More than 250,000 people have taken part in the Formula for Good Deeds program over five years

16 february 2021

In February, SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program turns five. In 2016, SIBUR transitioned from its policy of ad hoc targeted assistance efforts and one-off campaigns to a consistent and robust charity work program aimed at facilitating sustainable development of the cities where the company has a presence. For the regions, the key implications of the program's launch included introduction of a mechanism for contest-based funding of projects and support for grassroots initiatives.

SIBUR has been making its contribution to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by implementing its Formula for Good Deeds program along 6 of the most socially relevant areas of public life: urban development, education and science, sports and healthy living, environmental protection, culture and volunteering.

The Formula for Good Deeds is one of the most geographically widespread among similar programs implemented by other Russian industrial companies. A grant contest was initiated concurrently in 17 cities where SIBUR operates. Over the five years of its existence, the contest received more than 3,100 applications, and nearly one-third of them received funding. By the end of 2020, about 650 social projects had been implemented, and more than 100 more will be supported by the company in 2021.

Elena Belskaya, Head of ZapSibNeftekhim's Government Relations Department: Thanks to SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program, over the past five years Tobolsk has seen more than a hundred unique projects and initiatives of its citizens come alive. Our Open Youth Theater project is one good example of sustainable development. Founded in 2006, it got a new lease of life in 2017 when, with the support of the grant contest, it finally managed to get a hold of its own building with a stage two minutes away from the Tobolsk Kremlin and turned into a new hub of the city’s culture scene. Today, the theater boasts five drama studios, where dozens of Tobolsk’s residents, both children and adults, study the art of acting and drama. On top of that, members of the theatrical company have an opportunity to take additional acting courses at Russia's best drama schools annually thanks to the support from the Formula for Good Deeds, and they are happy to apply the knowledge and the skills they thus acquire when putting on new productions or trying new experimental genres.

Olga Solodova, CEO of the Open Youth Theater: Cooperation between the Formula for Good Deeds and the Open Youth Theater has offered the city an opportunity to take a new and unorthodox look at art and has helped fuel the interest of Tobolsk’s residents and visitors in theater and drama. Happy fifth anniversary to SIBUR and the Formula for Good Deeds! May the program and the company behind it continue to thrive, so that with your help all of us can go on working on making our dreams come true!

Yet another example of a sustainable development project that at one point or another got support from the Formula for Good Deeds is the Pegasus Equestrian Club in Tobolsk. By virtue of emerging as a winner of the grant contest, the club was able to afford building a roofed arena for exercising in inclement weather, expand its stables, and provide training for its apprentice riders. Today, Pegasus continues to operate successfully on its own.

Of special note are SIBUR’s interregional projects that it has been implementing as part of its social investment program. SIBUR's partners include some of the most reputable institutions, including the State Theater of Nations, Territoriya, the International Festival and School, the Moscow Museum of Design, Children's Villages SOS, an international charitable organization, and many others. In 2016-2021, 161 projects in six different focus areas were granted support. These included tours of the Theater of Nations, art laboratories under the auspices of the Territoriya festival, extreme Character of Steel races, exhibitions by the Moscow Museum of Design, installation of bird feeders, bird counting in Tyumen Oblast, science festivals, and scientific sessions. These events were attended by more than 230 thousand participants.

One of the program’s most memorable interregional initiatives is the Art Formula, a project on a mission to create new street art objects right on buildings’ facades. What makes such art objects unique is that they are based on the contest-winning drawings and sketches made by Tobolsk’s residents. In the five years that the Formula for Good Deeds has been under implementation, five unique street art objects have emerged in Tobolsk sprucing up the city with new vibrant colors.

The Formula for Good Deeds program is highly valued by the expert community and has been receiving multiple awards and prizes every year. In 2020 alone, it was named The Best Program to Support Culture and Art in the 2020 Leaders of Corporate Charity contest conducted by the Ministry of Culture of Russia. In 2020, the Company was ranked (for its Best Practices) among Group A companies in the Leaders of Corporate Charity ranking. On top of that, Tobolsk Forest, another interregional project, won Russia’s national Reliable Partner - Ecology contest in the Best Forest Conservation Business Project category. It was within the framework of the Tobolsk Forest project that the company's volunteers and employees planted 7,500 pine seedlings in Tobolsk and in the Tobolsk district in 2019-2020 while also conducting dozens of eco-lessons for several hundred local school children.

Alexey Kozlov, Member of the Management Board – Managing Director, Administrative Support for Business and Government Relations at SIBUR LLC: The advent of the Formula for Good Deeds represents a logical transition from occasional charity to a sustainable program of social investments. Over the five years that the program has been in existence, we have been able to draw thousands of motivated people into the orbit of positive change in SIBUR's cities of presence. Every good deed that has been done owes a lot of credit to our partners, volunteers and caring residents.

The future of the Formula for Good Deeds program is inextricably linked to SIBUR's sustainable development strategy. We will continue incorporating the UN Sustainability goals into the company's projects and will keep developing social entrepreneurship. Besides, the efforts to help build professional communities and share best practices, and to keep the company's educational initiatives afloat, will remain a priority.