Employees step up to Earth Day challenge with 231,000 60-second actions
- Employees exceed original goal of 100,000 actions.
- Actions range from reducing energy use to recycling – at work and at home.
- Boeing adapted its annual Battle of the Buildings competition from the EPA.
The Battle of the Buildings friendly competition to promote conservation habits among Boeing employees earned its best results since the competition began in 2016, with employees taking over 231,000 60-second actions for the environment across the globe from Earth Day to mid-May, which is the equivalent of reducing carbon emissions by not driving 7.8 million miles (12.5 million kilometers).
Top 60-second actions included using refillable water bottles, recycling, turning off equipment not in use, and picking up foreign object debris (FOD).
“Congratulations to every employee who participated in taking 60 seconds for the environment, especially the winning sites” said Steve Shestag, senior director, Environment, Global Enterprise Sustainability. “When employees engage like this, we know it cuts costs, improves the environment and gives employees a sense of belonging, drive and purpose.”
The Battle of the Buildings competition among sites was based on the number of actions per capita and the winners in each category are:
- BGS won in the business unit category.
- Everett for very large sites
- San Antonio for large sites for the second consecutive year
- Winnipeg for mid-sized sites
- Seattle Spares Distribution Center for small sites, also for the second year in a row
- Germany-Other (mostly Berlin) for very small sites.
“The fact that we set a goal of 100,000, up from 60,000 in 2021, and we more than doubled the original goal is extraordinary,” said Annie Stilts, Global Enterprise Sustainability’s lead organizer of BoB. “Each winner has a cool story.”
Two of the winning sites are part of the winning business unit, BGS – San Antonio and The Seattle Distribution Center (SDC).
“We embrace waste reduction every day and if we can’t reuse something, then we’ll find a way to recycle it,” said Michael Martin, senior manager, Supply Chain at the SDC. “We pushed really hard last year to support conservation during the Battle of the Buildings and this year, everyone knew exactly what to do.”
Boeing’s Battle of the Buildings was adapted from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program, designed to reduce energy and water use in commercial buildings.
BoB Photo Contest Winners
Battle of the Buildings participants had the opportunity to submit a photograph with a description of what sustainability means to them. Here are the winners.