Who wouldn’t want to work in an engaging office environment? An engaged workforce makes a happier workplace and promotes a culture of collaboration and creativity, as numerous studies show. Corporate green initiatives are some of the best ways to engage employees. Guest contributor Alison Stanton shares four ideas that are simple to run and cost little to implement.
Apple, BMW, LG, HP, Coca-Cola, and Walmart are among the 187 companies cited by non-profit Carbon Disclosure Project for doing the most to combat climate change. These green warriors also outperform the Bloomberg World Index. The five Canadian companies that made this elite group are TD Bank, Bombardier, TransCanada, Teck Resources, and CN Railway. I find out how their stock prices compare to the S&P/TSX Index.
Office building green roofs tend to be a ‘spectator sport’: look but don’t touch. Telus launch their participatory rooftop garden in their downtown Toronto building where staff are encouraged to seed, water, weed, and harvest the vegetables. I talk to Sameer Panjwani, National Chair of Telus Green Team, to see how this environmental employee engagement initiative came to harvest.
Visually stunning and environmentally progressive condo buildings and office towers are appearing in Europe and Asia in recent years, including the Bosco Verticale in Milan, Hearst Tower in New York, and Urban Cactus in Rotterdam. Office tower and condo developers take note…whoever construct the first of this type of building in Canada can really make a statement. I talk to Andrew McAllan of Oxford Properties to see when that might happen.
You are an entrepreneur with a fantastic idea for a green startup. You go to the bank for funding but they turn you down. What do you do? Fear not, green warriors! This article by guest contributor Angie Picardo will show you five non-traditional funding sources for social and environmental startups, including crowd funding and peer-to-peer lending, and go through some funding platforms and success stories from the U.S. and Canada.