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Green Star's A Buck or Two for AQ An incentive program to encourage ~ Employees Earn a Buck or Two ~ Green Star has introduced this new incentive program as part of its Air Quality Award program. Targeting business commuters, the program encourages the use of alternative transportation. By increasing travel by carpooling, vanpooling, riding the bus, walking, biking, and skiing, pollutants in Anchorage air can be reduced. Your business is invited to participate and earn an Air Quality Award. To come on board, you would (1) ask your employees to voluntarily commit to using alternative forms of transportation and (2) encourage the behavior with a small cash reward. Employers are asked to offer a daily monentary incentive of $1 to $4 to each empooyee who does not drive a single-occupancy vehicle to and from work. The small monetary incentive is designed to encourage and maintain the desired behavior until it becomes a habit. The cash incentive paid during the first month of the program would be larger than the amount paid for the second month. The decreased incentive amount is designed to reduce reliance on the monetary reward while a new habit based on internal motivation is developed. Green Star will assist businesses by providing information about resources that can help employees make changes in their transportation choices and about the associated benefits. For examlpe, bus route and walking, biking and ski routes will be featured. Green Star can assist in establishing carpooling networks within a workplace and can help connect employees with Share-A-Ride, an established program and database of the Municipality of Anchorage. Benefits
Success Stories ABR, Inc. Environmental Research and Services offers a cash incentive to each employee in its Anchorage and Fairbanks offices who commutes to and from work by multiple-occupancy ($2 per day) or non-motorized vehicle ($3 per day). Half of the applicable amount is paid to an empooyee for a one-way commute that qualifies. An indicator of success is occassional or more frequent use of an alternative means of transportation by 75% of employees. Many employees do not rely on vehicles for their commutes. Numerous particatns report they've stopped turnin in their reimbursement forms becuase they are using alternative means of transportation to protect the environment, not for the financial rewards. In 2002, the organization paid out $1,700 to 15 people, recognizing an average of more than 100 commutes each just for the participans who did request the monies offered. The incentive program helps ABR achieve its carbon-neutral status, a distinction that places the firm on the leading edge of forward-thinking businesses and make it more competitive on job bids.
The electronic timecard system is able to collect commuter miles, track types of commutes, and analyze the success by employee, office, region, and the entire corporation. Since the start of the web-based program in 2003, 31 million miles of avoided driving have been documented nationwide. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Transportation Partners program recognized the community-enhancing qualities of the E&E incentive program in 1997. The E&E program has measurably reduced cumulative pollutants by cutting gasoline use by 1.7 million gallons, carbon dioxide emissions by 13,000 tons, carbon monoxide emissions by 1.5 million pounds, nitrogen oxide emissions by 125,000 pounds, and hydrocarbon emissions by 215,000 pounds. E&E calculates an annual expense of about $7,000 on the carpooling incentive program for its 25 national offices. Offsetting the cost is the estimated savings of about $50,000 that would have been required for parking lot expansions if employees had not embraced the use of alternative transportation. Additional savings realized are reduced costs for plowing, lighting, and maintaining parking lots. |
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