Between February 22 and 26th, the Living Planet @ Work team organized daily activities to celebrate the week leading up to National Polar Bear Day (February 27 ,2016). Our intention was to build employee awareness and raise the profile of climate change as a very real and pervasive issue, while using the polar bear as a reminder of the effects already being felt as global temperatures rise. Recent photos like this one, remind us why this issue cannot be ignored – not just for these bears, but for the natural environments we depend upon and interact with daily. Watters Environmental also took this opportunity to fundraise for our WWF CN Tower Climb team.
We wanted to provide our team members with the real facts about climate change, and empower them with simple steps they can take to reduce their own carbon footprint and save money at the same time.
The week included a Trivia Contest (which included many nature-related and climate change facts), a mid-week viewing of the documentary ‘Chasing Ice’ (watch the trailer here), and ended with an ‘Animal’ sweater day, which involved turning down the heat in the office and encouraging team members to wear warmer clothing, all in the name of energy conversation and reducing our associated greenhouse gases, even if only for a day.
Most importantly, we wanted to provide our team members with the real facts about climate change, and empower them with simple steps they can take to reduce their own carbon footprint and save money at the same time. For example: heating costs rise 5% on average for every degree above 20°C that you set your household thermostat in the winter – which means turning the heat down by even two degrees can yield cost savings as well as lower your greenhouse gas emissions.
Thank you to all the team members that participated in these events, and helped us raise money for our Watters CN Tower Climb team that will be taking the stairs on April 17, 2016.
