Local Communities

• In Belgium, the «Social restaurant» initiative supporting unemployed people to reintegrate the labour market is regularly practiced. Staff is encouraged to have regular lunch in this restaurant, or use the «traiteur service» for meetings with visitors.
• In Italy, a collaboration with NGO «Casa do menor» promotes the collection of plastic caps whose amount coming from its sale helps children living in streets in Brazil.
• In Austria, a sponsorship is in place with the FIVERS handball club in Vienna which works with young people (migrants mostly) to encourage performance at school & integration through sport. Sometimes organised by the Company, sometimes by national or even global movements, the Company often provides the time, the transportation and the equipment for such engagement in the interest of the environment.
• In several countries (e.g. Australia, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Morocco, Qatar, Belgium & France) Alstom encourages its employees to give blood by arranging for the blood transfusion services to come to Alstom premises and by allowing employees to donate during working time. In the case of Spain, Alstom staff fitted out a tram with the necessary equipment and facilities for it to be used as a travelling blood donation facility.
• In France, the company is also in partnership at a national level with NGO “Nos Quartiers ont du Talent” (NQT) in order to help youth with a high degree level, but from disadvantaged backgrounds, to find a job.

Alstom has apprentice and internship programmes in place in several countries which are often focused on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In France, Ornans (and other sites) has integrated a person in the frame of a commercial contract with SNCF based on “Insertion par l’activité économique” (IAE or Integration through Economic Activity). 

Mentorship is also a common practice. In Canada for instance, a collaboration with Connexion CA links companies with local NPOs that need experienced people to sit on their Board of Directors, participate in a working committee or to be a mentor and share knowledge for a few hours.

These actions frequently involve partnerships with local institutions, the training of internal mentors, and the development of a training plan. The aim is for apprentices to learn a trade as leverage for future employment – whether in Alstom or elsewhere. Training can be full or part time and of different durations.

Several countries organised volunteer days in order to clean places. In Malaysia for instance, a mangrove clean-up took place at the Kuala Selangor forest, while in Australia and in the Netherlands some hours were dedicated to clean beaches. 

In Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan or Brazil, employees planted trees as a contribution to enlarge greener spaces and reduce CO2 emissions. France, through its €55,000 agreement over three years with ONF, has pursued with planting another additional 4,000 trees in Hauts-de-France forests.

Some countries put in place initiatives to favour recycling and circular economy. In Italy and Singapore for instance, employees were invited to collect old running shoes and give them to companies that transform them into material to be used for the construction of children’s playgrounds, athletic tracks, fitness corners or gym pads.

Finally biodiversity topics have been tackled by a few countries, for instance in France, where employees in La Rochelle participated in the safeguard of bees by hosting & sponsoring beekeepers.

In 2021, Alstom University launched “Challenge Accepted”, a programme hosted for five months on the Alstom i-Learn portal, in which any Alstom employee that attended a learning module could collect points to be given at the end of each month to a non-profit organisation working in the social and economic development field. A ceremony was held at the end of the period, and points were converted into money donated to the selected organisations.

This programme enabled the donation of a total of €46,000 to eight organisations. In China for instance, World Vision was given €8,000 to strengthen protection skills of local NGOs and support various quality designed activities which targeted most vulnerable children and families.