Our ambition to contribute to a better society is stronger than ever, a dynamic force that continues to gain momentum. The great work of our more than 33,000 Hilti team members and the commitment of our customers and partners enables us to invest in large-scale initiatives globally.

Contributing to the communities in which we live and work are becoming more and more important in today’s world. Hilti recognizes this need and encourages its team members’ social commitment through the corporate volunteering program Engaged Beyond Business (EBB). One of our recent volunteers shares about his exciting experience about his EBB trip to Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Economic Empowerment is about enabling people in need to become economically independent so they can lead self-determined lives. Despite economic growth in Eastern Africa, poverty rates remain very high, with rural populations and the younger generation in major cities particularly affected. Our work in this focus area is based on two initiatives: enterprise development and vocational training.

Block your calendars already now on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. (GMT+1). Join us for a fascinating live-stream session and listen to Maritime Archaeologist Franck Goddio. He will update us on the latest developments of the ongoing excavations of Thonis-Heracleion in Egypt.

2022 has been another challenging year, and recent world events have caused a major setback in the effort to fight poverty. Therefore, an even stronger commitment by the Hilti Foundation is needed. Nevertheless, 2022 has also been a year of good progress: We stayed on track with our projects and were able to launch important new initiatives.

After one year of intense preparations, the Hilti Foundation proudly announces its latest initiative in East Africa: For the first time, 120 young people will spend the next two years as an employed apprentice of one of 24 renown Kenyan companies and student of a specialized school, to be educated as a certified plumber or electrician. This dual training model is based on more than 100 years of experience in Switzerland and Central Europe.

It is almost a tradition when musicians from the Iberacademy Medellín and their young colleagues from the Stella Privathochschule Feldkirch form the "Pforte Kammerochester Plus" every spring and fall. As part of the chamber music program "Musik in der Pforte", the orchestra will be dedicated to contemporary music as well as the compositions of the great masters, in October 2022 Mozart and Beethoven. In the best chamber music tradition, the ensemble is led by the concertmaster.

Salzburg – Gstaad – Lucerne. These are the places where the Youth Orchestra Sinfonía por el Perú will give concerts during the last days of August and the first days of September. They will perform together with the world-famous tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who founded the social music program in Peru in 2011, and the Spanish conductor Roberto González-Monjas.

To travel abroad and perform at major international festivals is the dream of many young musicians. This dream is now becoming reality for the Youth Orchestra of Sinfonía por el Perú, which is touring Europe for the first time with its founder, the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

Based on the Basic Entrepreneur Training (BET) program’s success, the Hilti Foundation has decided to launch “Enterprise Scale Up”, a project focusing on those microentrepreneurs who have already gone through the base program with ambitions to invest and profitably grow their enterprises. Until 2027, the project will reach 20,000 farmers, helping them to improve their livelihoods and to contribute to local rural economy and social development through scaling up their farming-based enterprises in Kenya and Tanzania.

Listen in this episode of In this Case to Werner Wallner (Hilti Foundation), Walter Irungi (small business owner), Dorothea Arndt (Hand in Hand International) and Jane Sabuni (Hand in Hand Eastern Africa) talking about how they partner to reach that goal: Helping people to develop skills, find sustainable jobs, start businesses and achieve a decent income, so they can afford a better living standard.

Habitat for Humanity, a longtime partner organization of the Hilti Foundation, has started to build safe and disaster-resilient homes in Nepal for families in need. Since its inception in 1997, bamboo has been the environmentally friendly and local building material of choice for Habitat Nepal. But the current project is the first in the country to use the Hilti Foundation’s innovative CBFT.

“Side-by-side for a better future” is the motto under which the Academia Filarmónica Iberoamericana, or Iberacademy for short, based in Medellín, Colombia, is embarking on its second tour of Europe. The young musicians of the Iberacademy Orchestra will play impressive programs under the direction of Iberacademy founder Alejandro Posada and Roberto Gonzales-Mónjas, principal conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Switzerland.

Since 1996, the Hilti Foundation has been working with French archaeologist Franck Goddio to support his research in Egypt. In his live talk The Portus Magnus of Alexandria, French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio presented his discoveries of 25 years of research in today’s east port of Alexandria to Hilti team members.

The first Africa Housing Forum is rapidly approaching! Organized by Habitat for Humanity International this hybrid event will take place both place both virtually and in-person in Nairobi, Kenya from May 12-14, 2022. Hilti Foundation is the forum’s global presenting sponsor.

July is a member of the National Youth Choir in Sinfonía por el Perú. For her, being part of the program has opened a completely new world. Not only did she discover a talent she didn’t know she had, but she has also found her favorite way to express herself and her feelings through music.

In 2011, together with its long-standing partner organization Swisscontact, the Hilti Foundation launched Construya, a qualification program for the informal construction sector in Colombia. Construya has developed training modules, in cooperation with state vocational training institutions, that teach better construction practices for the informal sector.

The Hilti Group is committed to positively impacting social challenges around the world. In addition to supporting the Hilti Foundation’s work, Hilti also encourages its employees to participate in the corporate volunteering program Engaged Beyond Business. Find all about sustainability and social engagement at Hilti in the new Company Report 2021.

The Hilti Foundation, on behalf of the Hilti Group and the Hilti Family set up a solidarity fund with an initial donation of 1M Swiss Francs to our longstanding partner Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The global pandemic has caused a major setback in the fight against poverty. Although the COVID-19 restrictions have affected the Hilti Foundation’s work to some extent, we stayed the course in our programs.