Also in this issue

Young achievers delight their shareholders

Where will our next generation of business leaders come from? They may just be among the students of Wynnum High School in Brisbane. Ten Year 11 students recently won Queensland Student Company of the Year in the Young Achievement Australia (YAA) 2007 awards.

The program, sponsored by Caltex and the Lytton refinery, introduces kids to the world of business and challenges them to develop a product from scratch as a business venture.

In a year-long enterprise, the students:

conducted market research
designed and developed products
sold shares to bankroll their project
developed action plans, business reports and marketing plans
produced an annual report for shareholders.

Their product? Decorated glassware and servingware. Pliable wire and coloured stones were used to decorate their creations in a variety of elegant designs for wine, cocktail and spirit glasses as well as salad and cake servers.

The company was liquidated in October and for every $2 share purchased, investors received $4.95 – an impressive return by any standards.

The YAA program ran every Wednesday for ten months. As well as financial assistance from Caltex and the refinery, the students received ongoing advice and support from their teacher Elizabeth Forster and business mentor Toni Dugdale from the Lytton refinery.

They experienced the gamut of real life business experience – learning about the value of teamwork, work-life balance and strong and clear communication, says Toni. The judging panel agreed they excelled in all functions.

“It's been simply amazing to watch these dedicated pupils become the most successful student company in Queensland," says Toni. “They've become young leaders and I'm proud of them all."

Caltex fuels the Mark Webber Challenge

Tasmanians saw popular F1 driver Mark Webber take to a track of a different kind in late November when he competed in the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge that he founded four years earlier.

Caltex is one of the sponsors of the cycling, kayaking and hiking charity adventure race. It teamed up again with Tasmanian reseller Caltas to play a crucial role in the provision of Vortex for support vehicles during the seven day event.

Mark created the race in 2003 to raise money for The Mark Webber Challenge Foundation, Supporting young Australians with life threatening illnesses along with environment and conservation projects. This year it raised money for the Leukaemia Foundation and the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal.

The challenge has two categories – the Van Diemen Cup for four person corporate teams and the 2theXtreme cup for two person elite teams. The winners, respectively, this year were Telstra and Schweppes, whose members covered over 450 kilometres of Tasmania's beautiful terrain.

Lighting up little lives

Caltex has joined forces with Frucor Beverages in a nationwide, year long store promotion to raise at least $30,000 for the Starlight Children's Foundation.

For every bottle of Evian mineral water sold in Caltex stores during the “Light up a Little Life" campaign, 15 cents will be donated to Starlight. All Evian bottles supplied to Caltex until 1 July 2008 will be fitted with a bright yellow cardboard necktag advertising the promotion.

Frucor Beverages has set up a special code for Evian to ensure all Caltex outlets receive stock and to facilitate collection of the money. Caltex has committed to raising a minimum of $30,000, but is hoping for more.

“This is the first long term commitment of its kind to a charity by Caltex Merchandise and one of its suppliers and it's exclusive to us," says National Merchandise Manager Karim Sumar.

A challenge to shape up, one step at a time

Australian sporting icon Herb Elliot AC MBE, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners, visited Caltex recently to meet participants in the Global Corporate Challenge and present an award to our best performing team.

The Global Corporate Challenge is a health and fitness initiative helping people in the corporate world to step away from potentially deadly sedentary habits and get moving again. The aim is to reduce obesity and heart disease and get people back in shape – literally one step at a time.

Seven teams of seven members from Caltex put their best foot forward and took up the challenge. Participants must wear a pedometer for 125 days to measure the number of paces they take. This figure is entered on the program's website which converts the steps into kilometres and plots team progress on a virtual online course covering 20,000 kilometres.

The Caltex “Star Steppers" team made great strides, averaging 14,378 steps per day (equivalent to about 10 kilometres), almost 4,000 steps more than the average for all competitors, finishing in 161st place out of a total of 3,336 teams.

Chief Financial Officer Simon Hepworth stepped up to receive the award – a gold replica of Herb's running shoe from his gold medal-winning performance in the 1,500 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics – on behalf of the Star Steppers. The challenge was a good way to keep fit, says participant Blaine Bester. “It really pushed me to walk a bit further every day and motivated me to keep more active at the weekends too."

Staying safe

Incident free operations and LPS rely just as much on long term prevention as avoiding immediate threats to safety and business.

With this in mind, as the hot glare of summer arrives all Caltex people, parents in particular, should heed the warning by the Australian Cancer Council that eyes, like skin, are susceptible to long term damage from exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

The damage is not always immediately seen or felt but is cumulative over time. Repeated exposure to UV radiation can cause short-term eye complaints and serious damage including cataracts or cancer of the eye membrane or eyelids.

The answer is to avoid exposure as much as possible, wear a broad-brimmed hat and use wrap-around sunglasses that meet the Australian standard that classifies glasses based on the amount of radiation they filter out. Look for those labelled UV 4000 or EPF (Eye Protection Factor) 9 or 10. If these are hard to find, visit a Cancer Council store.

Because the damage is cumulative it is important to protect children's eyes from an early age, says the council, one of the charities supported by Caltex employees through the Fuelling Change workplace giving program.

Wearing a hat will provide some protection, but once a child is old enough to manage sunglasses he or she should be encouraged to do so whenever they're outside in moderate or above UV conditions (UV>3). And of course if you're an adult who's never worn sunglasses, it's never too late to start. A very simple philosophy lies at the heart of LPS: eliminating risks – all risks – is the key to staying safe and avoiding loss.