Welcome to Optimism

planning the swoosh: next steps

Regular readers will remember that a week or so ago we invited applications for a planning job on Nike.

Well, applications we got. Lots and lots of them.

We'll be going through stuff over the next week or so, and will be feeding back to everyone as soon as possible, but it might take a little while longer than we hoped.

To those that had a go – thanks for all of the effort.

Off-On: power down at W+K London to power up Nairobi kids’ home

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Article in Creativity about our new initiative: Off-On.

Wieden + Kennedy London is launching Off-On, an in-house initiative to expend less energy in order to do more good. The new effort employs tangible reminders like screen savers and LED displays to encourage staffers to shut down power guzzlers when they're not in use, while showing them where the money saved will ultimately go—to help provide solar power to a children's home in Nairobi, via a partnership with NGO Solar Aid.

Off-On employs a custom-made system created by W+K with engineers from Pell Frischmann that monitors energy use in real time to update W+K staffers on their progress. By reducing our energy consumption by about 10% in a year, we will be able to save enough to provide solar power for four classrooms and a kitchen.

Our ambition is to turn Off-On into free open-source software that can be used by all businesses and schools to reduce their energy consumption and help provide power to people in the developing world.

Check out the Off-On pilot below, launching on Thursday:

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