Canada

Toronto

Zipcar corporate discount

In November 2015, the green team in Canada partnered with Zipcar in both the Toronto and Vancouver offices to offer employees a discount on the popular car sharing service.

Each and every Zipcar takes 15 personally-owned vehicles off the road
After joining Zipcar, 90% of members drove 8,800 kilometres or less per year. That adds up to more than 121 million litres of crude oil left in the ground—or 829 litres saved per Zipcar member

This initiative has been well received with 25 staff members signing up for a membership.

Free media library

We have implemented a Free Media Library in the lunch room in Toronto and have encouraged staff to bring in used books, CDs and games to share with colleagues and divert them from landfill.

This initiative has been well received with the shelves filling up in the first few weeks after it was implemented.

Steward Bags partnership

We partnered with Canadian company Steward Bags (www.stewardbags.ca) during Green Week (April 18-22) to offer a 10% discount to employees on reusable produce bags. While the City of Toronto does accept plastic bags for recycling, many municipalities still do not. Reusable produce bags help keep plastic out of landfills. Steward Bags are made out of certified organic cotton, are fair trade/fair labour and biodegradable. The team also used the $250 they won in Computershare's Carbon Games to buy more and will be running a contest in the office to raise awareness around Computershare's sustainability efforts and giving the bags away as prizes.

Calgary

Book exchange

The Calgary office has set up a book exchange for employees bring in unwanted books to share with their colleagues.

Recycling station

The green team in Calgary used their prize money from Computershare's latest Carbon Games to improve recycling stations and relocate them to a more convenient location, resulting in an increase in recycling.

Grey water recycling for plants to be watered

We have collect unused drinking water, left-over water in kettles, etc. The team have made arrangements with the Plant Care Company to use these jugs to water plants, which has worked well.