The second annual Green Week planned by Informa (September 13-17) exceeded all expectations, according to Chief Executive Peter Rigby, with employees uniting to make a positive impact on the environment. Informa has over 150 offices in more than 43 countries and employs 8,500 staff.
‘Green Week’ took place for the first time in September 2009, and became an instant hit with employees. Several global competitions engage staff, including the CEO/MD ‘Green Games’, where divisional leaders compete with each other to score points to win the championship title. Five daily challenges are set for them, focusing ontravel, energy, mind, waste and water. A new challenge this year also asked that leaders encourage their teams to make a difference for the environment.
Other global events include the Facilities Manager’s challenge to reduce energy consumption in their own offices, the Pakistan Cycle Challenge, where every mile cycled translated to a £1 donation for the DEC Pakistan Flood Appeal (£3696 raised) and the Green Product competition, which encourages staff to suggest new ideas for sustainable products and services. Green Week has a set of judges that work centrally to monitor and score activities and ideas.
It’s the Green Games, however, between MDs and CEOs and their teams that lights up Informa’s Green Week. Staff find the best ways to reduce energy and recycle, but says Informa, the games bring out the best in people. Something that could be dry and corporate turns into an energetic, competitive, fun and extremely resourceful showcase to support the environment. New divisional CR Leaders, appointed in May to work closely with their MDs/CEOs, are also thought to have made an impact, getting in on the competitive spirit and building their own local CR teams to generate new ideas.
Peter Rigby, Chief Executive, comments, “I’ve heard fantastic stories every day about how employees have come together to do the great and the good for our environment. Green Week is a fantastic launch pad to raise awareness of environmental issues, but if it wasn’t for the inimitable spirit generated by employees all over the world, this week wouldn’t have become the great event that it is.”
Keith Brownlie (pictured), Group CR and HR Director, adds, “Green Week was a bubble of an idea last year which has turned into something thousands of us embrace worldwide. Divisions everywhere look to lead a greener life. What we didn’t expect, but appreciate immensely, is how it has brought people together. Peter Rigby likens our business to an archipelago of global islands. Each division works to support its niche industry, so to see something like Green Week uniting teams, creating great spirit, generating new innovations and building on our employees’ competitive, clever and resourceful skills, is just fantastic”.
Informa ‘Green Week’ Highlights
• The 2010 title of Green Games Champion has been awarded to Spiro Anemogiannis, Informa Australia, who, with his team, arranged to buy all office electricity from renewable sources and worked with building management to have a more efficient lighting and air conditioning system installed. They also used internal Informa resource, inviting the editor of Lloyds List to speak to a packed room of employees about the environmental impacts of shipping.
• Runner up in the Green Games, for both the MD/CEO and as a team, is INFORMA-IIR Hungary. MD Jeno Bartalos and his team pledged to monitor energy use every month from now on, as well as reduce energy consumption by 5%. They have also stopped the use of plastic water bottles. It also worked with one of its event sponsors to offer a free ECO driving course during Green Week for all delegates at Fleet Management 2010. Lessons and using special equipment shows how to reduce emissions and save fuel.
• Taylor & Francis Milton Park reduced their energy by over 10% during Green Week (improving their 2009 result by 3%), helped by a daily measurement emailed to staff sparking an increased focus on energy saving. It also promoted its car-sharing policy, enabled staff to volunteer at a local nature reserve, and have set up 3 other conservation projects which will involve 50 employees volunteering in the coming months. They also held a Green Market and conservation charity open day promoting the green credentials of locally-grown produce and the activities of their environmental partners, BBOWT and BTCV.
• Euroforum Germany created their own Green Week blog plus invited an energy specialist to their office to help them understand ways to save energy as well as capitalise on things they already do well, including working to virtualise their servers. Their efforts gave them first prize in the Team Green Games.
Other inspirational ideas, among many, include:
• The Informa Research Services IT team in California who checked tyre pressure on employees’ cars and pumped them to optimum levels using manual pumps and their own brawn
• Informa Asia encouraging as many people as possible to eat a meatless diet for the week
• Employees from IBI USA cleaning six different beaches across the USA, collecting more than 100 pounds of garbage
• Forum USA earned a special communication award from the judges for its internally focused and resourced, video of the amusing Green Fairy.
