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Elizabeth Knox Elizabeth Knox

Our "Net Zero" Home

Offices are known targets of jokes and criticism (why do you think Dilbert, Office Space, and The Office are so funny? They resonate with our experiences of pointless reports, unnecessary overwork, and oddball colleagues).

So most people think: if you want something to be different, you have to leave an office job and become a free agent or go start your own organization. There’s no way you can update an existing bureaucratic behemoth to be more nimble, to adjust to the knowledge economy, to be anything other than Dilbert in real life.

Similarly, many people would also say that you should just build a new house if you want to cut your Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to zero - reworking the one you already live in just won’t work.

Click here to read more about our net-zero home project and how you can retrofit your workplace to be more efficient and effective.

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Elizabeth Knox Elizabeth Knox

The Pareto Principle

Once upon a time (though really not that long ago), MatchPace almost became “The Pareto Group.” We were so inspired by the Pareto Principle that we nearly named our company after it!

I was brainstorming names for the company with my husband, and he said “it’s like the Pareto Principle!”

If you are like me, and not my economically-minded husband, you might be asking “But what is the Pareto Principle?” I was not familiar with Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist Joseph Juran named the Pareto Principle after. But you may have heard of the “80/20 rule.” Back in the late 1800s, Pareto observed that 80 percent of Italy’s land was owned by just 20 percent of the population; he then took the principle a step further, noting that about 20 percent of the peapods in his garden produced 80 percent of the peas.

Read on to learn how you can apply the Pareto Principle so your entire team is efficient and effective.

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Elizabeth Knox Elizabeth Knox

Why MatchPace?

In the classic film Chariots of Fire, Eric Lidell says “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

Too many people dread waking up and heading to work on Monday morning. At MatchPace, we believe work is more than a way to pay the bills - it also gives purpose and meaning to our lives and provides a way to contribute to building a better, healthier society.

Most of us spend thousands of hours at work each year, making our contribution in the marketplace. We can think of these hours as the daily grind, glancing at the clock and counting the days until the weekend. Or, we can view our working hours as a way to contribute to improving the world around us: using ethical business practices, managing well, providing goods and services that improve lives, stewarding our planet’s resources well, furthering justice, and providing for our families and communities. Often, furthering the ability of employees and employers alike to contribute in this way means moving beyond the 9-5 and rethinking the pace at which we work, all while maintaining the highest levels of productivity, quality, and effectiveness.

Work can have purpose, and not be a drag.

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