Join the Green Your Commute Challenge!

The Departments of Environmental Conservation and Transportation, NYSERDA, and 511NY Rideshare are pleased to invite your municipality to participate in the first ever Green Your Commute Challenge! The Challenge allows municipalities to demonstrate their climate leadership and go head to head to see which employees can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions the most by greening their commutes over the course of the summer.

The event will run from June through the end of August. During this time, employees of participating municipalities will be encouraged to take these two steps:

1. Utilize more sustainable form of commuting when they can, such as walking, biking, taking transit, carpooling, or driving an electric vehicle - anything other than driving alone in a single-occupancy gasoline-powered vehicle.
2. Log the trips they take using 511NY Rideshare’s Trip Tracker App or their Ridesharing Portal.

Municipalities will compete in the following categories:

• Fewer than 10,000 residents
• 10,000 to 100,000 residents
• More than 100,000 residents

As the challenge heats up over the summer, updated standings and staff engagement resources will be sent around to spur on the competition and to inspire employees to stay engaged. In addition, the 511NY Rideshare team is available for onsite events to promote the challenge.

Here’s how your municipality can participate:

• Notify Brendan Woodruff (brendan.woodruff@dec.ny.gov) that your municipality would like to participate.
• Participate in our planning webinar at 10 AM on Wednesday, May 8th.
• Engage your staff with resources we supply on how they can green their commutes and participate in the event.

Top performers and overall results will be announced in September.

So notify us soon if you want to join in the fun and start your… put your foot on the… let the GHG emission reductions begin!