We Care, We Share
At PwC, we understand Corporate Responsibility as the way we integrate social, environmental and economic concerns into our values, culture, decision making and operations in an accountable and transparent manner and thereby establish better practices within the firm, create wealth and improve society.
Our CR activities are integral part of our overall PwC CEE Achieve Distinction strategy which is implemented in 27 countries throughout CEE region. Following our strategy we have four main areas of focus: Community, People, Marketplace and Environment.
People
Good corporate citizenship is as much about looking after our own people as engaging with the outside world. Our corporate responsibility program therefore includes a number of initiatives designed to promote engagement, diversity, respect and development for all PwC staff.
Although there are unique requirements determined by local cultures in respective countries in the CEE region, there are some common themes – work - life balance, talent retention, or unique expectations of the new joiners. Empowering our employees and providing them with an environment in which they can thrive ensures that our services exceed client expectations.
Community
As a professional services firm, our most valuable asset is the myriad of skills, capabilities and experience among our people. This is the reason why one of our key objectives is to build a link between our business and the educational domain. We are encouraging our people to dedicate their time to fostering academic excellence in various education institutions and organizations. In order to maximize the positive impact on the society we use our professional expertise to address various socially significant issues.
Environment
In the environmental area, our vital goal is to raise consciousness among our people and to minimize our impact on the natural environment. PwC firms worldwide report on environmental performance and pursue solutions to alleviate their negative impact, which is now one of the CR priorities in the CEE region. In order to benchmark our performance, we are in the process of collecting data to measure key environmental indicators – such as our carbon footprint – and establishing realistic minimum environmental standards across the region.
Marketplace
Alongside our commitments to the community, workplace and environment areas, we believe we must play an active and responsible role in the marketplace. Thus, we aim to share our CR agenda with our clients, alumni network and suppliers to cultivate the acceptance of good corporate responsibility among our important stakeholders. In order to live the values we espousein CR, we also promote a Responsible Purchasing Policy and aim to continue to invest in procurement processes and systems, encouraging good CR among our suppliers and ensure each one is treated fairly. As PwC, we hold the potential to demonstrate a profound and valuable example of good corporate citizenship by means of interaction with customers, promoting CR internally and in the business community.
Our ultimate goal is to embed a consistent framework of CR values, policies and commitments with respect to our relationship with local communities, role in the market, and the environment in which we operate. This feeds directly into the global PwC Experience and ensures we continue to lead the way as a distinctive, yet responsible professional services firm.
Our Activities
BLF
PwC Serbia is a member of Business Leaders Forum, the first coalition of socially responsible companies in Serbia established with a mission to stimulate development of corporate social responsibility and set a permanent and stabile practice of operation devoted to interests of the whole community. It has been conceived as a network of companies willing to voluntarily integrate social, ethical and ecological aspects in their everyday operations and improve society through cooperation with non-profit organizations, state institutions and other interested parties.
Together with other companies from Business Leaders Forum we participated in refurbishing of Drop-In for children who live and work on the street in Belgrade in December 2008.
As a part of CR activities organised by BLF in June this year 25 managers from PwC have participated in volunteering activity called “Nas Beograd” (Our Belgrade) during which our people worked on three locations in Belgrade helping cleaning of Veliko ratno ostrvo (island on the river Danube), retired people center and center for people with Down’s syndrome.
Kamp Radinac
In 2008 PwC Serbia supported youth organisation Modem in construction of playground and establishing computer classroom in refugee camp Radinac near Smederevo. This is the camp with more than 600 refugees mainly from Kosovo and Metohija out of which almost 200 are children under 18. Support of PwC included also fundraising and pro bono services.
Kindergarten for children with special needs
We donated some audio visual equipment (money for this was collected among PwC Serbia employees) to kindergarten for children with special needs Vencic in Belgrade. Also, PwC donated money for buying Christmas gifts for these children.
Corporate philanthropy award Virtus
Representative of PwC Serbia participated in the work of the jury of the first Serbian corporate philanthropy award Virtus.