Community Outreach and In-house Initiatives Outreach Award and Award of Excellence
Million Meals Campaign Dillon Consulting
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illon launched the Million Meals Campaign to help sustainably combat food insecurity across Canada. The specific goal was to provide the equivalent of one million meals throughout the communities where the firm’s employees live and work. The campaign targeted the root causes of food insecurity by working directly with organizations within these communities, which involved employee volunteer hours, in-kind pro bono consulting services and donations. In March 2022, the firm met its goal, supporting more than 250 organizations throughout the country.
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CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER
By way of example, Dillon provided site engineering and design services to help Outflow Ministry develop a new ‘Outflow Farm’ in Kings County, N.B., to bolster the charity’s efforts to assist people living in poverty. The firm’s services supported the overall site layout, including tiny homes, cabins and a septic system, and offered a structural assessment for a barn in need of repair. In another example, the farmbased charity Everdale asked for help in designing an approximately 10-acre ‘good food forest’ in Erin, Ont., that would eventually yield 250,000 lb of fresh, sustainable produce annually. Dillon provided landscape architecture, planning, hydrogeology and water resources services.
The applications were evaluated on the basis of such factors as feasibility, impact and geographical diversity. Dillon then awarded its pro bono services to nine non-profit food organizations to help increase their impact and remove barriers in their communities. These services included: • Engineering design and support services. • Landscape architecture. • Planning. • Hydrogeology and other water resources expertise.
“A very purposeful, programmatic and well-executed project, with clear goals. It will have a lasting benefit.” - Jury
From strategy to policy Dillon created a corporate sustainability strategy more than 10 years ago, which incorporates goals for improving the social well-being of employees and minimizing the firm’s environmental impact. These goals include achieving and maintaining carbon neutrality and donating to external community and environmental organizations. Since then, the strategy has evolved into a policy that guides Dillon’s business operations. The firm signed the UN Global Compact in 2019 and committed to continue expanding the boundaries of its corSeptember/October 2023
PHOTOS COU RT E SY DI L LON CONS U LT I NG.
Committing support Dillon launched the campaign in October 2020 in response to the United Nations’ (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goal #2: Zero Hunger. As a signatory to the UN Global Compact, Dillon has committed to principled business practices. In addition to providing the one million meals, the firm worked to help solve some of the problems associated with the root causes of food insecurity and, in doing so, contribute to a transformation of existing systems. In 2021, Dillon solicited pro bono consulting applications from non-profit organizations in its communities, so as to support their immediate needs relating to food security.
• Engagement. • Feasibility studies. • Geographical information system (GIS) mapping. • Project management and co-ordination. • Manual labour (through employee volunteer hours). • Cash donations. • Tender support.
