The Green Initiative

Gradually, companies are starting to publish Corporate Responsibility Reports to open up about their stake in sustainable development and what they are doing to reduce the impact on environment. Bonnier is no exception. It seem that more environmental issues are considered all around the group; for example Audrey Bay, a GROW participant in Sweden, tells in her blog that she got involved in an environmental project to evaluate the impact of shipping of the books. The responsibility reports are of course very good external declarations for investors, but just as the marketing of our titles and brands starts with selling the vision to our own staff, so does the discussion and initiative to make a eco-friendly choices as well. 

I was really glad to find out that a Bonnier Green Team seems to be active here at Bonnier Corporation and keep reminding us what can be done at work and at holidays to live more eco-friendly. Otherwise, the possibility to recycle is not very good here in the US compared to Finland where you get some pennies back from each bottle or can that you return to the grocery store. The bottle recycling system is very supportive and we have had it for as long as I can remember.

But the green team puts together monthly intranet leaflet, Code Green, which has Bonnier Corporation's logo printed in green. I thought that idea was great. Code Green reports what green choices have been made, reminding us how we can do better at work.  It also challenges every brand to state how they contribute to the green initiative. 

For example, there are reports on sustainable travel in every issue (Caribbean Travel+Life), a promise to actively search out more fuel-efficient engines and promote them editorially (SportFishing), a project with different partnerships to install eco-friendly landscapes at selected sites through a new initiative called Garden Design Gives Back (Garden Design), and even Destination Weddings & Honeymoons states it does at least one "green wedding" story a year with tips of how to have an environmentally friendly event. This is very good! And of course you can go greener and subscribe to magazines in digital format from Zinio.

At the offices I'd like to dare everyone to make a decision that you won't use a cardboard or plastic mugs anymore. I decided that already in Finland some weeks before my arrival here. This was thanks to active people at MTV3 who had made the initiative to discuss these issues and presented a report to us at the monthly personnel meeting. Only few people stayed to listen that presentation in the end, but after that I decided that it's a small decision a day to bring a mug with me to work. I must confess that I have used disposable mugs here and felt bad about it but now I bought myself a mug from Starbucks which I will keep at my desk where I can grab it whenever I'm thirsty.

Have a Green Day !

For all Bonnier employees: Join new group called Green Team at BonFire which I just created to discuss and change ideas and tips of how we can make our workplaces more eco-friendly.