BOC Report and accounts 2005 - Alle jaarverslagen

34 The BOC Group plc Annual report and accounts 2005 Social, environmental and ethical performance
Commitment to medical research
BOC made an annual grant of £10,000 to the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists to aid the fight against
chronic respiratory diseases in the UK.As part of its commitment to the NHS and the medical establishment as
a whole, BOC leads or supports a number of research programmes, clinical trials and patient care opportunities,
in addition to running clinical seminars on the use of medical gases for the relief of pain and respiratory problems.
In 2005, BOC provided £400,000 to sponsor several studies on respiratory issues, lung cancer and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with a major study being conducted on bronchiolitis at St Mary’s Hospital,
Paddington. BOC also supports several clinical bodies, jointly founding the COPD consortium with the British
Thoracic Society and others, and including the long-term sponsorship of the BOC chair of anaesthesia in the UK
and the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists. In addition, it supports various patient groups including the
Patients Association in the UK.
Commitment to the arts
The fourth BOC Emerging Artist Award, created to support promising young artists in the UK, was won by
photographer Justin Coombes, a graduate of Goldsmiths College, University of London.The £20,000 award is
designed to cover a year’s studio rental and materials, a travel bursary and the costs of a London-based exhibition
at the end of the award period. Five other artists were awarded £1,000 each as runners-up.
Charitable donations and community involvement
Operating within broad guidelines set by the Group, BOC’s local businesses are responsible for choosing and
funding their own causes through discretionary volunteering, donations and sponsorships.This devolved approach
has resulted in support for a rich variety of programmes that have an impact on BOC’s people and the
communities in which they work and live.
In 2005, BOC’s global charitable donations totalled £2,032,000, including funding for the BOC Foundation for
the Environment, educational programmes, medical research and the BOC Emerging Artist Award.
In the UK, BOC donated £350,000 to UK-registered charities through a matched giving scheme operated
through the Charities Aid Foundation. In addition to the numerous causes supported by matched giving, BOC also
supported a number of Group causes, including the Royal British Legion, Macmillan Cancer Relief, Limbless
Association, Unravel Mills,Voluntary Services Surrey Heath and Royal Surrey County Hospital’s St Luke’s Cancer
Fund.The Group’s logistics business, Gist, donated £10,000 to schools and charities at the request of its staff after
they won a competition organised by key customer Marks & Spencer.The money was divided between Kent Air
Ambulance, Davington Primary School, Pilgrim’s Hospice, Bysingwood Primary School and Faversham Cottage
Hospital. BOC is a member of the PerCent Club.
In December 2004, the tsunami inflicted terrible devastation on several countries in the Indian Ocean region.
BOC people and businesses in the area responded with help of all kinds – food, clothing, blankets, medicines and
medical oxygen – as well as money.Across the world, BOC employees donated over £200,000 to help relieve this
disaster.Their personal generosity was matched in every region by BOC (double matched in most cases), bringing
the total raised for the tsunami victims to £570,000. One example of the enormous support from BOC
employees around the world was BOC in Pakistan and Bangladesh, whose employees contributed one day’s salary
to provide relief to victims.Another example was twelve employees from BOC Edwards’ manufacturing site in
Shoreham, who raised over £20,000 by cycling up Mount Snowdon in Wales.
Through matched giving, BOC and its employees also contributed £125,000 to the American Red Cross in
support of the hurricane Katrina relief effort and to a special fund to help afflicted BOC employees. BOC also
made emergency deliveries of nitrogen to a bottling plant to speed up the distribution of drinking water to local
communities around New Orleans.
In the UK, BOC Edwards sponsored Sussex Business Award’s ‘manufacturer of the year’ category for the
second year running. BOC Edwards’ sponsorship of the Seishin Judo Club in East Grinstead was matched by
government body Sportsmatch and named runner-up in their annual awards ceremony. For the second year
running, two drivers from Gist’s Faversham site delivered a trailer of much needed furniture and aid to schools in
Belarus. In July, BOC medical gas teams across the UK ensured that victims of the terrorist attacks in London got
the supplies they needed, delivering 2,500 emergency cylinders to the capital.
In the US, employees continued to assist the United Way charitable appeal through financial donations,
volunteering and collections of supplies for needy children.All financial donations were matched by the business.
BOC sponsored the building of a home for a needy family in Ohio, through the Maumee Valley Habitat for
Humanity initiative.A BOC leadership team spent a day helping to build the house in Toledo, where BOC is
building a hydrogen plant to serve oil companies producing cleaner burning fuels.