11 August 2020

It Takes a Village: Brookfield Asia Pacific’s Grassroots Efforts to Give Back During COVID-19

We are proud of Brookfield’s global efforts to affect positive change in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one story in a series of blogs highlighting the various global campaigns and how they made a difference.

The Brookfield team, across the Asia Pacific region, had a unique approach to getting involved in A Cause for Caring that aligned with their ongoing efforts to make positive community contributions. A Cause for Caring is a global effort by Brookfield, empowering employees across all sectors and regions to support causes of their choice, with a focus on helping those most impacted by COVID-19.

The Asia Pacific region had been seriously impacted by the Australian bushfires in early 2020 and was one of the first areas impacted by COVID-19. The Brookfield team felt the effect of hard times, and instantly took the initiative to help out in their affected communities through grassroots, employee led initiatives. .

“One of the heartening things is in these times of crisis our team put their heads together ,and came forward to make suggestions on how our business could contribute and support local  communities,” Rebecca Firth, Manager  – Communications and Branding and Brookfield Cares committee chair, said.  

The Asia Pacific team experienced times of uncertainty prior to the rest of the world, executing their donation strategy earlier than other regions. They worked closely with partner charities to enhance community support and thoughtfully designated their donations, which ensured help and products were given to where they were needed most.

One partner, OzHarvest, provides food to those in need and Brookfield assisted by donating leftover food from their office spaces across Australia and through monetary donations. The Brookfield Properties team also made monetary donations to their food retailers to make pre-made meals, which were then donated to OzHarvest to redistribute in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Brookfield’s support helped OzHarvest to rescue 890kg of food which equals to providing 2,687 need.

In addition to OzHarvest, Brookfield Asia Pacific supported COVID-19 relief efforts by:

• Renewable Power employees in China supported local Red Cross charities with financial donations.
• Donating 1,000 surgical masks to the Tamworth Hospital.
• Donating 100 free parking passes to hospital workers at Brisbane Private Hospital to park in a Brookfield Properties lot free of charge.  
• Providing employment assistance for their Age Care portfolio by connecting the Sofitel Brisbane Central and Qantas to Aveo to explore the potential redeployment of any of any employees who have been laid off.
• Donating 20 mobile phones plus SIM cards to Anglicare. Anglicare supports at risk women. Mobile phones help as in lockdown as a means of communication if the women were in trouble.

In response to Australia’s bushfires in early 2020, the Brookfield team worked with its charitable partner, Taronga Conservation Society, to help support Bushfire recovery efforts. The Conservation Society rescued animals that had been injured by the fires such as koalas and platypuses and fostered them back to health. “They recently told us that they released some of the koalas and platypuses back into the wild, so that was very exciting. It has been a tough year, so it was a nice story to hear,” said Rebecca.

A Cause for Caring not only connected team members across the Asia Pacific region, but it has connected Brookfield globally, “I think that was one of the positive things to come from the pandemic: the increased connectivity across the various regions and Brookfield’s companies/sectors,” Rebecca expressed, “That’s one of the really good things about Brookfield; how many kind hearted people there are in the workforce that make the time to help out and support the communities that we work in.”