On Earth Day this year, we launched the “One Mug, One Planet” campaign to help reduce waste across our operations and encourage all employees to think about the impacts they make both inside and outside the office. Additionally, the campaign supports our corporate-wide goal to reduce paper cup usage by 15%, and to achieve 80% waste diversion at all of our audited sites.
Our goal for the “One Mug, One Planet” campaign is 1,000 pledges signed across Symantec, and 10% of employees at sites that have opted in to join this campaign.
The campaign has been a huge success and since our launch we’ve received 823 pledges from multiple countries across the world, including the United States, Mexico, England, South Africa, and India. We’ve also received over 50 Mug Shots! Here are a few of our favorites:
Cheryl Ng, Jacqueline Lee, Gracia Santos, Kok Siong Wong, Mun Kong Jay, Vivien Oh, and Zeenath Ali - Singapore
Traci Kent - Springfield, OR
The campaign has not only been effective for raising awareness about the benefits of using a reusable mug, but it has also expanded our Green Teams with our first Latin American Green Team in Mexico City and a new team in Beijing. Four new sites have also joined the One Mug, One Planet campaign – welcome San Francisco, Beijing, Mexico City and Cape Town!
Remember, if one person used a reusable mug everyday this year it would save 87 lbs of CO2. If all Symantec employees used a reusable mug every day for one year it would save 1,883,400 lbs of CO2.
It’s a small step, but makes a huge difference, and I think many of us will find it brings awareness to other small changes we can make to reduce our impacts, I know it has for me.
Thank you for your comments and feedback
We received a large number of comments from employees supporting the launch with helpful ideas on how we can expand or improve this effort both regionally and globally. Here I share a few highlights, and some comments in response:
- This is an easy step to reduce your impact on the environment. Many of us have been using a reusable mug for a long time and hope others will continue to join us!
- Some companies incentivize employees to use and return reusable items to the company’s cafeteria – could this be another option to decrease use of paper products? Symantec could also provide mugs on birthdays, holidays, etc. to continually promote reuse.
Great idea that the Green Teams will discuss at our upcoming meeting to incorporate in future phases of the campaign.
- Many companies have eliminated paper cups– is this a potential direction to pursue?
For the first phase of this project, we have opted to keep paper cups in the office as we understand the frustration of not having a means to grab a cup of coffee or water. Until we can fully support reusable cups (e.g. with enough stock and consistent facilities to wash them in), we will continue to encourage our employees to take the initiative and choose a reusable mug, and support them in doing this the best way we can. However, we agree that eliminating paper cups is optimal!
- What about other items such as plastic container and paper usage?
We agree there are many items we need to focus on to reduce the footprint of our facilities. As our Corporate Responsibility website states, a key pillar of our environmental strategy is Resource Conservation, which includes reducing our energy usage, developing energy efficient and sustainable buildings through LEED Certification, reducing waste in our offices, conserving water and more. Additionally, shortly we are launching another Green Team campaign to encourage employees to reduce their use of plastic water bottles. Stay tuned for more on this!
- When you factor the water used to wash mugs, do they really end up being more environmentally friendly?
This is a great question that is constantly up for debate. There are various studies that show the benefits of both recycled paper cups and reusable cups, and indeed, the efficiency of washing mugs impacts the overall footprint of these.
I look forward to sharing more with you as we explore new ways to engage employees in our environmental commitments!
Chris Abess is Symantec's Vice President, Sales & Marketing Operations (SMO) and Global Green Team Executive Champion