Viewpoint Creative is innovative not only in name but in deed.
The Needham-based ad agency is offering incentives to its nearly 40-person staff to go green: a $1,000 bonus for purchasing a hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle, plus $500 a year for as long as the employee owns the vehicle; $100 for getting a home energy audit; $200 for buying an Energy Star-approved home appliance; $1,000 for installing a home solar water heater or electricity system; $5 per day for carpooling or taking public transportation to and from work.
Owner Carlo DiPersio got the idea when a company tried to sell him carbon credits. "It kind of sounded like the old practice of buying indulgences," he says, referring to the Middle Ages custom of trying to pay your way to heaven.
The company, which does a lot of work with cable television, had stopped stocking bottle water and started using stainless steel cups in the office kitchen, but DiPersio wanted to do more: He wanted to change the mind-set of his employees.
And he has. "The money Viewpoint gives employees for driving a hybrid allows me to invest in other positive green initiatives, like buying organic," says Michael Middeleer, the company's executive creative director and owner of a
The program has also instilled loyalty in DiPersio's employees. "I'm not that interested in the money as I am with the idea that I work for a company that supports the environment," says producer Dana Isenberg, who owns a Prius.
It's not cheap, DiPersio says, but it's worth it. "I'd rather invest in my people," he says, "and not in another company selling me carbon credits."
[Harriet Blake]
