BOSTON – One hundred and fifty-three employers, representing a total of 222,843 employees, are honored on the fifth annual list of New England’s Best Workplaces for Commuters released late yesterday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
To qualify, employers must provide at least one primary commuter benefit, such as a subsidy for monthly transit passes, cash in lieu of free parking or a significant telecommuting program; plus at least three supporting benefits, such as carpool incentives, lockers and showers for bicyclists and walkers, incentives for living near work or onsite amenities such as day care or dry cleaning; plus active promotion and coordination of commuter benefits and information via a central contact point; and access to a guaranteed emergency ride home program.
Local honorees achieving the EPA’s National Standards of Excellence in commuter benefits are: Grow Smart Rhode Island; the Providence-based nonprofit focusing on development issues and transportation demand management; Kent Hospital in Warwick; the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport; and the quasi-governmental Rhode Island Housing, based in Providence. Other honorees include the East Boston office of Gilbane Inc., the Providence-based engineering, construction and architecture firm; Amgen Massachusetts in Cambridge; the Westwood, Mass., facility of NSTAR Inc., the Boston.-based natural gas and electric utility serving central and eastern Massachusetts; the nonprofit Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management in Boston; Verizon-Massachusetts in Boston; the state agency MassRIDES in Boston; the Federal Aviation Administration facility in East Boston; the EPA’s Region 1 (New England) office in Boston; the U.S. Department of Transportation office in Cambridge; and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) regional office in Boston.
These Best Workplaces “are stepping up to the plate and demonstrating their commitment to improving air quality in our region through innovative commuter benefit programs,” Robert W. Varney, the EPA’s regional administrator for New England, said in a statement. “They are not only doing their part to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, but they are also gaining a competitive advantage by offering employees an important benefit [that] broadens their commuting options.”
The Best Workplaces for Commuters is a voluntary public-private program; the EPA and DOT assist participating employers by offering recognition, technical assistance, training, Web-based tools and forums for information exchange.
The benefits to the community and the employees are measurable: “Together, these employers have reduced annual emissions in New England by nearly 108,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), 95 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC), more than 200 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 1,850 tons of carbon monoxide (CO),” the EPA said in its announcement. “This is equivalent to removing more than 20,000 cars from the road, and will save New England commuters more than 12.2 million gallons of gasoline every year.”
The benefits to employers – aside from demonstrating environmental leadership and corporate good citizenship – include access to free program tools and assistance; reduced demand for limited or expensive parking; reductions in income and payroll taxes; and improved employee satisfaction, productivity, recruitment and retention, the EPA said.
As of Oct. 1, administration of the Best Workplaces for Commuters program will be taken over by the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida, with support from the EPA’s National Center for Transit Research.
Additional information about the Best Workplaces for Commuters program, including an online application form and a full list of participating employers nationwide, is available at www.bestworkplaces.org.
