Canadians Meet the Challenge of One Million Acts of Green!

TORONTO - February 4, 2009 - CBC, Cisco and green-minded Canadians nationwide proudly announce that One Million Acts of Green (OMAoG) has reached its goal of 1,000,000 acts of green registered online at www.onemillionactsofgreen.com.

Participants from coast-to-coast and from all walks of life have clearly embraced the program, pushing the campaign to its ultimate milestone in less than four months. Elementary and high schools, universities, municipalities, businesses and even local coffee shops have demonstrated their commitment, challenged each other to 'go green' and collectively achieved our goal.

With the support and enthusiasm of Canadians nationwide, One Million Acts of Green will continue the challenge to see how high we can go! Keep logging your green acts, challenge co-workers, friends and family. With participants from over 50 countries, challenge your friends from abroad to meet Canada's stellar results.

CBC will be featuring OMAoG million milestone celebratory content on CBC News: Morning, The National and of course on The Hour - where OMAoG was officially launched on October 21, 2008. Tune-in all day Wednesday Feb. 4, 2009 to catch the coverage. The Hour will also dedicate another show to OMAoG with a special million celebration on Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009 at 11p.m. on CBC.

Highlights/Key Facts:

CBC and Cisco congratulate Canadians on reaching the goal of One Million Acts of Green (OMAoG), a campaign that was launched on Oct. 21, 2008 on CBC's The Hour.

On Feb. 4, 2009 members of OMAoG's Web site logged their one millionth act of green. During the campaign, participants logged an average 9,435 acts per day, 7 acts per minute.

GreenNexxus calculates the total acts to date represent a reduction of nearly 56,000,000 kgs of greenhouse gas.

Initial expectations hoped to achieve the goal in early summer, but Canadians mobilized to meet the one million challenge much quicker than anticipated, setting an example for the world.

The campaign demonstrates that we are stronger together that we are apart. Together, people and technology are able to make positive changes for the sake of our planet. That's the Human Network Effect.

The active participation of university and school groups was instrumental in reaching the one million mark early. Trent University and Dalhousie University led the way in terms of most members and most acts of green.

The challenge capability has proven popular, inciting fierce competition from many groups including the City of Airdrie and the Town of Okotoks, Alberta with Airdrie leading the way with more than 19,000 acts.

Many of Canada's leading corporations including BMO Financial Group, MTS Allstream and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts have joined OMAoG and are complementing the program with innovative employee engagement and customer-facing initiatives.

Next steps for the program:

How far can we go…?

Quotes:

Kirstine Layfield, executive director of programming for CBC Television

"We knew that success comes from capitalizing on the relative strengths of different platforms or channels. As a national public broadcaster and also the country's leading online information source, I think we helped demonstrate with One Million Acts of Green in particular, the great results you can achieve by reaching out and engaging people."

Nitin Kawale, president, Cisco Canada

"Cisco is proud to be part of this unique program which clearly demonstrates the Human Network Effect: that when we come together on the network with a common purpose, we can collectively drive social change. Using the Internet, Canadians embraced OMAoG and showed that simple tasks, committed daily, can quickly add up to a million."

Who's the Greenest?

OMAoG's "greenest" provinces are: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia

The top 12 groups, in order of most acts committed are: Trent University, Dalhousie University, City of Airdrie, Bishop Strachan School, Havergal College, BMO Financial Group, MTS Allstream, Town of Okotoks, Hamilton's Delta Secondary School, Cisco Canada, Acadia University and North Bay, Ontario.

Tags/Keywords:

CBC, Cisco, The Hour, One Million Acts of Green, Canada, Environment, Green

Links/URLS

Visit the site (www.onemillionactsofgreen.com)

OMAoG in French www.unmilliondegestesverts.com

CBC's The Hour www.cbc.ca/thehour

Previous releases are available here (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/canada/OMAoG.html)

Join the Facebook group (www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86277625499)

Follow OMAoG on Twitter (www.twitter.com/OMAoG)

Watch the video "One Million Acts of Green: Canadians embrace program from Cisco and the CBC" (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/videos/omag_011208.html)

Learn more about GreenNexxus and OMAoG's greenhouse gas calculator architecture www.greennexxus.com

Cisco Green http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/hd_030308.html#cisco_green_resources

Clean Air Foundation http://www.cleanairfoundation.org/

The Climate Project - Canada http://www.climateprojectcanada.org/

David Suzuki Foundation http://www.davidsuzuki.org/naturechallenge/

Earth Day Canada http://www.earthday.ca/

Environmental Defence http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/

Équiterre http://www.equiterre.qc.ca/

Evergreen http://www.evergreen.ca/

Green Street http://www.green-street.ca/

Videos, Images and Podcasts:

Watch this video to see the incredible achievements so far of One Million Acts of Green. In just two months, more than 600,000 acts of green have been committed by Canadians coast-to-coast.

A video featuring Ula Ubani, Director, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, BMO Financial Group discussing One Million Acts of Green can be found on YouTube at

John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO, explains the One Million Acts of Green initiative and how, through the human network, we create the power to change the world where we work, live, learn and play.