Earth Day, Every Day.

How many Earth Day blogs will there be? For me, this intuitively seems one of the worst days to be blogging considering the sheer number of posts with “Earth Day” in the title. However, considering everything going on, I’d be remiss if I didn’t try to describe just a few things we have in the works.

Intel employees have always been fairly active on environmental issues, but in the last couple of years, that bug has spread. With our 2008 goal of contributing 1 million hours of volunteer time to our communities, they have looked at Earth Day as a rallying cry.

With close to 50 events scheduled in 14 countries (and multiple cities in some of those countries), Intel employees will not only touch the environment, but will be helping communities, schools and wildlife.

Some of these efforts will be invisible to the external world, but are important in driving a “green” culture. We have created a global photo essay showcasing our employee volunteer activities taking place around the world. Our Intel Employee Sustainability Network developed a list of sustainability ideas for employees – to reduce their impact both at home and at work – and are using an interactive online forum to invite employees around the world to share their own ideas.

We also kicked off the nomination process this week for the Intel Environmental Excellence Award. Each year, Intel recognizes and awards cash bonuses to employees who have helped to reduce Intel’s environmental impact by: promoting recycling and waste reduction, lowering the environmental impact of our products and processes, or creating sustainability education programs within our communities. Over the years, many award winning projects have demonstrated that reducing our environmental impact can also have real bottom line benefits for our company. For example, one 2007 winning project saved Intel $3 million dollars-making it a win-win for our business and the environment.

We need to keep reminding ourselves – Earth Day is Everyday.