Seeing is believing

By Living Planet @ Work champion,Siriphone Duangvichit
In 2009, RSA launched our partnership with WWF across five major regions: Canada, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and China. Focusing on the risks of environmental change, we have been supporting conservation projects relevant to our business, developing new products and engaging our employees and external stakeholders on the environment. Our work focuses on three key issues: Water, Marine and Renewable Energy.
 

©RSA

In 2010, we launched our Seeing is Believing Contest, which challenges our 23,000 employees globally to put on their thinking caps and come up with green ideas to help us both reduce our environmental impact and improve our business processes.  In return, they receive the chance to win a trip of a lifetime:  learning about the impact of climate change first hand from RSA Executives and WWF scientists as they spend time together exploring some of our world’s most fragile environments.
In 2010 and 2011, winners visited Churchill, Manitoba, where they witnessed the effects of global warming on polar bears and the Arctic.
This year’s trip will take one winning team south to the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil.  Here, employees will join RSA senior executives, and WWF scientists to see the devastating effects of deforestation and climate change on one of the world’s unique biodiversity hotspots. As a result, they will understand how water resource management, damming operations and hydro-power are the future of Renewable Energy.
To participate, employees are given two months to form a team of up to three people and collectively develop and submit a new green idea to RSA’s global corporate responsibility team.
 
Why it works
At RSA, we take engagement and our commitment to Corporate Responsibility seriously. This competition was created not only to increase awareness on climate change, but also to provide our people with the opportunity to make a difference to the environment and our business.  Through this competition, we have:
· identified our most environmentally engaged employees;
· recruited new “green team” members;
· received multiple ideas to implement into our business;
· increased awareness on climate change and its effects on our industry;
· enhanced collaboration;
· reduced our environmental impact; and
· provided winners with a unique development and learning opportunity as they learn directly from WWF experts and get one-on-one time with various senior RSA Executives.
Results
Employee response to the competition has been impressive; Canada continues to be in the top of the global leader board and submitted more than 25 of the 400 ideas received last year.
We are also pleased that many of the Canadian green ideas have been implemented, both in Canada and elsewhere in our company, saving hundreds of trees and thousands of dollars. They also have diverted a considerable amount of waste from landfills each year, proving seeing really is believing.
For more information on the contest, feel free to reach out here. Also, check out the Living Planet @ Work program for ideas on how to engage your employees in meaningful and educational sustainable initiatives at work.