Taking It national: Brookfield Johnson Controls’ Green Team engages employees and tenants from coast to coast

Brookfield Johnson Controls Canada was honoured with Living Planet @ Work’s 2014 green team of the year. Learn more about the team’s top achievements.
You don’t have to look far at Brookfield Johnson Controls Canada (BJCC) to find passionate environmental advocates. Climb the CN Tower for WWF? Twenty-one staffers laced up their sneakers and got ready to sweat. Launch a national green team? Forty eco-enthusiasts across the country answered the call. Hit the beaches to collect garbage in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup? BJCC employees were on it.
So when it came time for WWF to choose our 2014 Living Planet @ Work Green Team of the Year, the choice was clear.
This year, the real estate management company raised nearly $10,000 for WWF’s conservation efforts. Regular lunch ‘n’ learns kept conservation top of mind, while the company’s “An Inspired Future” event in June drew over 400 attendees for a day with economist and best-selling author Jeremy Rifkin, who inspired the audience with his vision of a sustainable, low-carbon future.
Earth Week saw CEO Gord Hicks getting personal, discussing his own eco-practices when it comes to commuting, water use, waste management and eating locally.

To shrink BJCC’s carbon footprint, the green team tackled paper consumption — one of the company’s biggest waste streams, according to BJCC’s annual sustainability report. They implemented a new, centralized printing system, sponsored by the company’s Chief Financial Officer, to reduce the number of printers and made double-sided printing the default choice. These actions are expected to cut paper consumption in half, as well as reduce toner use and cut the energy required to run the printers.
Meanwhile, an e-waste drive gave head office employees the opportunity to recycle old electronics instead of sending them to landfill.
According to Strategic Information Manager Sarah Jane Wolch, head of the BJCC green team, her company’s commitment to sustainability resonates with employees. “I think for a lot of people, environmental issues are beginning to become a lot more personal,” she says.
She points to one employee who — inspired by what he saw at work — chose to include a heat pump, energy-efficient heated flooring, LED lighting and more in his new home.
She sees the same attitudes among clients, whether they’re adding environmental criteria to their procurement policies or working with BJCC to install LED lighting or climate-controlled landscaping.
BJCC’s energy account managers are on hand to help the company’s tenants shrink their carbon footprint. On top of that, a new Innovation Centre in Markham, Ontario showcases best practices that tenants can implement in their own offices.
Sarah Jane credits WWF’s Living Planet @ Work program with helping her green team take off. “It was really a catalyst and a great support system,” she says.
In the coming year, she looks forward to rolling out their eco-printing initiative to BJCC offices across the country, engaging employees from coast to coast in Earth Week events and recruiting even more team members for the 2015 CN Tower Climb for WWF.
We salute Sarah Jane, her national Green Team and everyone at BJCC for their leadership in corporate sustainability. Congratulations on a well deserved win!
Interested in leading footprint reduction initiatives, hosting environmental campaigns and fundraising for conservation programs year-round with your colleagues like Sarah Jane and her green team? Join Living Planet @ Work and get free access to tools and resources to help you.