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Trafalgar, the industry leader in Guided Travel, is calling on businesses to join them on International Volunteer Day, today (Wednesday December 5), in empowering their employees to make a difference at an individual level. Trafalgar’s long-standing and ongoing commitment to social responsibility is reinforced this International Volunteer Day (IVD), as CEO Gavin Tollman empowers his global workforce to use their collective 24,000 paid volunteer hours, to support causes close to their hearts.

“Companies with legitimate corporate social responsibility must have an ethos that runs deep, from the very core of their business. It is about empowering your own people to make a difference, in whatever form that takes,” says Tollman.

Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1985 to encourage, support and recognise volunteer contributions, IVD 2018 celebrates volunteer efforts that strengthen local ownership and the resilience of communities in the face of natural disasters, economic stresses and political shocks.

Trafalgar offers all of its employees two paid days off a year to participate in volunteer efforts, a decision that according to Tollman, aligns with the company’sJoinTrafalgar sustainability initiatives – to better the lives of locals and their communities, now and into the future.

“It’s important to lead by example, rather than just ticking a box. Social responsibility starts with a movement; helping your people to help others and making it easy to do so, through paid volunteer days. We give more than 24,000 paid hours a year so that our people can individually make a difference – building, planting, beach cleaning and more,”

This week, Trafalgar’s global teams will make a difference in celebration of IVD in more than 10 countries by planting trees, taking part in beach clean ups, animal welfare support and charity fundraising.

“Companies should be flexible with team members around supporting individual causes that are close to their hearts and allowing them to choose how they want to give back,” says Tollman.

Here’s examples of how the Trafalgar team around the world will be giving back this International Volunteer Day 2018:

  • In Australia, Trafalgar will lend hands to the Magic Moments Basket Brigade, supplying gifts and food to people in need, and supplying much needed dog food and animal supplies to drought-affected farmers in rural New South Wales
  • In New Zealand, the team will be working alongside the brands longstanding sustainability partner Sustainable Coastlines, spending the day planting hundreds of native trees and litter collecting at one of the country’s fragile beaches
  • In the United States, Trafalgar employees will be sorting and packaging thousands of pounds of food to support the work of Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County,­ California. Nearly 10% of all residents in this County are at risk of hunger each month, and this service provides over 21.6 million meals to Orange County’s hungry annually
  • In Canada, Trafalgar team will be wrapping presents for Holiday Helpers Canada, bringing festive cheer to more than 600 low-income families this holiday season
  • In Singapore, more than 5,000 elderly residents of Blossom Seeds will enjoy a sparkling clean facility thanks to the Trafalgar team
  • In Geneva, Trafalgar’s worldwide headquarters, team members will give back in a variety of ways, through giving blood, supporting animal welfare, wrapping presents for the Red Cross and raising money for London’s Battersea animal shelter through taking part in the local Escalade Run
  • In the UK, the team will learn to save a life by becoming CPR certified and canvass for St John’s Ambulance, which teaches and provides first aid and emergency medicine
  • In South Africa, team Trafalgar will be serving meals at a local soup kitchen in The Bryanston Methodist Church Soup Kitchen, participating in beach clean-ups and volunteering at Abandoned Animal Haven

Tollman says that regardless of a company’s formal sustainability efforts, all businesses should join them in empowering workforces to make a difference, not only on IVD but throughout the year as well.

 “It’s a conscious decision of ours and plays a big part in our mission to make travel a force for good. There is no reason why any company, regardless of industry or size, can’t do their part in making a difference in a similar way.”

 Through its JoinTrafalgar program, powered by TreadRight – TTC’s 10-year-old not-for-profit foundation, Trafalgar’s social sustainability efforts extend far beyond the 24,000 hours of volunteering given to employees. The company has banned more than 60 single-use plastics from their offices and planted 120 acres of trees in Northern California and Tanzania in the last year.

“The industry [travel] has long concluded that customers care deeply about the choices we make in the world and the way we operate. We foster these values when we invite employees to live them, and this week we are calling on other companies to do the same,” added Tollman.

With over 80 JoinTrafalgar experiences globally on 70% of itineraries, Trafalgar guests are able to join the brand to become part of the sustainability solution, bettering the lives of the people they meet, the places they visit and the planet we live on. Watch the JoinTrafalgar video to discover more about Trafalgar’s ongoing sustainability journey and follow the work of Trafalgar’s tribe on International Volunteer Day using #JoinTrafalgar.