Corporate Social Responsibility
Merlin Entertainments Group participates in a number of charitable, environmental and socially focused initiatives around the world.Charities
For the past few years we have actively supported NSPCC in the UK and their “FULL STOP” campaign against child cruelty and have contributed nearly £ 250,000 in cash and over £100,000 in ‘benefits-in-kind' to assist their campaigns and programmes. In this, our employees have been incredibly supportive, raising considerable amounts through their own fundraising activities. In addition, each site supports its own charity initiatives, and will for example get involved with local schools' fundraising activities. Once again, our employees play a huge part in making this happen.
Charities which have been assisted by local attractions include:
- Make a Wish Foundation
- Children With Special Needs Foundation
- Variety Club of Great Britain
- Chernobyl Children's Appeal
- Millie's Appeal
- Whizz Kids
- Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity
- Birmingham Children's Hospital
- The Prince's Trust
THE MERLIN CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION
In 2008 we will be launching our own charitable trust - the Merlin Children's Foundation. Its aim will be to provide magical experiences at our Merlin Group sites around the world for seriously ill or underprivileged children and for other charitable causes. It will be run by a Trustee Board made up of Merlin Group employees and will be funded by an annual donation from the Group (£100,000 in 2008) and other fundraising activities and donations.
Community and Environment
As well as helping millions of people to discover the marvels of the marine world, the SEA LIFE network has an important role to play in helping safeguard our seas and their inhabitants for the future. As well as fostering conservation through enhanced awareness, SEA LIFE regularly makes a more direct contribution towards conservation and marine animal welfare. In recent years a special programme has been established to manage and develop these activities. That programme is called Save Our Seas – S.O.S for short. Our Sea Life Division has also undertaken charitable and conservation work with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDCS) and Marine Conservation (MCS) Societies.
At all of our sites, we take our responsibilities towards the local community very seriously. Wherever possible, our progressive environmental initiatives support waste recycling, energy use reduction, noise reduction, water conservation and at Alton Towers, a 'Green Travel Plan'.
We also support local initiatives such as Runnymede Borough Council's ‘Yellow Bus' scheme, for which Thorpe Park was the original sponsor. At Alton Towers, we've worked with the local council to install security cameras in Alton village and a number of other locations, in order to provide a ‘watch' service. We have also set up a ‘First Responders' unit, which uses Alton's fully trained paramedical team/ambulance to provide a fast first-line response to local road accidents and other incidents. LEGOLAND Windsor contributed £240,000 in 2007 to the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead as part of a Section 106 agreement. The money has now helped fund a new real-time bus scheme for the borough.
