Engaging Employees: Posty Cards’ Success Story

 

Posty Cards’ Subsidized LED Replacement Bulb Program for Employees

Posty Cards, a family-owned manufacturer of business greeting cards located in Kansas City, Missouri, has a well-established history of doing things in the most sustainable way possible. From its renovated LEED Platinum manufacturing facility and office space to it zero-waste-to-landfill program, the innovative company has led the way in demonstrating to others how sustainability can play a central role in a successful business operation.

Their attention to sustainability doesn’t just stop within its own walls of operation, however. With a greater focus on how the company can expand its impact, Posty Cards recently launched a subsidized LED bulb replacement program for its employees.

“We wanted a way to get employees more involved in sustainability – more excited about it. The best way we could think of doing that was coming up with a way to help them save money at home. That’s something that will get people’s attention,” said Posty Cards’ Sustainability Coordinator, Emily Street.

The program gives employees the opportunity to purchase $8 LED bulbs at a significantly reduced price of $3 per bulb. (During the program’s launch, Posty Cards was able to capitalize on a point-of-purchase rebate program offered by KCP&L that reduced its purchase cost per bulb to $6.)

The program took off better than expected. Posty Cards set their goal at 150 bulbs, or about 3 bulbs per employee, and exceeded it by almost 140% by selling 358 bulbs. Street estimates the total employee savings (purchase cost per bulb savings and energy savings) totals more than $4,173 with only a minimal investment of $1,155 by Posty Cards. Street figures the total energy savings at 37,935 KwH.

After this initial success, Posty Cards is expanding the program to include other types of LED bulbs including candelabra and globe bulbs. Outside of the financial savings to employees, Street sees other benefits as well. “It’s also about employee morale. It shows them this company cares about them. We care about their well-being.”

The idea for the employee bulb program was born out of Posty Cards’ participation in a Sustainability Circle pilot program brought to Kansas City through Bridging The Gap’s Green Business Network. The program, run by California-based consulting firm REV and funded by Kansas City Power & Light, brought together 10 companies who met regularly over a 6-month period in a peer-learning setting to develop individualized sustainability action plans. With so much work already done around sustainability, Posty Cards was pleasantly surprised to identify more than 80 new green initiatives through the Sustainability Circle progress, including the LED bulb program.

Street said the company hopes to launch other similar programs for its employees around transportation choices and recycling at home.

“This [sustainability] is important to us; we want it to be important to our employees.”