COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Board of Supervisors

 

DATE:

January 17, 2007

BOARD MEETING DATE:

January 23, 2007

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson, President

Supervisor Jerry Hill

SUBJECT:

Cool Commutes challenge to Bay Area counties

 

Recommendation

Adopt a resolution encouraging Bay Area counties to participate in the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Cool Commutes challenge.

Vision Alignment

Commitment Five: Redesign our urban environment to increase vitality, expand variety, and reduce congestion

    • Goal 10: Public transportation choices are convenient, affordable, accessible and safe

Commitment Ten: Leaders Work Together Across Boundaries to Preserve and Enhance the Quality of Life

    • Goal 23: Leaders throughout the County provide the impetus for broader regional solutions in land use, housing, childcare, education, health and transportation.

Background

Cool Commutes: A Competition to Reduce Greenhouse Gases is one of twelve initiatives being launched as part of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s “Clean and Green Alternative Energy Action Plan”.

Participating organizations will be challenged to increase the number of alternative commutes their employees make during a nine-month period. In February, employees will take a survey to determine a baseline commute pattern. Once a baseline is established, participants will make every effort to commute to work as often as possible using modes other than a single-occupancy vehicle. The challenge concludes with another survey in October to see which organization had the largest improvement.

 

Discussion

Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the private sector champion in the competition, has requested the Board of Supervisors take a leadership role in the Cool Commutes challenge.

As the public sector champion, the Board will challenge the nine Bay Area counties. At the end of the survey period, the Board will buy and deliver lunch to those offices who performed better.

Participants will be encouraged to disseminate the challenge to all their employees, but for purposes of the competition, the Board will be competing solely against other elected bodies and their staffs.

The timeline for participating organizations is as follows:

    • January 31st: Send a staff person to a training seminar to learn more about how to offer alternative commute options to your workers.

    • February: Survey employees about how they currently commute to work each day.

    • February to October: Periodically encourage County employees to participate in the Challenge.

    • October: Once again survey employees about how they commute to work to determine the new results and communicate those results to the leadership group.

Surveys will be conducted via the web, using software provided by the Leadership Group. The Board can partner with the HR Department’s Commute Alternatives Program to promote the challenge to all county employees.

Cool Commutes will promote environmentally sound commute alternatives throughout the region. Taking a leadership role as the initiative’s public sector champion places the county at the forefront of this effort.

Fiscal Impact

The County will incur minimal costs associated with marketing and communications.

The cost of purchasing and delivering lunches will be included in the FY 07-08 budget request.