Corporate social responsibility, commonly called CSR, has become a routine part of Western corporate culture. Firms want to give back to the community and often need to clean up their image too. However, the practice is still not commonplace in Ukraine and it is mainly promoted by big domestic or international companies.
The Kyiv Post took a look at the major players starting to spend big on CSR and developing the concept in the country.
Luxoptica’s good vision
In Ukraine, regular health checkups are still not a part of the nation’s culture. Pharmacists are overworked while unwell people tend to visit a doctor only when something is really wrong. Vision tests are not a norm, with many people still shying away from visiting an optician.
To fix this gap, Ukraine’s largest network of opticians, Luxoptica, decided to launch a nationwide program of free eye checkups called Healthy Vision.
“Since the culture on preventing vision loss is very low in Ukraine, many people have the wrong glasses or they simply don’t check their eyesight,” said Violeta Titarenko, head of marketing at Luxoptica.
One aspect of the program sends opticians to schools to check the vision of children. According to Titarenko, half of the children they have checked had a problem with their vision. In half of those cases, the problem was diagnosed for the first time.
“Kids in eighth or ninth grade can have already serious problems, but due to the fact that there were no checkups before, parents didn’t know about it,” she said.
In the past two years, 8,000 children were checked, a number the company expects to double by February 2020.
Another part of the program involves Luxoptica specialists visiting companies to do checkups for office workers. This summer, the company also started the program in cooperation with a few business centers and shopping malls such as Auchan, where vision checkups take place in specially equipped vehicles. “Everyone can check their eyesight for free there,” said Titarenko.
An optician tests the vision of a girl in school as part of a Luxoptica program called “Healthy Vision.” (Courtesy of Luxoptica)
Winner on road safety
Every day, at least eight people die in car accidents in Ukraine. At least 1,688 people died in the first seven months of 2019, according to the National Police of Ukraine. Road traffic accidents are the most common type of avoidable death among young people.
Observing such a sad trend, Winner Group, one of Ukraine’s largest car importers, became a partner and financial donor two years ago in Traffic Challenge, a large-scale campaign supported by the government that aims to decrease the number of car accidents in Ukraine.
The company organizes training for schools, online webinars and donates reflective bracelets and jackets to children.
Winner also invests in an educational program called “My First Profession” for students in orphanages so they can eventually build a career by training in areas like hairdressing, tailoring, shoemaking or cooking.
“They can obtain some experience for their future life,” said Anastasiia Voitkevych, a spokesperson and CSR manager at Winner Group.
Overall, Winner Auto says it spent around $480,000 on 58 charity projects throughout 2018.
But the company’s biggest CSR project is the complete renovation of the neonatal department at a hospital in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine located 540 kilometers southwest of Kyiv.
“Last year we donated two ambulances for the neonatal department, which helps premature babies,” said Voitkevych.
The company is in the process of donating around 2 million euros for renovation.
In addition, while the company currently imports mainly gasoline cars, it plans to expand the import of electric vehicles. Currently, it sells only the Jaguar model I-pace, which costs around $75,000. “It’s a big trend which will gain momentum,” said Voitkevych.
MHP helps rural villages
As a result of decentralization reforms, rural communities face a number of problems when it comes to managing land, including taxation problems and obtaining state subsidies. Moreover, many people living in rural areas feel that Ukraine’s medical reform is poorly implemented in villages, leaving them without easy access to medical care.
Enter stage left, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings: Myronivsky Hliboproduct, or MHP. The firm, which operates in 14 regions across Ukraine and has enormous financial resources, is investing in such communities located near the company’s facilities.
While MHP’s net profits reached $128 million in 2018, $8 million of that was spent on CSR projects.
According to Victoria Nagirnyak, head of corporate social responsibility at MHP, villagers face problems including an absence of good roads and access to electricity, water and medical centers. A large portion of the requests for help from MHP are regarding medical assistance.
“The reality in villages is absolutely different, where medical centers are closing, and, for example, nurses have to put medical droppers illegally. It’s very sad,” said Nagirnyak.
