Rosanna's big win

At the heart of it, I am excited to learn how organizations manage to establish new goals, dedicate resources, change their existing processes and engage employees.
Although when we look at the big scale of change needed, the challenges can seem daunting, it is amazing to see success happen and feel that slowly but surely we will make our way down the sustainability journey.
So in this blog I want to give some cred to the everyday leaders that are making this happen and share the how so that we can all help push the journey along.
Meet: Rosanna D’Alessandro, Corporate Social Responsibility  Coordinator at Loblaw Companies Limited

Rosanna, far left (c) WWF-Canada
Rosanna’s Big win:  Set a goal of getting 10 stores involved in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and in the final week before the cleanup has 41 stores, two distribution centres and two office support centres participating in 18 different cleanups !
How did she do it:
Well she says it was simple, but after some digging, I say it was a combination of setting big goals, getting the right people and teams involved, as well as some traditional organization and hard work. (Rosanna is an amazing task master).
Rosanna started by setting a goal.  She then reached out to the teams and functions that could help bring the Shoreline cleanup to life and would benefit from success.  She connected with regional operations teams who were the link to all corporate and franchised stores (and  who helped create a list of interested stores), the marketing team who was eager and excited to promote the event (they helped put together print and online banner store advertising and in-store T-stands) as well as the Human Resources  team who saw this as another great program that fit within the Company’s CSR principles of Respect the Environment and Making a Positive Difference in Our Community.
And the rest was really some heavy lifting.  It involved planning out the details, making lots of lists and crossing items off,  communicating and letting everyone know the process (how to sign up, how to organize), providing support (sending out manuals, setting up carpools, and bbqs), and thinking of ways to get stores, colleagues and employees excited.  Some stores have even reached out to their local dignitaries to participate too!
And so, all this hard work by Rosanna and the  Loblaw team has had a big impact.  We expect more than 500 Loblaw colleagues and franchise employees out cleaning shores across the country.  We know this will help have a direct impact on the environment and are pretty sure it is going a long way to building environmental leaders and champions.  Big kudos to Rosanna, the Loblaw team, along with colleagues and employees for their support by participating in community cleanups across Canada.  Thank you!