Nipro cares about its employees and encourages healthy habits daily. From healthy meal options at the cafeteria to organised Pilates sessions, Nipro employees are encouraged to pursue healthy lifestyles.
For the second year running (no pun intended), Nipro organised a company-wide challenge, encouraging colleagues to clock up 12,500 km within 4 weeks. This is the distance between Nipro’s European HQ in Mechelen, Belgium and the Nipro HQ in Osaka, Japan. If the target was met, Nipro pledged to donate 5,000 € to Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation known for its health projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases.
There was no “IF the target was met” – it turned out to be just a case of “WHEN”. Even before the end of Week 3, the target had been achieved! Keeping with the hottest sporting event of the season (this challenge took place at the end of 2022), Nipro added a second target to the challenge: the distance between the Nipro HQ in Japan and Qatar where the football World Cup was taking place - another 7,890.4 km. This would bring the total distance covered to 20,390.4 km.
Our Nipro colleagues did us proud by reaching the first target sooner than we had expected. Instead of calling the challenge over, we decided to give them another challenge. They very nearly achieved this too, reaching almost 93% of the target! We are very happy that our worthy cause to Doctors Without Borders has become a reality.” Bart Van Bambost, Chief Human Resources Officer.
Employees were invited to sign up and take part in this good cause, which tied into Nipro’s commitment to do good for society. The challenge was also beneficial for the participants by boosting their levels of physical activity and encouraged a friendly sense of collegial competition across borders.
120 Nipro colleagues from 11 countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom) took part. They recorded their efforts at walking, running, cycling, and rowing on the My Virtual Mission app – every participant could see how much of the target had been achieved and how much more was left. Colleagues were motivated and at the end of the challenge, there were 3,187 entries covering a distance of 18,920 km over 4 weeks, just a little under the total of the first and second targets.
The top 3 positions on the final leaderboard were dominated by cyclists: Pieter Vercruyce from Nipro Digital Technologies Europe (Belgium) with 1,584.2 km; Jasper Van Gestel from Nipro Digital Technologies Europe (Belgium) with 1,479.1 km; and Koen Vissers from Nipro PharmaPackaging (Belgium) with 886.3 km. The top participants in the other sporting categories were Samantha Blay from Nipro Diagnostics (the United Kingdom) who walked 384.76 km; Shirley Thevarajoo from Nipro Medical (South Africa) who ran 348.54 km; and Maria-Victoria Lujan-Lava from Nipro Medical Europe (Belgium) who rowed 521.7 km.
Nipro rewarded the efforts of all the participants by keeping its promise to donate 5,000 € to Doctors Without Borders.
