10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
Mar de Andrés, Director of Social and Volunteering at Fundación Repsol
At Fundación Repsol we develop social and environmental projects with the aim of contributing to an inclusive energy transition, with the commitment and expertise of Repsol Volunteers as a driver of social change.
Volunteers can participate in a wide range of projects:
- Giving support to vulnerable groups and entities to achieve a greater social, economic and environmental impact.
- Collaborating in training to improve competencies and skills focused on favoring access to green employment, through talks and workshops.
- Participate in projects to improve the energy efficiency of social entities.
- Collaborate in circular economy projects, identifying business opportunities for social entities in areas such as recycling and waste management.
- Participate in actions to restore natural environments. Etc.
Four strategic axes and diversity as a differential value of the Strategic Plan
All of these projects revolve around the 4 strategic areas of action for Fundación Repsol:
- Circular economy
- Energy efficiency
- Sustainable mobility
- Emissions reduction.
Diversity is another of the main characteristics of the Volunteer Plan. Thus, volunteers can collaborate in all countries where Repsol has a significant presence, in different modalities (face-to-face and virtual) and open to the participation of different groups of people: employees and their environment, former employees, retirees or interns.
In order to facilitate participation, we also offer different options that take into account availability (projects with different degrees of dedication) and preferences when collaborating individually, in multidisciplinary teams and even leading their own project together with a social entity and involving other volunteers.
It is, therefore, a volunteering plan for everyone, in which each volunteer can find an opportunity to collaborate according to his or her availability or interest.
In addition to these initiatives, during International Volunteer Week, volunteers can join the company’s global challenge around the challenge of inclusive energy transition, in which all of us who are part of Repsol are called to contribute to this challenge, simultaneously, in all countries where the company is present.
Fundación Repsol and Volies
We learned about the project through the Voluntare Network and decided to take the step to work together for several reasons:
- Because of your track record and experience with other companies with similar characteristics to ours.
- Because of your capacity of integral management and global vision of corporate volunteering, being able to give us support in the aspects we need in each project.
- As well as for your international scope, being able to identify social entities with which to collaborate in the different countries in which we carry out volunteer initiatives.
Repsol International Volunteer Week
We started working together on Repsol International Volunteer Week six years ago. It was a challenge and a great milestone for Fundación Repsol, because already in that first edition we were able to develop initiatives in all the countries where our company is present.
Year after year, you have helped us to mobilize (and retain) more volunteers, reaching more than 3,000 volunteers in the last edition alone who, among other achievements, planted more than 6,000 trees in Spain and Portugal.
Professional volunteering with great results
In 2021 you also joined us in another important milestone for Fundación Repsol: the consolidation of the volunteer program in multidisciplinary teams. Through this initiative, teams of volunteers contribute their technical expertise and professional experience to respond to the needs and challenges posed by social entities in the field of energy transition.
Thanks to the involvement of more than 200 volunteers, we have developed more than 70 projects within the framework of this program. A great example of this program is the project developed with URDA, which aimed to generate employment and self-employment opportunities for a group of refugee women. Two years later, these women have created a social enterprise and a related brand: Upcycling – Second Opportunity, dedicated to textile recycling.
Thanks to this type of initiative, we have generated a new model of support for the entities, in which the economic contribution becomes secondary and the contribution of the teams of volunteers, experts in different disciplines, takes on greater value, favoring their economic sustainability.
International projection: Volies' great added value
If we can highlight one thing above all else about our joint collaboration with Volies, it is its international scope, the ability to help Fundación Repsol identify social entities in all the countries where we carry out initiatives, as well as the expertise in managing the collaboration with them.
Volies has the ability to adapt each proposal to our strategy and objectives. And all this, in addition, forming a single team: all the people who make up the team that supports us are one more for us, understanding and assimilating our procedures and work methodology.
We also value your contribution of expert knowledge in volunteering through webinars, courses and initiatives in which you give us the opportunity to learn about best practices from other companies, trends, etc.
In the next 10 years, we see Volies helping us to face new challenges aligned with the 2050 goals through social innovation.
