Do you work in an office? Take The Smart Office Challenge!

Do you, like me, ask yourself every so often: what did we ever do before we had computers and the Internet?
I vividly remember being in high school in the ‘90s and rushing home after class everyday in order to be the first to get to the most highly coveted spot in our house – the seat in front of the one PC our family of five shared and fought over – listening to the cacophony of beeps and buzzes coming from the telephone modem, and anxiously awaiting that magical moment when I was finally connected to the world wide web.
Since then, my parents have upgraded their PC several times, but add to that a laptop that they share, as well as a smartphone and tablet…each!  And me? I use my own laptop and smartphone way more than I’d like to admit, and without which I’d be lost – figuratively and sometimes literally.  And that’s just my personal devices!
If you work in an office like me, you probably rely on a whole other suite of information technology (IT) equipment – from the ones you use every day (computers, printers and so on) to some of the more behind-the-scenes activity like all the servers and software that store and connect everything and everyone.
With the continued growth in our use of IT, so too is the associated impact on the environment – from the energy required to power all of these devices to what’s left behind when all of this equipment inevitably reaches its end-of-use stage.
This Fall, WWF’s Living Planet @ Work program  championed by HP, is launching The Smart Office Challenge to help IT “addicts” like me continue to enjoy these modern day conveniences, while at the same time, better understand and do our part to reduce the associated environmental impacts.
For example, did you know that you can save 700 kwh or 65% of your computer’s annual energy use by powering it down at the end of each day?  Or that globally, 40 million metric tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) is produced annually?  To put that in perspective, that is the weight of almost 16 billion average sized laptops (2.5 kg / laptop in weight)!

In The Smart Office Challenge we’ll help you plan a fun, educational and impactful week of events for employees to participate in – such as a “power-down” activity, an e-waste collection drive, and even your office’s first “IT appreciation day”!  That’s right, we think it’s about time IT departments – most offices’ unsung heroes– be celebrated for all they do to help us be a productive, efficient and environmentally-responsible workplace, aka, a smart office!
To learn more about how your company can join The Smart Office Challenge, check out the full campaign toolkit here and tune in this Wednesday September 25^th at 1 pm EST for a webinar with details and Q&A.
As always, we want to hear about and share your ideas and examples of what your office is doing to reduce its environmental footprint and engage employees on sustainability.  And if you aren’t already, we invite you to become a WWF Living Planet @ Work champion and join the growing number of environmental advocates leading a change at work!