Kier Mining scoop international excellence award
Company wins prestigious award for corporate social responsibility at Greenburn surface mine
KIER Mining have won an International Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Excellence Award for their commitment to the local community while carrying out work on their Greenburn surface mine in Ayrshire, Scotland.
The International CSR Excellence Awards launched a campaign to find Britain’s most caring companies, and Kier Mining beat off competition from more than 200 other entrants to be presented with the Scottish Gold Award at the presentation ceremony in London.
Kier Mining have been operating at Greenburn since 2004 and to date in excess of 6.4 million tonnes of coal has been dispatched to UK power stations. Since operations began, the mining team has undertaken a number of proactive initiatives with the local community to keep them well-informed about Greenburn, and these played a key role in winning the award.
The mining team, 88% of whom live within 25 miles of the mine, have held biannual meetings with the local community for the past 10 years where they explain current work on the site, and these meetings now also include site visits.
A Technical Support Group also meets regularly, attended by several environmental stakeholders, to discuss the best restoration techniques and habitat creation for biodiversity at Greenburn. One of the most successful outcomes of these meetings has been the placing of barn owl boxes and the introduction of artificial otter holts along a realigned section of the river Nith.
Pupils at New Cumnock Primary School have also attended the site and designed a new area of restoration which is used for wildflowers and habitats for wildlife. Also, as part of the school’s participation in the nationwide STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programme, three mining team members visited the school to discuss their jobs and how they took the first steps in their careers, and delivered a series of workshops as part of National Science Week.
Further initiatives that impressed the judges included Kier’s ongoing support for the local fishing club, their participation in fun days, their employment and training of a local workforce, and their support for the local economy.
Kier Mining’s planning and estates manager, Mark North, said: ‘We place a huge emphasis on engaging with the local community wherever we work, so it’s fantastic to be recognized for this at the International CSR Awards.
‘Since we’ve been working at Greenburn we’ve made lots of positive changes to the site and this is down to the regular meetings we hold with stakeholders. We were also delighted to be asked to work with the local school during National Science Week, which again is testament to the close working relationships we’ve developed since being on site.’
Kier Mining have now been invited to have their winning entry, ‘Community Commitment’, published in the upcoming Global Guide to CSR Excellence.