From her experience, trumpeted statements from the government allocating money to build medical centers have little result, but with MHP it’s different: “We allocated money to build two medical centers, around Hr 1.2 million (about $50,000), for each,” she said.
One of the medical projects is called Doctor for the Village and involves MHP funding specialists to do medical examinations. In 195 visits to the villages, doctors did free medical examinations for more than 30,000 people over the past few years.
“Not every elderly woman or man can go to the closest town in 30 kilometers to do it,” said Nagirnyak.
Overall, MHP spent $480,000 on medical initiatives in 2018. The firm also spent nearly $2 million on road repairs and construction as well as $280,000 for electrification and water supply in villages. In total, 110 kilometers of new roads have been laid and nearly 1,000 kilometers were reconstructed in the last four years.
“We have to do what the state is supposed to do,” said Nagirnyak.
In addition, the company spent $1.6 million on 405 schools and kindergartens, allocated to repairs, training and food. An additional $1.5 million was spent on infrastructure projects like parks, museums and cultural centers.
A doctor with electrocardiogram equipment makes a test to a male patient as a part of the MHP medical assistance program launched in rural areas across Ukraine. (Courtesy of MHP)
EY stands for education
Education is a crucial part of CSR activities in Ukraine for Ernst&Young (EY), one of the Big Four international accounting firms.
EY has had department at Kyiv National Economic University since 2016, where company specialists give free lectures to students, according to Natalia Telenkova, head of the corporate social responsibility committee at the firm.
There is also an English school at EY’s offices in Kyiv for orphans to study during the summer holidays. Last year 15 students studied there.
EY also launched an educational project for accounting teachers at universities. “It’s an upgrade training for teachers from different cities across Ukraine,” said Telenkova.
Overall, in 2018 EY spent nearly $46,000 on CSR projects, with $40,000 going to educational programs and charity, including donations for children fighting cancer.
According to Telenkova, CSR is seriously promoted by some 50 businesses in Ukraine, while only a few hundred are engaged with such initiatives.
“It’s not hard to promote the conception, but results are poor. There is no desired support from the government,” she said.
DTEK spends big
Ukraine’s largest energy company, owned by the controversial billionaire oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, does not have a spotless reputation.
The firm has extensive holdings in coal, oil and gas and is criticized for being a polluter. It also frequently comes under fire for its monopolistic approach to business in Ukraine.
But DTEK is also big on CSR, and has whole teams of employees dedicated to social responsibility, sustainability and philanthropy.
In 2007, DTEK became a party to the UN Global Compact, a major global sustainable development initiative that unites 9,200 companies and organizations from 166 countries around the world.
The DTEK Group told the Kyiv Post that it is heavily focused on long-term sustainable development, and this can be seen throughout years of investments in a growing green energy portfolio. In 2019, DTEK built the largest solar power plant in Europe, a vast farm with 246 MW of capacity. More broadly, it is the biggest single player in Ukraine’s growing renewable market.
A spokesperson also said that UN Sustainable Development Goals have been integrated into the DTEK Group’s overall business strategy. “All actions and decisions taken by the company must correlate with the interests of society,” the company added. DTEK companies also pride themselves on having a “social partnership” with the communities where they operate, with “the aim of building trust-based relationships.”
“Our goal is to improve the quality of life within those communities through the sustainable social, economic and cultural development,” a spokesperson said, highlighting flagship programs that include, for example, energy-efficient schools.
Since 2005, DTEK says its overall contributions to sustainability initiatives as part of its CSR goals have amounted to $1.5 billion.
Deloitte aids filmmakers
For Deloitte, one of the largest financial advisory firms in the world, Ukrainian cinema is about more than simply watching a movie.
Since 2016, Deloitte has been one of the main financial backers of Watch Ukrainian, a program that helps create short movies by young screenwriters.
“This project touches a deeper topic on values in society. This is the project we are proud of,” said Kateryna Iurchenko, a corporate responsibility and sustainability supervisor at Deloitte
So far, three movies have been filmed with Deloitte’s financial support.
Another big Deloitte’s program is called Wellbeing. Designed for company employees, it includes six sport sections that encourage physical health through football, basketball, volleyball squash, pilates and running.
