Collette Launches Corporate Social Responsibility Platform

Collette has launched its first formal Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform with a focus on four key pillars – people, community, product and environment.

With social responsibility already a company value and a strong philanthropic record that includes a robust volunteer program and a global hunger initiative, the company is dedicated to developing a more holistic approach to responsibility that goes beyond philanthropy and corporate giving.

“For more than 20 years, Collette has developed nonprofit relationships and helped communities where we work and where we travel through grant support and volunteerism,” says John Sutherland, manager of Corporate Social Responsibility. “Our employees give roughly 5,000 hours of service to local and global communities per year. Giving back is a part of our culture, and as Collette celebrates 100 years in business, we are taking what that means to the next level. We are actively developing policies to weave responsibility into every aspect of the business to support our employees, to care for the communities where we work and travel, to reduce our carbon footprint, and to encourage travel that benefits the locations we visit.”

To accomplish this, the company created an official Corporate Social Responsibility department, headed by Sutherland, which oversees teams of employee volunteers, totalling 89 people – over 10% of Collette’s workforce – who will be directly involved in the development and execution of each one of the pillars of the CSR platform. The department as well as employee volunteers will focus on ensuring responsibility becomes a key aspect of Collette’s brand identity.