How green is your workplace?
For most of human history, our day-to-day survival was intimately linked to the world around us. Small changes in weather patterns, over hunting of herds, over-harvesting of wild plants, and poor maintenance of soils, directly impacted the success of nomadic people. To the point where a tribe considered their impact on their surroundings with everything they did.
As humans developed farming technology, keeping of animals, and stationary civilizations, we gained a greater level of control over our success.
To the point where, over generations, we forgot how important it is to consider the impact of our activities on the environment. Technology and the industrial revolution accelerated the damage to environments, and people noticed drastic changes within individual lifetimes and we remembered how intimately we are connection to the environments around us.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is one of the leading environmental organizations in the world today. WWF has launched their Living Planet @ Work community, with major partner Hewlett Packard, to bring workplaces on board with considering the impacts of the decisions made in their offices every day, and placing people and the planet above profits.
Using clear calls to action, checklists, reference materials and whitepapers WWF aims to develop a community of Green Champions in companies around the world. These champions are asked to put green on their company’s agenda and support WWF programs through fundraising.
I’m involved in PWGSC’s “Green Team” in our Ontario Region office, to what extent I’m able. I’ve helped with editing and developing messaging for the team’s events or activities in the office. Most recently, for Waste Reduction Week, where the team aimed to increase awareness around unnecessary printing; asking people in the office to really think about what they print and whether it’s necessary to create paper copies of documents.
Clear goals and calls to action are absolutely key to bringing new people into these types of initiatives. I think WWF has done a great job with Living Planet @ Work.
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