Social investment

We support community development projects indirectly through the Shell Foundation, an independent charity that focuses on poverty and environmental charities.

We also work directly through national programmes, working with others on community projects linked to our business. These include education and skills development, health and safety, the environment, and social cohesion.

Project we choose must be sustainable, delivering lasting benefits and be self-supporting when our participation ends. They must also involve local support and have a measurable positive impact, meeting community needs. We make sure they are transparent and that they can be shared and replicated.

Watch the video:
Meet Anand, who has benefited from the Naya Daur (“new beginning”) initiative supported by Shell in India to provide education to some of its workforce.

We help young people explore the option of starting their own business as a real and viable career option. Launched in 1982 in the UK, LiveWIRE is a global Shell programme that is managed nationally in 21 countries.

The fund sponsors postgraduate students from developing countries to study in the UK and the Netherlands. The students gain skills that allow them to contribute to the development of their countries.

We work with other companies to help set standards for the transport industry, pool skills and resources, and influence governments to improve the safety of the roads and to raise standards for the vehicles on the roads.

We invite students to design and drive the most fuel-efficient car. The competition was launched in 1939 and now includes parallel events in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

We are taking steps to protect our employees and their dependents from the HIV/AIDS, to care for those who are infected, and to work with others to fight the spread of AIDS. A key aspect of our efforts is to create ongoing partnerships with relevant local and global organisations and other key stakeholders to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic collectively. We take part in global partnerships, but local partnerships are also developed in the regions and countries where we operate.

Shell Foundation is an independent charity that takes a business approach to challenges arising from the impact of energy and globalisation on poverty and the environment. It develops sustainable business models that can be scaled up to improve millions of lives across the world.

The Foundation was established in 2000 with an initial endowment of $250 million from Shell Group, plus annual donations through to 2010 averaging $15 million per year. 

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: In 2010 Shell Foundation helped to set up the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, as part of wider efforts to tackle harmful smoke caused by three billion people cooking on open fires or inefficient stoves. This public-private initiative will support the large-scale use of clean-burning domestic cookstoves in developing countries as a way to save lives and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Shell has committed $6 million over three years to support the work of the GACC.

Shell staff contribute their expertise to sustainable development projects around the world. We work in partnership with NGO Earthwatch.