CPI in the community

As the UK’s market-leading manufacturer of dry silo mortar we recognise the importance of making a positive and meaningful impact on the people and communities in which we operate. Through our colleague engagement forum, Let’s Talk, we are encouraging our colleagues to identify how we can best have a positive impact in the community. We have already undertaken a number of initiatives to date and look forward to further community engagement opportunities in the future.

Primary school Vulnerable Road User Days

We have partnered with a number of local primary schools in a number to host Vulnerable Road User Awareness days. This has seen primary school pupils visit a CPI factory, with our delivery vehicles used to highlight road safety risks posed by these vehicles for pedestrians and cyclists. The children hear about the vehicles and the safety equipment we employ and through games and challenges, learn in a fun way about vehicle blind spots, stopping distances and the hazards associated with heavy goods vehicles. Our colleagues love hosting these days and it is so rewarding to conduct follow up visits to the schools to hear key safety messages from the day repeated by the children to their fellow classmates.

Bristol allotment

We’re also working in conjunction with Severn Beach Primary School in Bristol to help cultivate a local allotment. In March 2022, three CPI colleagues visited the school to hear about the fruit, vegetables and flowers the children wanted to grow on the allotment.

Some of the older children, who are members of the school’s Gardening Club, will help CPI Bristol colleagues with the allotment’s cultivation. The plot is a five-minute walk from our Bristol factory making it a convenient place for colleagues to visit to either help with the plot’s development or to simply enjoy some quiet space away from work to support their personal wellbeing. Produce grown at the allotment will be donated to various communities in Bristol.

Goldthorpe Community Team

Colleagues in our Carlton bagging factory are working with the Rotherham-based Goldthorpe Community Team to provide support on a local project. It will involve helping clear wasteland to return it to community use – one of a number of outdoor projects the community team is focused on. Litter picking, fence painting, planting and ground maintenance will be among tasks asked of our colleagues.

Cambridge University

CPI has been pleased to take a number of opportunities to support and work with students at the university’s Engineering Department as part of its Masters course in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management. An element of the programme requires students to complete practical projects with businesses in a manufacturing industry. CPI has developed a brief for two such projects and has been delighted to host students and provide them with access to our business including our colleagues, processes, management and data. The first project, ‘Driving Carbon Reduction’ was completed in 2021. A second project, “Data analysis to improve utilisation of the distribution fleet”, was completed in 2022.

By facilitating these projects, we believe we are helping to develop a new generation of talent that will play a key role in meeting our society’s future needs. The insights and feedback we receive from students as part of their post-project analysis has also helped inform a number of positive initiatives and challenge how we realise our continuous improvement ambitions.

We believe these projects are making a positive contribution to the people in our local communities. It feels good for us as an organisation and our CPI colleagues to be able to make a positive contribution in our communities beyond our commercial boundaries. We’re proud of the difference we’re trying to make, we hope you are too.

Thank you for your continued support.