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Commute Alternatives
Since 1999 Nortel has offered employees an internal 'Transportation Demand Management' (TDM) program, called GreenCommute, aimed at encouraging and supporting commuter options. GreenCommute is available at select locations in North America. The goal of GreenCommute is to provide the information, resources, and support to encourage the use of a commuting mode other than the single occupant vehicle in an effort to proactively address the environmental, social and economic impacts associated with the commute to work. With established and strong partnerships in each community where GreenCommute is offered, the program is highlighted by a comprehensive intranet site highlighting alternative commuting modes, such as by transit, teleworking, carpooling, bicycling, and walking. The internal GreenCommute Web Site includes a state-of-the-art, self-serve ride matching system designed to help employees find carpool partners. Preferential carpool parking is available as recognition for those employees who have chosen to carpool or who are full-time teleworkers without dedicated office space. Bicycle parking, showers and lockers are available to support cyclists. Transit users at the Ottawa, Canada site enjoy a dedicated 'transit hub', complete with all the current route and schedule information, including a computerized link to the local transit agency with a screen showing pending arrival times, similar to an airport. The Ottawa GreenCommute, launched in association with the local government, is the most comprehensive program of its kind in Canada. In 2004 Nortel received the Ottawa's Best Workplace for Commuters Award in recognition of Nortel's leadership in commuter options programming. For the past six years the Ottawa site has also received an award for the Top Large Private Sector Employer in Ottawa for the Canadian National Commuter Challenge, a national Canadian event sponsored by the Federal Government through Environment Canada. In the autumn of 2004, Nortel earned the Best Workplaces for Commuters* designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation for both the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Billerica, Massachusetts locations. This designation provides public recognition to employers whose commuter benefits reach a National Standard of Excellence. Best Workplaces for Commuters, a voluntary partnership program designed to cut traffic congestion and traffic-related air pollution, recognizes employers that provide environmentally sound commuter benefits to employees. These commuter benefits offered by Nortel help demonstrate the company commitment to reducing pollution, commuting costs, traffic congestion and employee stress caused by single-occupant vehicle commuting. Nortel offers an array of benefits that help employees pursue environmentally sound and cost-effective commuting strategies. The evaluation criterion for the Best Workplaces for Commuters* award was substantial and included both internal programming and site design. The Nortel GreenCommute program is featured as a case study on 'Federal House in Order' and on 'Tools of Change'. Federal House in Order* assists federal organizations with the reduction of green house gas emissions from their operations. Federal House in Order has stated that "the GreenCommute Program provides an excellent example of how employers can help employees reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from their daily commute." Tools of Change* is a free-of-charge Web site for people who plan and run programs that promote healthy and/or environmentally sustainable actions. This Web site offers specific tools, case studies, and a planning guide for helping people take actions and adopt habits that promote health and/or are more environment-friendly. The primary site sponsors are Health Canada, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Nortel's comprehensive mobility program has been supporting telework for over a decade. Teleworking is now a common way of conducting business that enables individuals to work from anywhere and "commute" to the office by various means of telecommunication equipment. The telework program at Nortel uses readily available technology to allow employees to work somewhere other than the office with secure and seamless access to corporate systems, i.e., intranet, email, people directories, business applications and more. Telework reduces an employee's environmental impact by eliminating the need to commute by car and offers significant benefits for reduced green house gas emissions (especially carbon dioxide) that contribute to global warming. Telework also enhances business effectiveness through enhanced business continuity opportunities and reduced infrastructure costs for land, parking and raw materials used for buildings that are typically in use for only one-third of each day. Voice over IP solutions is technology used by many teleworkers that makes mobility synonymous with productivity. Surveys of Nortel teleworkers indicate that telework produces significant benefits in terms of increased employee well being, reduced stress, improved productivity and less environmental impact. As of December 2006, approximately 10% of Nortel employees were full time teleworkers and more than 85% of the workforce was mobility enabled. In the autumn of 2004, Nortel earned the Best Workplaces for Commuters designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation for both the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Billerica, Massachusetts locations. The receipt of the awards was aided by the significant number of employees who telework at Nortel. The Best Workplaces for Commuters designation provides public recognition to employers whose commuter benefits reach a National Standard of Excellence. In 1998 and 2000 Nortel received the Fortune 1000 "Excellence in Telework" award from the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC). The ITAC recognized the Nortel mobility program for its pioneering spirit, thoroughness and as an employee motivator/satisfier. May 2006, saw the birth of a more environmentally friendly bus service to transport Nortel staff and visitors to and from the Maidenhead site in the UK. As the Maidenhead site is located in a semi rural setting with no locally provided public transportation, bus services were included as part of the ongoing operations. This requirement is reviewed regularly by the local facilities team and the number of buses provided varies with the number of staff using the service. Qwest Software UK, a recent sub-tenant at this location, is now contributing towards the cost of the bus service, thereby reducing Nortel's ongoing operating cost. The local service provider, Courtney Coaches, currently operates coaches for Nortel that run on 100% Soya Oil. Courtney Coaches is the first UK based Bus Operator to convert vehicles from Mineral Diesel to 100% Soya Oil. Coaches running on Soya Oil have a carbon footprint that is 80% less than coaches running biodiesel. How does it work? The conversion technology is designed, developed and fitted by a local organization. It is a twin tank system with an additional, smaller fuel tank being fitted to hold a small amount of diesel. Diesel is used to start the vehicle in the normal way, but after a couple of minutes, the system automatically changes over to the vegetable oil, drawn from the original fuel tank. The changeover is unnoticeable and is indicated only by an in-cab display for the driver. Customers involved in trials report a 15-20% fuel saving in addition to lower vehicle emissions. Bill Courtney, Managing Director for Courtney Coaches, is reported to have said he intends to convert an additional 45 buses in his fleet, to this technology, in the next 12 months. Echoing comments made by Bill Courtney, Tony Arnold of CB Richard Ellis stated, "Diesel has had its day and the time was right to find more environmentally friendly ways of transporting Nortel staff to the site. The initiative helps support Nortel's ISO 14001 accreditation, reduces pollution, lowers CO2 emissions and helps to conserve the worlds ever dwindling supplies of fossil fuels." |
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