Sustainability at work

By Frances Edmonds, Director of Environmental Programs, Hewlett-Packard Canada, Champion of the Living Planet @ Work program
While celebrating the achievements of these key players is splendid, there is still so much work to do in bringing sustainability to the vast network of small & medium sized business across Canada.
WWF estimates a billion decisions are made every day in workplaces across Canada. My estimate is that only a small percentage of these decisions are made with the planet’s future in mind.  This is something that must change, which is why HP has chosen to invest in the Living Planet@ Work program . This unique, free program will help businesses make decisions with sustainability in mind.

(c) WWF-Canada
How did we get involved?  As a leader in sustainability, HP recognized the urgent need to drive sustainability thinking further & wider into Canadian businesses.  Based on our own experiences, employee engagement seemed like a great place to start.
I built HP Canada’s employee engagement program, Green Advocates about three years ago and quickly recognized the potential and effect that this type of program can have – as did HP (it is being leveraged worldwide.)
What’s interesting is that as we were building our employee engagement program, WWF had also been doing this with some key partners . When WWF approached HP with the proposal to make this a program that was freely available, we immediately saw the potential.
A year or so later we launched the program and I’m very excited to say that our goal is to sign up 500 companies in three years.  Some say we are wildly optimistic, I say poppycock & I challenge you to help us meet that goal. Let’s get cracking!