No matter how environmentally conscious a design firm may be with its portfolio, walking the talk is another story when it comes to reducing each employee’s personal carbon footprint they leave behind in their daily commute. HDR’s San Francisco architecture studio recently decided to tackle that challenge and in so doing, it won the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Great Race for Clean Air competition. The competition challenges Bay Area companies’ employees to reduce the most CO2 by carpooling, van-pooling, biking, walking, or riding transit to work instead of driving alone.
During the fall of 2015, 526 employees from 47 companies logged their daily air-friendly commutes, and winners were chosen in three categories: highest CO2 savings, highest percentage of “clean commute days” logged, and highest percentage of employee participation. HDR’s San Francisco office won the latter category with a 35 percent participation rate.
“Our staff saved 14,740 pounds of CO2, which is equivalent to an average home’s approximate electricity usage for one year, 15.3 barrels of oil consumption, and 168 tree seedlings grown for 10 years,” said Michael Orr, managing principal of HDR’s San Francisco architecture studio.
For more information, visit hdrinc.com or sparetheair.org/get-involved/great-race-for-clean-air.
