A winning year for workplace giving and green office champions!
2014 was a big year for WWF’s Living Planet at Work (LP@W) program. We saw new green champions rise to the challenge to reduce footprint at work, engage more of their colleagues, and raise significant funds for WWF.
The program, championed by HP, was launched three years ago to empower green champions and green teams with the tools to drive sustainability at work and engage colleagues in the process. As of today, we have more than 900 green champions from companies across Canada and abroad who have utilized the LP@W platform and raised more than $500,000 for WWF’s conservation efforts.
Collectively these passionate workplace green champions are leading the transformation towards sustainability for the good of business and the planet.
This year, WWF is proud to recognize the winners of our 3rd Annual LP@W Awards. Each winner has demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to employee engagement and sustainability.
Congratulations to these 2014 LP@W Award winners:
Champion of the Year: Mike Robertson, Ontario Power Authority (OPA)
Mike has been a LP@W champion since 2012. This past year, alongside members of the OPA’s green team, he’s contributed to a number of footprint reduction efforts around sustainable travel, improving waste diversion, new energy reduction commitments and improving green procurement policies. Mike’s passion and commitment to the environment was demonstrated this year when he rallied a team of his colleagues to “polar dip” into freezing Lake Ontario in the middle of February in support of WWF’s Arctic conservation work. In May, he led a team of OPA employees in their pursuit to the top of the CN Tower for WWF’s 24th Annual Climb fundraiser. Through both initiatives he helped to raise over $2,800 for WWF’s conservation programs in 2014.
Learn more about our champion of the year, Mike Robertson
Champion of the Year: Stephanee Legault, Canada Steamship Lines (CSL)
Stephanee helped develop and launch CSL’s first ever Ship Efficiency Challenge to engage crew members on ships and to implement ideas that have environmental impacts on board vessels. At CSL’s Montreal head office, she worked with the IT team to create a print and paper reduction campaign which involved developing targets paper reduction, changing printer settings, assessing the efficiency of devices and employee education. Stephanee and the CSL Environmental Committee led another creative campaign in the Spring, Active April Month, which encouraged sustainable travel among office employees. For every kilometre walked or biked and stair climbed, CSL made a donation to WWF. A total of $8,256.50 was donated to WWF’s conservation programs.
Learn more about our champion of the year, Stephanee Legault
Green Team of the Year: Brookfield Johnson Controls Canada (BJCC)
Brookfield Johnson Controls’ green team is structured to ensure all BJCC’s regions and offices are engaged in sustainability initiatives. Additionally, the green team is supported both by a steering committee and by President, Gord Hicks who has set the concept of sustainability at the core of real estate operations and management at BJCC. This year, the team rallied employees around LP@W’s Spring Things workplace fundraising campaign. Together, through corporate matches from BJCC, the team helped to raise nearly $10,000 for WWF’s conservation efforts. This year, the green team is taking on new challenges by implementing a paper reduction initiative with the aim of moving to a centralized printer strategy that will be rolled out across the company’s 13 offices.
Learn more about our green team of the year, Brookfield Johnson Controls
Company of the Year: Bentall Kennedy
Bentall Kennedy has taken a unique and comprehensive approach to its employee and tenant engagement strategy. In the beginning of the year, Bentall Kennedy re-energized Blue Teams (their version of green teams) at all of their Canadian corporate and regional offices to engage employees in reducing environmental impact. Blue Teams kicked the year off by rolling out Bentall Kennedy’s ForeverGreen Engagement Program. ForeverGreen was designed to guide Bentall Kennedy employee and tenant actions by providing the resources to raise awareness and identify priority areas to make their workplaces greener. This year, Bentall Kennedy employees were active participants in WWF campaigns like National Sweater Day and Earth Hour. Meanwhile, a number of Bentall Kennedy properties in Ontario rallied to support WWF’s Arctic conservation work by making philanthropic donations that collectively raised $37,440. Along with the donation, lobby trivia events were hosted at several Toronto properties to engage tenants in issues around climate change, the Arctic, energy savings and the ForeverGreen program.
Learn more about our company of the year, Bentall Kennedy
Top Fundraiser of the Spring Things Campaign: Lindt & Sprüngli (Canada), Inc.
Special thank you to the employees of Lindt & Sprüngli who were the top fundraisers of LP@W’s Spring Things workplace fundraising campaign. Through Spring Things, Lindt & Sprüngli, raised nearly more than $26,500 for WWF’s conservation work. The donation is made up of employee contributions to WWF’s Arctic conservation program and those raised through the 24th Annual CN Tower Climb. Lindt & Sprüngli brought out two teams of employees to climb the Tower alongside their President and CEO, Rudi Blatter, who was also a member of the first-ever Spring Things CEO committee.
Learn more about our Top Spring Things Fundraiser, Lindt & Sprüngli
HP’s Change the Equation Sustainability Reporting Contest: Town of Huntsville
HP’s Change the Equation Sustainability Reporting Contest challenges companies to report on their progress up “Mount Sustainability” by writing their sustainability report. This year’s award for the winning report goes to the Town of Huntsville. The research and writing of the report was led by the Town’s sustainability coordinator, Rebecca Francis with support from a team of 4th year Environment and Business students at the University of Waterloo. The Town’s report was recognized for its clearly defined long-term environmental management strategies and its compelling design.
Learn more about our HP Change the Equation winner, Town of Huntsville
