Winner: Deloitte - Greening the Next Generation
Starting in 2008, Deloitte’s “Greening the Dot” campaign brought sustainability concepts first to the office and then to employees’ homes. In 2010 the professional services company decided to make a leap to the next generation of green advocates—via employees’ children and their friends.
With the mantra of “make it fun” (while being sure to treat young people with respect), Deloitte kicked off the initiative on Earth Day in April 2010 with a teleconference featuring Deloitte employees’ kids ranging from New York City and Europe to India. Then, the Next Generation Web site was launched in October, featuring an interactive survey, green tips and a toolkit with 23 green projects. —SVC
“Greening” Messages and Young People: “Whenever you reach out to young people, make sure to respect their privacy, and include the adults in their life,” says Jack McFadden, communications director, Deloitte.
Honorable Mentions:
Euro RSCG Worldwide PR – One Young World: In 2010 young people from 110 countries attended One Young World, a two-day interactive summit that provides a platform for young people to have a voice on the world’s major issues. The social media-focused event generated one blog post per minute and became the fourth-largest trending topic on Twitter in the U.K.
The Hershey Company – Hershey’s Growing Green Together Campaign: With the objective of engaging employees to make a difference in thier communities, pledges from more than 4,000 Hershey workers resulted in $20,000 in donations to green organizations in 2010.
International Paper - Coins 4 Kids: IP's "carton bank," employees and their families in collection efforts, holds enough mixed change to feed two kids in Kenya for a year. Over the last six years, IP’s employee partnership with World Food Programme has provided 72,000 kids in Nairobi with nutritious school meals.
Yahoo! – Yahoo! Employee Foundation: The worker-run program Yahoo! Employee Foundation used a variety of internal special events and challenges that ultimately provided grants to variety of charities to the tune of $2.2 million in 2010.