Social challenge and reasons for project’s initiation

Immediacy of the social problem

The idea to create an interactive educational center offering career guidance came as a results of many years of JSC Apatit supporting local schools and colleges. The program is an extension of the regular school curriculum with advanced classes on chemistry, biology, geography and environment.

External reasons for project’s initiation

We started by reaching out to all the stakeholders (students, teachers, local authorities for education and culture, museum staff). Based on their response, we realized that such a center would be helpful because students and teachers are interested in having advanced classes, where complex things can be explained in a simpler way.

Cherepovets is the industrial capital of Vologda Province. This is where most metal, chemical and wood-processing plants are located. Local people are very concerned about environmental issues. They want to know what the companies do to improve the environmental situation. So, one of the intended purposes for the Green Planet Center was to inform people about environmental matters.

Internal reasons for project’s initiation

The idea was to combine the Company’s corporate museum with an innovative educational center, which would generate new experiences and ideas, attracting tourists, students and local people.

Coverage

Vologda Oblast

Project description

The Green Planet Center opened in Cherepovets in 2017. The modern museum complex is located on the Apatit campus. The project offers career guidance and raises environmental awareness among children and young people, simultaneously informing visitors about the environmental policies by PhosAgro Group and JSC Apatit.

Green Planet is located in Cherepovets’ industrial zone, in one of the oldest buildings of the ammonia plant (1968). It is a two-story complex of 980 square meters. It consists of two permanent exhibitions, a temporary exhibition room, a conference room and a gallery.

The first floor features an interactive exhibition called Green Planet. It tells visitors about preserving nature’s greatest treasure – fertile soil – and teaches them to take care of the environment. It is also a presentation of PhosAgro Group operations, its social and environmental policies.

The second floor is about the company’s history and current activities. It shows the entire timeline of the industry, from the first experiments with mineral fertilizers to the emergence of JSC Apatit as an industry giant.There are about 50 multimedia exhibits at the Center. There is a virtual lab, a multimedia microscope which gives you 50,000× magnification, an interactive garden where you can watch educational videos about life and the structure of a cell – or perform your own experiments. There is a panoramic cinema system for screening educational videos, touchscreen tables with geographical data about over 100 countries, etc

Team and partners 

Team

• Green Planet director Yulia Bondarenko
• Green Planet staff

Partners

• Vologda Province Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection
• Cherepovets Mayor’s Office
• Cherepovets Environmental Protection Committee
• Cherepovets Department of Education
• Cherepovets Department of Culture
• Cherepovets Environmental Volunteer Center
• Cherepovets news monitoring agency
• Territorial Self-Government Councils
• Cherepovets Museum Association
• Natural History Museum
• Darwin Preserve
• Drozd Cherepovets
• Cherepovets University
• Cherepovets colleges
• Cherepovets centers for children deprived of parental care – Navigator, Nadezhda, Nashi Deti, Rostok, Preodolenie, Sozvezdie
• Cherepovets Chess Club   

Resources

Financial resources

The Company donated a total of 167.754 million rubles to the Green Planet Center.

The Center provides all of its services free of charge, without generating any revenue. The Company evaluates the project’s efficience based on its social impact.

Technological and material resources

The Center’s technological and multimedia equipment puts it on par with the Polytechnical Museum in Moscow, the Jewish Tolerance Museum in Moscow, the Arktikum (Finland), the Odysseum in Cologne and the Metal Industry Museum in Cherepovets. 

Achieved results

Social results

• Over 50,000 people visited the Center from May 2017 to November 2019, 65% of them children aged 5 to 18;
• 1,700 tours and infotainment events;
• Positive feedback in the guestbook and on social media (over 500 comments); 95% of teachers say participants in Green Planet projects display increased interest in the natural sciences and deeper knowledge of environmental issues;
• The project now positions itself with the public as a career guidance and environmental youth center;
• The Center is accessible children with special needs, children from low-income families, centers for children deprived of parental care, rehabilitation centers;
• 98% of school students said they would like to visit the Center again;
• The Cherepovets City Council has given the Green Planet Center the 2017 Best Social Project of the Year Award;
• In 2018, Green Planet won the Corporate Philanthropy Leaders Award in the Best Educational Program in the Northwestern Federal District category;
• In 2018, Green Planet won the National Award for the Best Practices in Children’s Tourism in the Best Extracurricular Children’s Tourism Organization category;
• In 2019, Green Planet won the district level of the Wonder of Russia contest in the Social and Children’s Tourism category and was second at  the national level;
• In 2019, Green Planet received the diploma of the national Five Stars Chemical Industry contest.

Internal project assessment

Evaluation is performed on several levels:

• By beneficiaries – through feedback forms, questionnaires, meetings with school teachers and NGO leaders
• By project manager – by reviewing performance through regular meetings and interviews
• By Company executives – at performance review meetings and board meetings

External project assessment

The most extensive external evaluation of the project was performed by professional experts in 2016, when the Company reviewed all of its charitable activities. Professional experts recommended making some changes to Company regulations, projects and programs, reporting forms and the website for social investment. In 2018, external professional experts performed a number of studies, and currently project leaders are preparing reports based on their reviews.

Project’s distinctive features and know – how

Green Planet is the only career guidance and environmental center in the region promoting the chemical industry and offering free services. The center reflects the industry’s unique history, displays its current operations and presents its future prospects. It is a center of science and education, attracting tourists, students and local people. This was made possible through the synergy of the best industrial practices with innovation in education and museum work.

Plans of further development   

Green Planet is the only career guidance and environmental center in the region promoting the chemical industry and offering free services. The center reflects the industry’s unique history, displays its current operations and presents its future prospects. It is a center of science and education, attracting tourists, students and local people. This was made possible through the synergy of the best industrial practices with innovation in education and museum work.