Announcing the Winners of the 2012 Impact at Work Award

While plenty of awards congratulate corporate figureheads and high-profile personalities, Net Impact’s Impact at Work Award recognizes the hardworking but unsung individuals who roll up their sleeves to implement measurable change on the job.

The award not only recognizes Net Impact members for their ongoing efforts, it helps build credibility and exposure for critical if lesser-known projects, and serves as both inspiration and practical case study for other Net Impacters working to drive positive change at work. I’m thrilled to announce our 2012 winner, a pair of exemplary members who have brought sweeping changes to their organization:

Asheen Phansey
Product Manager, SolidWorks
North American Sustainability Leader, Dassault Systèmes

Amy Green
Marketing Programs Manager, Dassault Systèmes

Asheen, an engineer, and Amy, a marketer, joined forces to leverage a disruptive move to new headquarters into a global movement towards sustainability among all 10,000 employees and 100+ offices at their company. The pair’s efforts eliminated over a ton of PET plastic from their company’s waste stream, implemented commuter incentives, and much more – and they did it by leading cross-functional teams, engaging employees from every department. Along the way, they faced myriad challenges: “I honestly thought that securing budget would be our biggest challenge,” says Asheen. “What was much more difficult was creating momentum among our employees. We’re all very passionate, but our day jobs often get in the way”…

Finding an ally

When Asheen first arrived at Dassault as a product engineer, he was served lunch on a styrofoam tray. It struck him as odd, given that the company was well-known for its sustainability software, and he immediately saw room for better alignment between the company’s products and internal practices. So when he met Amy, who had successfully launched a Green Team at her previous employer, he knew he’d found an ally.
“We both wear our passion for sustainability on our sleeves,” Asheen says of he and his partner, “so it was a natural fit for us to be seen as sustainability leaders in our organization. We are both networkers and connectors, both good listeners, and both slight instigators.”

Asheen’s Quick Tip:
“Find your allies and keep them involved. They could be from all different functions and levels in the hierarchy…recruit them to help in whatever way they can.”

Amy points out that being in different job functions was actually more of a boon than a deterrent: “Asheen’s background in sustainability definitely provided the knowledge base and foundation for the Green Team. My background in marketing and project management allowed us to communicate our message effectively to employees and other stakeholders.”

Getting focused, getting organized

“At first we didn't have any concrete objectives,” says Asheen, “other than to engage passionate employees.” So Asheen and Amy turned to Net Impact, and discovered our Impact at Work(shop) and accompanying Toolkit. A year before Dassault Systèmes was scheduled to move its headquarters, Asheen and Amy held their first Impact at Work(shop) for more than sixty employees. The goal was to identify ways they could implement behavioral and systemic changes toward sustainability during and after the move.

Amy’s Quick Tip:
“Start small, with just a few passionate employees, and others will seek you out and join the effort, eventually raising visibility to make greater corporate policy change possible.”

Asheen describes the workshops: “We held the launch over two 90-minute lunchtime sessions, and formed project teams focusing on water usage, energy efficiency, waste and recycling, employee education, etc. Each team used the toolkit’s templates to evaluate several projects and choose one with the highest impact and chance of success.”
While Asheen and Amy were thrilled to see the abundant interest among employees, it quickly became clear that the team needed a unified vision and formal organizational structure to streamline the various projects. The pair led the group through discussions to solidify a mission, and created a formal leadership board to manage their various efforts. The model they developed initially is now being used to create Green Teams at all major Dassault facilities across North America.

Taking it to scale

With a clear mission and an organized taskforce, the team found executive support was easier than anticipated. Al Bunshaft, Dassault’s Managing Director of North America, explains why: “Asheen and Amy helped us create a strong internal alignment to the sustainability values that our [software] applications espouse. The Green Team represents something that helps our company and our community. It is strongly embraced by employees and makes our people feel better about the company they work for.” In other words, with all the prep work and effort the team put – including earning the support of a large number of employees – it was an easy sell to the executive team.

So what did Amy and Asheen’s Green Team ultimately achieve? Installation of fountain drink systems at the new headquarters eliminates 250,000 soda cans and 100,000 water bottles per year; switching to reusable tableware eliminated 250,000 paper cups each year; and offsetting 100% of the company’s electricity usage through renewable energy credits offsets 3,500 tons of CO2 per year.

“The most successful projects are led by people who are empowered and passionate about what they are doing,” says Bunshaft. “In Amy and Asheen, we have found two dedicated professionals who are highly competent, strong team leaders, and who feel strongly about the purpose of their efforts. It’s a winning combination for Dassault Systèmes in a vitally important area for our company and our world. “

And for Asheen and Amy, the payoffs are many. Asheen has since become Dassault’s North American Sustainability Leader. “Many of the individual changes we make can seem trivial,” says Amy, “but the sum of the efforts, the people, and the behavioral change, can really make an impact. This award is a recognition of that impact and one that will bolster me professionally wherever my career takes me.”

The 2012 Impact at Work Award is generously sponsored by AT&T.