Keeping to the green

From quirky to cute, employees at Yahoo! Search Marketing in Burbank brought more than 50 ceramic mugs from home and donated them to the company’s “Mugstock” project.

The idea came from the company’s Green Team, employees who meet once a month to plan ways to protect the environment in the workplace.

There were different shapes, sizes and colors donated to the effort. One mug had the words El Salvador, Central America with two houses each topped with a terracotta roof. There was a white cup with round indentions that made it look like a giant golf ball.

Another had an FBI logo on it.

“I don’t know if it’s a joke mug or the real deal,” said Kastle Waserman, communications manager for Yahoo.

Green Team members decided to call it Mugstock to tie-in the event with the anniversary of Woodstock Aug. 15 to 18, 1969, she said. The cups were collected in the lobby Tuesday and Wednesday while employees came into the office.

“As Woodstock brought people together, we hoped Mugstock would bring employees together to lend their own personal hand in bringing their own cups from home to donate,” Waserman said.

Employee Erik Racho had wanted to donate a mug, but said he has kept forgetting to bring one in.

“I walked through the lobby yesterday and said to myself ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’” he said. “I have tons at home. I’ve been feeling guilty about using the disposable cups.”

This is one of several campaigns the Green Team has dreamed up, Waserman said. They have also had swap meets so employees could recycle things, e-waste collection days and encouraged the cafeteria to prepare more vegetarian meals, she added.