A simple and inspiring way to help families less fortunate than ourselves: turn off a switch

Wieden + Kennedy London, an advertising agency, is launching an in-house energy saving initiative through the collaboration with Solar Aid to help power a children’s home in Nairobi. The idea is simple: encourage staffers to be more conscious of their energy use, measure the savings in real-time, and use that saved energy to power a family's home in Nairobi.

Here is how Wieden + Kennedy put it: "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.

What a great idea that can be easily adapted by any firm, big or small.