West Liberty Foods hoping workers make Cool Choices

West Liberty Foods employees are teaming up against each other in an online game, Cool Choices, to see which group can make the most sustainable daily actions.

“(Cool Choices) is an online card game that encourages people to form teams and make sustainable actions every day,” said Kimm Gilmore, the company’s benefit specialist. “So for example, if recycling an item, there’s a card for recycling that item. If you did that, you can play that card. There’s a card for maintaining your correct tire pressure. If you do that, you can play your card. One for opening your windows instead of using your air conditioning. If you do that, you can play your card.”

The private label co-packer company recently partnered with Cool Choices — a nonprofit that makes choosing sustainable choices fun, social and easy through an online game — to sponsor an eight-week game aimed at developing and strengthening good habits focusing on energy conservation and sustainable actions that can save resources and money. The game began April 14.

“It’s a game to focus on things that save energy and are sustainable for the environment,” said Gilmore, who is managing the game as part of one of the company’s wellness challenges for the year. “We felt that it was a good way to promote teamwork as well as showing our employees that we care about them, not just at work but also them and their families at home.”

All West Liberty Foods team members were invited to join teams and play. Each team accumulates points by making “Cool Choices” at work and home.

West Liberty Foods is a leader in sustainability and in 2012 became one of the first companies in the country to be a verified Landfill Free Company — an achievement certified by NSF International Strategic Registrations Ltd., which means that less than 1 percent of its waste goes to the landfill. The company felt that implementing a game centered on sustainability was a great way to expand its initiatives.

“The game is a great way for our team members to have a little fun with sustainability and see how a little change at work or home can make a huge impact,” says Michele Boney, the company’s environmental compliance officer.

Kathy Kuntz, the executive director for Cool Choices, said West Liberty Foods is really in a lot of ways the type of employer that Cool Choices partners with.

“They’ve achieved zero waste,” she said. “They’ve done something really substantial to walk the talk around sustainability, and in the course of that, they had to figure out how to get their work force aligned around this really big goal. So they have a really strong interest in how do we share our sustainable commitment more effectively across our entire workforce and they really care about the outcome.”

Having played the game in 12 companies and 20 schools, Kuntz said the nonprofit group has worked with employers in manufacturing, law firms, commercial construction firms, health care entities and county government.

“A typical partner is a company that has a strong corporate commitment to sustainability and a real interest in employee engagement around that commitment,” she said. “But of course it’s a little more of the commitment that makes the company a good company than necessarily what business they are in.”

About 376 out of 800 West Liberty Foods’ employees have joined the game.

“We feel (the game) is very successful because we have practically 20 percent of our employee base participating in this,” Gilmore said. “And since it’s an extracurricular game, basically then that’s a pretty good percentage of our production facility.”