Many cities and companies are promoting carpooling as an easy way to reduce carbon emissions. There is little doubt that their are enormous benefits to carpooling but from a commuters point of view (i.e. someone trying to get to work in the least amount of time) it seems like carpooling will take additional time. However, if we do a little commuter math, we can determine that, on average, carpooling actually saves time. Why? Let’s say, for example, that every commuter made an effort to car pool. An average communiting time to downtown Toronto during rush-hour from surrounding community is about 1.5 hours. If we were able to reduce the number of cars by even 1/4th there would be a significant decrease in average commute time, possibly 30 minutes. And even if we don’t succeed in that amount of reduction, there are carpool lanes for cars with more than one person. The time saving becomes more significant over time because congestion is increasing with even more severe impacts on commuting time. There is a certain volume of traffic that the road ways can easily handle. Up until that point, there is very little impact by adding traffic. But after that limit is reached, the congestion increases considerably for every additional car. So removing even 5% of the cars would reduce commute time by more than 5% on average. It only stands to reason then that every car we get off the road will make a positive difference in reducing commute time and CO2 emissions. For the individual commuter, sometimes there is a trade-off if they have to stop and wait for a carpool or go out of their way to drop someone off, but as more people opt for carpooling, there will be better matches. Imagine if 25% of the vehicles were taken off the road. Commute times may be reduced by 30 minutes which would easily make up for any inconvenience.

Benefits of Carpooling

What are the other benefits of carpooling? First, you make friends, get to meet someone new and get to know them well because you see them on a regular basis. Second, you get to share costs of commuting. If you still have a car, at very least you save on gas. If not, you may get to save on repairs, insurance and other costs. Third, if you’re riding with someone else, you may get a little more time to sleep before getting to work. Fourth, in many cities you save time because you get to use designated carpool lanes. Fifth, if your company supports carpooling, you get to leave at a regularly scheduled time(and for reasons I’ll explain later, this is also good for the company). Sixth, you help to save the planet. In the battle against climate change, you get to reduce carbon emissions by sharing a ride directly (more riders is better) and by reducing average commute time for everyone, you help every vehicle on the road because all of them enjoy a slightly shorter commute time. Yes, as even one car comes off the road, there is just a little less congestion and every other car benefits a little and contributes a little less carbon.

Getting your Company Involved

There are many ways to participate in car-pooling and there are many direct and indirect benefits to the company for doing so, not the least of which is your company’s contribution to reducing CO2. But before you roll-out a carpool plan, it is like many other projects, you need think about how to inform staff and management on the benefits to them and to others. Following are a few steps to consider: » Continue reading “Reducing Company CO2 the easy way, Carpool, Flex-hours and Telecommuting”

After returning from an open house at the office of Berteig Consulting, I’m having an opportunity to reflect on the depth of conversation held with members of the Berteig team and the learning derived from these conversations.

Bertieg Consulting is run in a way that is more sustainable and quite different than most organizations.  It is based on a methodology called Open Agile, developed by the company, and which is implemented and continuously evolving within their organization.

Open Agile is a new method of Organizational management based on Agile principles but which are adapted for Organizational activity. One part of the process which is very different from traditional Organizational methodologies is the systematization of reflective learning which is much deeper and more consistent than with traditional approaches.

Learning about the methodology is one thing, becoming a skilled practioner is something else.

As an advocate of continuous and systematized learning, I congratulate the Bertieg team for their accomplishments and have offered to contribute to them in their efforts to evolve their process.

For business leaders interested in creating sustainable organizations, reflective learning followed by pragmatic value based actions are practices which ensure that goals are established, acted upon and learned from.

Open Agile promotes concepts of transparency, truthfulness and consultative decision making all of which are essential elements in building a truly sustainable organization. While holding these principles as core to the process, it also incorporates a framework for holding and sharing the learning. The result is a continuously improving organization.

For more information on Open Agile and Bertieg Consulting, see http://www.openagile.com or http://www.berteigconsulting.com

Garth Schmalenberg
416-919-6598

An interesting project for promoting a culture of sustainability is one initiated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development who, along with participating companies, has created an Eco-Patent sharing project called Eco-Patent Commons. This project encourages companies wishing to participate to share patents which are beneficial for the environment. These patents are free to use and may be used by any company which might benefit from them.  Among the participants our companies such as Ricoh, IBM,Taisei Corporation, Dupont, and others.  Each of these companies has shared a number of their patents for the benefit of the environment.

As the severity of the earth’s situation becomes more apparent and the benefits of sharing are recognized, more and more companies are participating in this project knowing that they stand to benefit from utilizing each other’s intellectual property. Rather than starting from scratch, they are able to more quickly find solutions to some of their challenges add their own intelligence to ideas which have already been patented by another company.  A similar concept has been used in the IT world through open source.

Creating a culture of sustainability will require new ways of thinking for all of us.  As the requirement for answers to our shared the dilemmas becomes more critical, companies will have less time and less resources available for their own individual research. It will be those companies who are willing to work together to find solutions, that will ultimately dominate the market. 

Similarly, within companies, the need for cooperation between individuals and departments is at an all time high.  Organizations who have developed cultures of unbridled internal and external competition will suffer the consequence of falling behind to who have developed a culture of consultation, teamwork, sharing, joint venturing, knowledge management and continuous learning. 

Municiple, regional and national governments who have learned to work effectively with other government organizations, NGOs and Businesses, who have learned to foster cooperation and respect, who have mastered consultative decision making and who share the responsibility of decisions made, will ultimately lead those who are underdeveloped in these capacities.

The call to action for all of us, is to learn and discover new and better ways work together, to recognise that the solution to many of our challenges, both economic and environmental, are  global in their nature. Let’s view our shared dilemma as an ideal opportunity to learn how to work together. 

Whether we like it or not, much of our fate on this planet will ultimately be shared.

Till next time,
Garth Schmalenberg

PS: Web-sites related to sharing initiatives
WBCSD Eco Patent Commons – http://www.wbcsd.org/web/epc/
HBI Leadership – http://hbi-leadership.com