RSA Canada employees from coast to coast come together to help clean up Canada's shoreline for wildlife

Company integrates the corporate responsibility initiative into national team-building offsite

TORONTO, June 26, 2017 /CNW/ - More than 185 employees from RSA Canada took part in the company's first-ever Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup campaign earlier this week.

A conservation initiative of the Vancouver Aquarium and WWF-Canada, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup provides Canadians with the opportunity to rehabilitate shorelines and create healthier water ecosystems for people and wildlife, one piece of trash at a time.

RSA's Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup events took place in nine cities across the country. Employees across RSA and Johnson offices worked together in teams to pick up garbage from various locations where water met land.

The teams worked together to clean up shores in the following locations:

• Vancouver - Burrard Inlet at Portside Park
• Edmonton - Emily Murphy Park
• Calgary - Elbow River at Stampede Park
• GTA ? Marilyn Bell Park
• Québec City ? Parc de la rivière du Berger
• Sherbrooke ? Magog River at Boisé de la Sauvagine
• Montréal ? Canal Lachine ? Pont Lafleur
• St. John's ? Quidi Lake
• Halifax ? Frenchman Lake

"Participating in the cleanup with colleagues was an enjoyable team-building exercise," said Molly MacInnis in RSA Canada's Toronto office. "Encouraging us to participate in initiatives that are important to us on a personal level is a testament to RSA's belief in the benefits of integrating employee engagement and corporate responsibility initiatives."

At the end of each day, each region also weighed and tallied how much trash had been cleaned up, participated in an important discussion about the items they found, and reflected on what they learned from the experience. Among the most interesting and unusual items picked up was an onion, a jar of pickles and a shopping cart. In total, pounds of litter was picked up before it had the chance to get into the water where it can harm fish, whales, turtles, shorebirds and other aquatic wildlife.

"RSA Canada is proud to participate in this initiative in partnership with WWF-Canada and the Vancouver Aquarium. We know how important it is to keep our shorelines, parks and lakes clean in order to preserve Canada's wildlife," says RSA President and CEO, Martin Thompson. "The five-year partnership with WWF-Canada is helping us inspire and engage employees in workplaces across Canada to take environmental action, through activities like the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup."

Every year, tens of thousands of Canadians take action against shoreline litter by participating in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup one of the largest direct action conservation programs in Canada. Now in its 24th year, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup has collected more than 1.2 million kilograms of trash across Canada with the help of over 700,000 volunteers.

To participate in a Shoreline Cleanup near you or to learn more about this important initiative, please visit www.shorelinecleanup.ca. 

For more information about RSA Canada, visit www.rsagroup.ca or check us out on Twitter at @RSACanada.

About RSA
With a 300 year heritage, RSA is a multinational quoted insurance group. Focusing on general insurance, RSA's core markets are the UK & Ireland, Scandinavia and Canada, with the capability to write insurance business across the globe.  RSA's core businesses have approximately 13,500 employees with net written premiums of £6.3bn in 2016.

About RSA Canada
The RSA Canada group of companies includes Roins Financial Services Limited, Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada, Quebec Assurance Company, Johnson Inc., Unifund Assurance Company, Western Assurance Company, Ascentus Insurance Ltd., Canadian Northern Shield Insurance Company and RSA Travel Insurance Inc. (collectively, "RSA Canada") and is part of a group of companies headed by RSA Insurance Group Plc. RSA Canada employs more than 3,000 people across Canada and is one of the oldest insurance companies in the country with roots dating back to 1833.

©2017 Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada. All rights reserved. RSA, RSA & Design and related words and logos are trademarks and the property of RSA Insurance Group plc, licensed for use by Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada. RSA is a trade name of Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada.

About WWF-Canada & RSA Canada's partnership
In March 2016, WWF-Canada and RSA Canada kicked off a new five-year partnership to inspire and engage employees in workplaces across Canada to take environmental action. With this partnership, RSA became the new presenting sponsor of Living Planet @ Work, WWF-Canada's environmental employee engagement program. In doing so, RSA demonstrates and promotes the benefits of integrating employee engagement and corporate responsibility initiatives.

Through this partnership, WWF-Canada is supporting RSA to develop a robust national green team program in order to engage employees coast to coast to take action on sustainability.

This partnership supports RSA Canada's corporate responsibility commitments to reduce the carbon emissions from our internal operations by 12 per cent per employee by 2018 (2015 baseline) as well as support our customers with tools and solutions to better respond to changing environmental risks and opportunities.

About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more information, visit wwf.ca.

About the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, presented by Loblaw Companies Limited, is one of the largest direct action conservation programs in Canada. A conservation initiative of the Vancouver Aquarium and WWF, the Shoreline Cleanup aims to promote understanding of shoreline litter issues by engaging Canadians to rehabilitate shoreline areas through cleanups. www.ShorelineCleanup.ca 

Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre is a non?profit society dedicated to the conservation of aquatic life. www.vanaqua.org

SOURCE RSA Canada