The world's largest wireless provider, AT&T, is helping communities and the environment by inviting every employee to "do one thing" (Dot) – from exercising dogs to keeping office waste out of landfill.
The Dot slogan is about making sustainability more understandable to employees.
In 2013, 21,000 employees did something and some did more than one thing each – in total they did 35,512 things to release their potential or make an impact.
The scope of employees' activity ranges from volunteering to recycling, from using the company's technology in innovative ways, to living healthier lives.
To boost the numbers of people willing to take part, AT&T set up special teams last year to move the programme along. By the end of 2013 there were 689 Dot teams and nearly 1,140 employees had volunteered to become "Dot connectors", leaders who choose a Dot activity to share across the company.
AT&T is based in Texas but has a presence in 225 countries. It runs the largest Wi-Fi network in the US. It created Dot to make the idea of sustainability more understandable to employees, to increase internal awareness of AT&T's commitment to social and environmental good and to create a simple way for interested employees to join in sustainability efforts on a personal level.
AT&T believes Dot equips and encourages people to speak knowledgeably about related initiatives within the company. Dots could be individual or group accomplishments within AT&T and in communities.
In 2013 Dot activities helped to save $351,138, some 552 trees and 18,310,294 gallons of water. They helped employees shed 34,161 pounds, volunteer for 127,906 hours, took 643 cars off the road and generated 79,432 It Can Wait pledges.
AT&T's overall goal for the Dot campaign – to engage employees in the company's citizenship and sustainability efforts – seems to be working. In the last three years participation has grown, activities have broadened and enthusiasm has increased.
Jackie Wills is part of the wordworks network
The Guardian Sustainable Business Sustainability Case Studies contain articles on all the initiatives that met the criteria for the GSB Awards.