In addition, there has even been a program on daily meditation for two years. “Every employee can attend meditation at 3 pm right in the office,” said Iurchenko.
Deloitte also provides a program called WorldClass, which includes educational programs for underprivileged young people, those with disabilities from rural areas.
The Deloitte team in Ukraine wins first place in the annual mini-football charity tournament called The Cup of Open Hearts in 2018, which All-Ukrainian Charity Organization Down Syndrome has been holding for the past nine years among corporate teams. About $11,000 was collected from 16 teams that participated back then. (Courtesy of Center for Corporate Social Responsibility Development)
KPMG and compassion
Not all CSR initiatives are a top-down affair, and many companies are seeing their employees taking the lead.
One example in Ukraine is the major international auditing and accounting firm KPMG, which has a number of philanthropic initiatives, especially in the capital.
A KPMG spokesperson told the Kyiv Post that their employees hold donation-focused charity days at their offices for Tabletochki, a children’s cancer charity, and others non-profits. They also run sponsored marathons and support homeless charities and animal shelters.
All of the company’s CSR initiatives are driven by employees rather than upper-management, and workers have a broad range of charitable interests.
But KPMG said managers support their employees with activities like workshops and pro bono training events. KPMG supports universities too, and student interns are often given the chance to become an employee at the firm. Other employees are involved in projects that support needy families in Ukraine’s southeastern Kherson region.
Support from Integrites
Kyiv-based international law firm Integrites is focused on using its extensive legal expertise in a way that gives back to the community, providing pro bono legal services to a number of charities, foundations and philanthropic associations.
A spokesperson mentioned Lifelover, Blagomay and the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union as notable examples. Blagomay is a charitable fund for orphans, Lifelover supports the disadvantaged elderly and the human rights union brings together 29 nonprofits that defend human rights in Ukraine, all benefiting from the pro bono legal services at Integrites.
At the same time, Integrites is strongly focused on schools that are nurturing a new generation of lawyers. Oleh Zahnitko, partner in the firm’s banking and finance practice, serves as a strategic advisor to the honorary president of the Kyiv School of Economics, Tymofiy Mylovanov, on a pro bono basis, and the firm has also worked closely with the
National University of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, launching multiple courses and initiatives there.
Asters Legal School
In 2013, Kyiv-based law firm Asters in partnership with the European Business Association launched Legal School, a unique, free of charge platform for Ukrainian legal practitioners to share experiences and best practices to secure legal support and protection of businesses.
“Apart from contribution to the increase of legal awareness, the Legal School also helps to unite and develop the Ukrainian legal community,” said Oleg Kirichuk, PR Coordinator at Asters.
In total, over 1,500 participants have attended classes at the Legal School in the past six years.
However, Kirichuk still sees that complex programs are not common for businesses across the country. “Comprehensive CSR programs are mostly run by international businesses operating in Ukraine or by the largest oligarch-owned Ukrainian companies trying to whitewash their owner’s reputation,” he said.
But his attitude on development remains optimistic: “I do hope that the new ethical standards are slowly, but steadily establishing within Ukrainian business community,” said Kirichuk.
Sanofi & scientists
As Ukrainian medical science dramatically lacks government financing, the French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi has stepped in, launching a program to support young scientists.
For two years the company, in partnership with the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, has conducted a scientific research competition where winners get $6,000, $4,000 and $2,000 cash prizes for the first, second and third places respectively.
This year, the three winning teams had very different topics — one created a molecule with antitumor effects, another created a diabetes control application for the doctor and patient and the third developed a substance with antimicrobial action, according to Svitlana Dovgych, head of communication at Sanofi.
But still the level and amount of CSR activities in Ukraine are far from enough: “Ukraine lacks a common understanding of the role of CSR in society, from the media to state bodies,” said Dovgych.
Out of 400 enterprises questioned, most said that they implement corporate social responsibility out of moral considerations as well as for improving their reputation. The 2018 questionnaire was done in cooperation with the Embassy of The Netherlands in Kyiv and in partnership with DTEK, Syngenta and M.S.L. companies.
