Ukrainian Refugee Donation Drive

Globally, many people and companies continue to provide support. Our industry has also joined together and through our membership of the Plant and Hire Aid Alliance we have combined our efforts to make a difference.

The Challenge

Following many successful appeals and deliveries in previous Convoys of food items, mattresses, medical supplies and travel suitcases the Plant and Hire Aid Alliance sought warm winter clothing donations for its Autumn Convoy.

Leaving mid-October, the Convoy of vehicles, representing the plant and hire industry, were driving the donations to a warehouse in Košice, East Slovakia, for them to be despatched throughout Ukraine by local volunteers.

The Solution

The opportunity to make an impact to the lives of thousands of Ukrainians aligns to our social impact commitments of transforming lives and communities and our teams were eager to support.

We launched a company-wide appeal and made this our focus for the first month of our Big Winter Donation Drive, which sees us support a different cause in October, November and December. However, to meet the Convoy deadline we had a little over a week to collect as many donations as possible, so we rallied our internal social impact networks to lead the way across the country.

In each region we have a Regional Social Impact Champion supported by a growing network of Depot Champions. This enables us to quickly reach out to all corners of Sunbelt Rentals nationwide and engage with our teams to keep our social impact plans relevant, impactful and national with a local focus whilst involving our people.

This network quickly mobilised donation boxes at key depots across the country and helped communicate our support of the Plant and Hire Aid Alliance Autumn Convoy to everyone at Sunbelt Rentals, as well as our customers and supply chain.

The Result

In a little over a week, teams from Dundee, to Manchester, across the Midlands, to London and through to Bristol collected 38 boxes with over 6,100 items being donated.

We collected a wide range of crucial items for the families seeking refuge, including medical equipment, baby and toddler clothes and nappies, warm adult clothing, coats and shoes, as well as blankets and much more.

Jeremy Fish, CEO of Ardent Hire who founded the Plant and Hire Aid Alliance said, “The Plant and Hire Aid Alliance sees our industry pulling together to support the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and has proved that when we combine our efforts, we can achieve astonishing and amazing success. A big thank you and congratulations to Sunbelt Rentals UK and Ireland who collected 38 boxes of donations for our Autumn Convoy, which contained some 6,100 items. Well done Sunbelt team. You did great! You should be proud of yourselves. 100%!”

Jackie Cuthbert, Director of Social Impact at Sunbelt Rental said, “We are so proud of our teams who reacted quickly to support an extremely worthy cause and help us make a difference. It is so important that we join across industries to strive to make our society and world a better place for now and the future generations. Well done to everyone involved in this campaign, and for those companies in our industry who have led the way.”