for employees encouraging everyone to take part in a 5K walk, run or cycle challenge. Urenco Nederland alone had 131 colleagues (almost half of the workforce) taking part. Donations were made to 19 charities.
• Urenco Deutschland’s fire service donated protective jackets and trousers to the Gronau fire brigade to enable them to quickly comply with a new policy requiring them to change clothing contaminated by smoke at the scene of a fire to reduce the impact on their health.
• Urenco UK employees helped to refurbish a building near Chester, creating a ‘crisis café’ to support members of the community who need access to a foodbank, counselling and employment advice due to the impact of the pandemic. The hub also offers respite for individuals suffering from mental illness.
• Donations were made in our customers’ names to foodbanks at their locations throughout the US, organised by the Urenco Inc. sales and marketing office in Arlington.
• Donations were made to a series of charities nominated by colleagues at our UK Head Office: Thames Hospice; The British Red Cross; High Wycombe Child Contact Centre; Cancer Research UK; Pump Aid and Hft.
• Personal protective equipment was shared with health workers in care homes, hospitals and other medical organisations, including 3,000 protective suits to the Red Cross from Urenco Nederland. Following a generous gift from one of our customers of a large number of protective face masks, these were distributed among our employees and seven critical medical organisations.

We look forward to continuing this work in 2021!