In the lead up to COP 26 in November 2021, Anthesis has kick started a series of sporting challenges and fundraisers, launching with the Anthesis Challenge 2020, an initiative which encouraged employees to get active and clock up the kilometres from wherever they are in the world, whilst fundraising for charities identified as particularly important to our colleagues this year.
The Global Challenge
This is the third year that Anthesis colleagues have united together in a global sporting challenge for a charitable cause, following on from the Catalunya Cycle Challenge 2019 and the Amsterdam Cycle Challenge 2018 where Anthesians rode from London to Amsterdam raising money for UNICEF.
With the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social-distancing and travel restrictions faced by many, it was more important than ever that our 2020 challenge brought our regional colleagues together in spirit and engaged them on a global level. The Anthesis Challenge 2020 focused on encouraging individuals or small regional groups to run, bike, walk or swim in their local areas, contributing to a global tally and sharing their achievements with each other virtually.
SPOTLIGHT ON: UK Challenge
Our UK business contributed to the global Anthesis Challenge 2020 by running two sporting fundraisers over two different timeframes throughout lockdown. Both challenges aimed to raise funds for UK charities that have been particularly affected or have been important to employees in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Run by the UK Corporate Responsibility team, the ‘Virtual Travel Round the World’ fundraiser encouraged employees to log how many kilometres they had physically walked, cycled, swum and run between March-October in order to ‘virtually travel around the world’, visiting Anthesis offices along the way. Impressively, the team managed to virtually travel the distance from Helsinki to Manila, visiting 21 of our Anthesis office locations along the way! Funds raised were split equally between Anthesis London charity partner The Trussell Trust, the Disasters Emergency Committee, and mental health charity Mind.
Additionally, Tobias Parker, Director, ran a month-long fundraiser from September-October to raise vital funds for the Penny Brohn Centre, a UK charity which offers lifesaving cancer support services. To invite a little friendly competition amongst colleagues, we opened the Anthesis Institute of Sporting Excellence on performance platform Strava and challenged employees to see who could log the most kilometres from their runs, cycles or swims each week to be crowned winner on the Strava leaderboard.
SPOTLIGHT ON: North America & Asia-Pacific
From Boulder, Colorado to Shanghai, China, employees from our NA-APAC business got active outdoors between September-October with their families, friends and local colleagues.
The North America and Asia-Pacific challenge was led by Senior Marketing Manager Jackie Fleming, who says “The opportunity to participate in last year’s Anthesis bike tour in Spain provided such meaningful camaraderie that I felt very motivated to ensure the tradition continued this year, despite the complications imposed by the global pandemic. Even though we’ve had to limit the group sizes and keep rides local, this year’s Anthesis Challenge has allowed us to feel connected by a shared purpose, to get a view into our colleagues’ Challenge activities from around the world, and to make a difference for our local charities.”
Collectively, the team raised and donated a fantastic $500 to their chosen charity – Climate Justice Alliance – formed in 2013 to create a new center of gravity in the climate movement by uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force at the intersection of social and environmental justice.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Anthesis Lavola Challenge
Our Anthesis Lavola business, headquartered in Spain, challenged employees to get on their bikes, get running or plan a family hike to cover as many kilometres as possible from September-October. With strong engagement from employees, they logged 1,380 km and raised €1,380 which they chose to donate to local Barcelona care charity Caritas.
Toni Soler, Marketing Manager for Anthesis Lavola, led the initiative and says “Cycling has helped me psychologically to better endure this time in the pandemic. While cycling, I can enjoy the landscapes and mountains, it increases my energy and improves my mood. While there is some suffering, especially in the climbs, it is also a reminder that everything passes and after the climbs there are descents.”
Global Achievements
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