JAGUAR LAND ROVER VOLUNTEERS MAKE LIFE-SAVING MAPS

5 December 2017

In Jaguar Land Rover’s largest ever volunteering activity, more than 150 employees have taken part in the company’s first ‘Mapathon’ event plotting roads, rivers and buildings across a sprawling area in the Kurigram District of Bangladesh using satellite imagery.

  • Jaguar Land Rover and the Red Cross celebrate International Volunteer Day with digital ‘Mapathon’ project
  • Over 150 employees volunteer to help the Red Cross offer aid, water and immunisations in Bangladesh
  • In 2016, over 10,000 Jaguar Land Rover employees took part in volunteering initiatives
  • Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/LoJFxn3YaZE
JAGUAR LAND ROVER VOLUNTEERS MAKE LIFE-SAVING MAPS

In Jaguar Land Rover’s largest ever volunteering activity, more than 150 employees have taken part in the company’s first ‘Mapathon’ event plotting roads, rivers and buildings across a sprawling area in the Kurigram District of Bangladesh using satellite imagery. The event marks International Volunteer Day and celebrates a 64 year partnership between Jaguar Land Rover and the Red Cross.

Jaguar Land Rover employees join a global community of volunteers mapping areas where humanitarian organisations, such as the Red Cross, are helping vulnerable people. Bangladesh was chosen to support the Red Cross’ work in the area to implement disaster risk reduction activities and increase resilience of communities.

Jaguar Land Rover volunteers make life-saving maps

Click here

Each year, disasters kill nearly 100,000 people and affect or displace 200 million more globally. Many of these places are not on any map, making them hard to reach in emergencies. By taking part in today’s Mapathon, our employees are helping the Red Cross to provide life-saving support to the vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, harnessing the talent of Jaguar Land Rover employees to create genuine social impact.

Chris Thorp
Responsible Business Director

During the two hour event, using the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team Tasking Manager, each volunteer was allocated a square of territory to trace through satellite images and outline features such as buildings, roads and rivers. The maps produced are open data, and Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations can use the maps when they respond to crises.

In 2016, a record-breaking 25 per cent of Jaguar Land Rover’s global workforce volunteered more than 100,000 hours to support team education visits and community projects focusing on regeneration, the environment, education, support for young people and charity work.

With more than 42,000 employees globally, Jaguar Land Rover works closely with organisations around the world, helping to advance knowledge and improve lives. The company encourages employees to join volunteering projects to support communities globally and to develop skills beyond their normal roles.

Jaguar Land Rover has supported the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies since 1954 and has supplied 120 vehicles to the IFRC for deployment in all corners of the globe.

This award-winning initiative covers a variety of humanitarian programmes around the world, such as health awareness in South Africa; social care in Italy, Portugal and the UK; resilience in Australia; and water and sanitation projects in South Sudan and Burundi.  

Further information

Sophia Hutchinson, Communications Officer
M: +44 7387 237955 E: shutchi4@jaguarlandrover.com

Stephanie Jones, Communications Officer
M +44 7468 473546 E: sjones37@jaguarlandrover.com 

Notes to Editors

About Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest automotive manufacturer, built around two iconic British car brands: Land Rover, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium all-wheel-drive vehicles; and Jaguar, one of the world’s premier luxury sports saloon and sports car marques.

We employ more than 42,000 people globally and support around 240,000 more through our dealerships, suppliers and local businesses. Manufacturing is centred in the UK, with additional plants in China, Brazil, Austria and Slovakia.

At Jaguar Land Rover, we are driven by a desire to deliver class-leading vehicles, which will provide experiences our customers will love, for life. Our products are in demand around the globe. In 2016 Jaguar Land Rover sold more than 583,000 vehicles in 136 countries, with more than 80 per cent of our vehicles produced in the UK being sold abroad.

Our innovation is continuous: we will spend more than £4 billion in the coming year on new product creation and capital expenditure.

From 2020 all new Jaguar Land Rover vehicles will be electrified, giving our customers even more choice. We will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles as well as continuing to offer ultra-clean petrol and diesel engines.

The British Red Cross

The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies. We enable vulnerable people in the UK and abroad to prepare for and withstand emergencies in their own communities. And when the crisis is over, we help them to recover and move on with their lives. www.redcross.org.uk

The Missing Maps project

The Missing Maps project aims to map the most vulnerable places in the world (affected by humanitarian crises: disease epidemics, conflict, natural disasters, poverty, environmental crises). Building on the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) disaster preparedness projects, the Missing Maps Project was founded by HOT, British Red Cross, American Red Cross, and Medecins Sans Frontieres to facilitate pre-emptive mapping of priority countries to better facilitate disaster response, medical activities and resource allocation when crises occur.