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社区太阳能,城市树和员工敬业度数字化

Heightened awareness about environmental and social issues over the past year has made these initiatives more timely than ever.

Urban tree cover

底特律两个社区的并排图像说明了树盖的差异。图片来源:Google地图。

谷歌地图

公司可持续性专业人员的常年关注点 - 如何培养员工为组织的计划和战必威体育2018略买入 - 在Covid-19-19大流行期间很容易被淘汰,因为各地的公司都转移以适应偏远的劳动力。

但是,过去一年对环境和社会问题的认识提高了,使这些举措比以往任何时候都更加及时。领先的公司,包括微软和Akamai在内必威体育2018。

"Many employees want to live out their personal values at work and are asking for these programs," said Richard Keiser, CEO and founder of community solar company Common Energy, during theGreenbiz网络广播last week about engaging employees in sustainability.

Over the past several years, Common Energy has developed and refined a Clean Energy Benefits program, through which a company’s employees can enroll in community solar projects as a way of addressing their personal carbon footprint — at no cost to either it or its employees.

截至4月初,包括Akamai,Corning,LinkedIn,Microsoft和VMware在内的公司的员工已在包括伊利诺伊州,马萨诸塞州和纽约等四个州的项目中注册,并代表50兆瓦的累积清洁能力。根据有关该倡议的新闻稿,总体能源在九个州有70个项目。除了已经提到的那些人外,该公司在缅因州,马里兰州,明尼苏达州,新泽西州,俄勒冈州和罗德岛州都有业务。

在网络广播期间,Keizer表示,社区太阳能虽然仍然只有有限的州,但即使他们居住在不可能的住宅安装的公寓或房屋中,也为公司提供了一种直接采购可再生电力的方式。通常,该程序在本地提供。例如,微软正在参加in Illinois, where it supports a data center, andAkamai正在提供this benefit to employees who live near its Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters.

Community solar project, Common Energy

One of Common Energy community solar projects.

Common Energy

Centering employee engagement programs on regional or local concerns of employees is a strategy that both Akamai and Microsoft are nurturing alongside digital initiatives that help convey information about corporate-level priorities.

“我们一直在寻找使员工参与故事的方法,但是以一种对Akamai来说是真实的,对他们来说似乎是可行的,” Akamai公司可持续发展高级计划经理Courtney Hadden说。必威体育2018participated in last week’s webcast.

今年早些时候,Akamai的可持续发展组织与其健康团队,必威体育2018企业基金会和员工资源小组合作,创建了一个由Wespire软件管理的平台,该平台用于共享信息和管理参与度。

This system was used during Earth Month to help manage the company’s "30 Acts for 30 Days" campaign, which challenged employees to complete individual actions aimed at building environmental awareness such as upcycling personal items, measuring their tire pressure or setting up a composting system. The company also featured resources, such as creative cooking videos meant to reduce food waste while encouraging healthy meal alternatives, Hadden said.

Akamai awarded points for actions completed during the month, and allowed offices and employees to tag and challenge each other through the online platform to encourage higher levels of participation. Each employee that reached a certain level of participating was entered in a drawing that enabled them to win a donation to a charity.

去年,该公司还为其“必威体育2018Akamai向导" corporate ideation program for the first time. From among the 5,000-plus entries, the second-place prize was awarded for a calculator that helps Akamai customers measure Akamai’s contribution to their carbon emissions reductions.

"Our goal is to make them feel engaged with sustainability, not make them feel guilty that they aren’t," Hadden said.

Holly Beale, senior program manager for community environmental sustainability at Microsoft, who also participated in the webcast, estimated that about 5,000 of the software company’s employees are actively engaged with locally organized, volunteer-led community activities. Each group focuses on projects that are meaningful locally, she said.

例如,the group in Ireland recently prioritized the distribution of wildflower seeds to cultivate awareness of biodiversity. In Chicago, Microsoft is donating money to a nonprofit partner, Greater Englewood Community Development Corporation, for every employee that enrolls in the community solar program.

比尔说:“他们有自己的目标或指标,无论与他们在办公室中最相关。”她说,该公司还向当地社区调查反馈。

Like Akamai, Microsoft ran anEcochallenge在四月通过数字平台,该平台使员工可以赢得某些行动的积分。个人参与者和三支积分数量最高的团队“赢得”了对备受瞩目的环境非政府组织的捐款。截至周二的网络广播,已有6,000多名参与者记录了87,000多个动作。在全年的基础上,鼓励员工通过“行动箱”分享想法和潜在项目,这是该公司在线员工资源的一部分。比尔建议,“员工确实是该枢纽的中心”。

比尔说,一项似乎特别有趣且有意义的活动是城市植树。为了支持这些努力,微软组织了访问许多资源。

比尔强调的一个是树股权分数工具from American Forests, which calculates information for U.S. cities with more than 50,000 residents using a combination of sociological and economic data including local income and raise. Among the questions it answers: Does this neighborhood have the right number of trees for health and environmental reasons? Microsoft partners with City Forest Credits to organize related planting projects and to certify the environmental and social impact, Beale said.

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