OWL Magazine’s Easy Acronym for National Sweater Day Success

Written by Wendy Ho, Guest blogger for WWF’s Living Planet @ Work
For the past 3 years, OWL Magazine staff have been putting on their sweaters and turning down the heat by two degrees Celsius in recognition of National Sweater Day, and you can count on them to do it again this year.

On February 6, 2014, they will be joined by thousands of households, schools and offices across the country, to raise awareness about energy consumption and the relation to climate change. As a Sweater Day supporter since inception, Assistant Editor Kendra Brown uses a simple “inform and implement” strategy to sustain the tradition.
Since life in the media sector makes for a busy work day, and that may resonate with many businesses out there, it doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate a little fun and advocacy work while you’re doing your job! To anticipate a successful Sweater Day celebration, Kendra has a few tried and tested tips:
Remember the EASY acronym of E-C-E-E!

• Email well in advance of the event date so everyone has time to pick out their favourite sweater.
• Coordinate with your office’s facility management team to set the thermostat at a lower temperature.
• Educate your audience through various mediums (OWL Magazine leverages their social media presence; blog for their young readers, and Twitter and Facebook for youth and parents).
• Encourage others to join in on the action. Engage with your customers, stakeholders, clients via picture and story sharing about what conserving energy means to them while giving them ideas to do more!

Kendra and her team believe it is important to be a good role model for their young readers. More often than not, it is the creative kids who are the inspiration because of their unreserved passion and enthusiasm for the environment. To get started and build enthusiasm for the campaign is easy. “Many of us are wearing sweaters in the winter at home anyway. It’d be a simple and easy action to do in the office too,” says Kendra. With a simple commitment in place, it is easy to build up, to educate and raise support. Here are two of Kendra’s ideas:

• Host a lunch and learn which can turn into a fundraiser.
• Get it out there on social media and slot in some fun trivia.

Her plan for February 6th includes rounding up her colleagues for a group photo in the morning and posting it, followed by blogging and interacting with their audience online about the cause.
Borrowing Kendra’s thought du jour for those thinking about participating in National Sweater day, just ask yourself this: “Am I too busy to put on a sweater?” At the least, our wintery weather makes it ever more reasonable to make the most of our wardrobe full of warm knitted sweaters! Now, Kendra acknowledges all the yelling her mother used to do unfailingly “Put on a Sweater!” She now jokingly states, “there is love and wisdom in those words.”
It’s not too late to start planning your company’s National Sweater Day event now! Check out WWF’s Living Planet @ Work for more tools and fundraising ideas!
National Sweater Day is made possible through partial proceeds from the sale of plastic shopping bags in Loblaw banner stores across Canada. Since 2009, Loblaw Companies Limited has donated one million dollars annually to WWF,  for a total of six million dollars, to support activities that engage Canadians on climate change and other conservation issues.