Adidas' Green Teams

Adidas utilizes employee Green Teams as part of their sustainability effort. Theses teams promote environmental initiatives and help motivate other employees.

Adidas' 2010 Sustainability Report, Performance Counts, the company outlines some of the projects spearheaded by global Green Teams:

• In Portland, one-way cups and dishes were a big problem. Now there are reusable mugs for sale at all coffee shops at this location and no one-way dishes available in the kitchens around
• the buildings. This reduces the amount of waste significantly.
• The Mattapoisett green Team has started a great recycling and reuse programme with plastic and glass recycling as well as recycling empty toner cartridges and buying re-manufactured ones.
• In our office in Bangkok, Thailand, where many employees regularly visit factories, the Green Team introduced a carpooling scheme to reduce the number of trips made by car to each particular factory.
• Our French colleagues in Landersheim have successfully had solar panels installed to heat the water used in all showers and in the staff restaurant.
• In our Istanbul office, the green Team managed to reduce water consumption by 14%, compared to 2009. They also saved energy by only using those appliances which were really needed.
• In Amsterdam, the green Team worked mainly on the tough task of changing people’s habits. They organised special awareness-raising events such as the ‘Tour de Commute’ month which coincided with the Tour de france and was aimed at getting people to take the bike to work instead of their cars. Altogether, they rode 5,334 km in that month.
• These and other locations participated in earth day celebrations on April 22 to raise awareness of and to engage people for a clean environment. The green Teams came up with great ideas to support the spirit of the day. At our headquarters in Germany they organised a paper road and a rubbish mountain to show how much waste we produce. Additionally, old mobile phones were collected and sold to a company which specializes in refurbishing them. The proceeds from this went to a charity.

Macy's: Partners in Time

Macy's Inc. employee volunteer program, Partners in Time, was founded in 1989, and has been recognized for its excellence, receiving an "Award for Excellent in Workplace Volunteerism" by the Points of Light Foundation.

In 2009 alone, Macy's Inc. employee volunteers gave almost 100,000 hours to community organizations, with the largest percentage devoted to projects benefiting children.


Partners in Time also spearheads the annual "Bag Hunger" campaign conducted all across Macy’s divisions, has contributed an equivalent 58 million pounds of food, or 45 million meals, for hungry families throughout the United States.

Weyerhaeuser: Making WAVES

Weyerhaeuser's Making Waves program, administered through the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation, promoted employee volunteerism throughout the organization. In 2009, 1,017 employees worked on 89 projects and contributed 10,714 volunteer hours. Through this program, grant monies -- almost $4 million since 1998 -- are also made available to local non-profit organizations, municipal agencies, and schools.

At their March 8 Spirit of Caring Celebration, the United Way of King County recognized the Making Waves program as the 2011 outstanding Employee Volunteer Program. According to their statement, "employees identify a need in their community and work with a nonprofit or school to develop a project" with Weyerhauser providing support and training to company volunteers.

According to the Making WAVES website, recent projects completed by volunteers have included:

• Building low-cost homes with Habitat for Humanity
• Beautifying local schools, parks and streams
• Rebuilding communities in the Gulf area following Hurricane Katrina
• Working with youth as mentors and tutors
• Collecting donations for local food and clothing banks
• Participating in fundraising events such as the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and the March of Dimes Foundation's WalkAmerica
• Providing nonprofits with business expertise in areas such as strategic planning and technology
• Planting trees or restoring and enhancing native ecosystems
• Mentoring youth on sustainable forests practices

United Way of King County 2011 Spirit of Caring Winners

Bayer: Making Science Make Sense

Bayer's "Making Science Make Sense" program was foreshadowed 40 years ago when employee volunteers started helping students and their teachers learn about science they way it was done in actual research laboratories. They describe the MSMS, which was officially launched in 1995 as follows:

As a science- and research-based company with major businesses in health care, nutrition and innovative materials, Bayer Corporation has a strong stake in helping to improve science education and to insure that all individuals are scientifically literate. Bayer demonstrates this commitment with its national award-winning Making Science Make Sense® (MSMS) program, a company-wide initiative that advances science literacy across the United States through hands-on, inquiry-based science learning, employee volunteerism and public education.

On March 18, MSMS launched a Facebook page to promote science and math education. Although many MSMS resources are available online, the program is driven by committed employee volunteers.

Making Science Make Sense on Facebook
About Making Science Make Sense

Herman Miller Relief Efforts

Natural disasters demand immediate, drastic response from businesses, especially those that can provide needed services or supplies. At the same time, these responses are often removed from most employees since the decisions are often made at top levels with a speed that precludes involvement from all levels. Herman Miller's multi-pronged response to the tragedy in Japan allows employees to feel involved in the process. Herman Miller not only donated to Japan relief efforts, they are also matching employee donations. Additionally, they are donating 5% of online sales to the American Red Cross Japan Disaster Relief Fund.