World Bicycle Day: Revisiting two initiatives aimed at encouraging people to reduce the carbon footprint
'Manufacturing' a cycling movement in Manali
Kothari Petrochemicals in Manali did not just tell its employees to cycle to work; it enabled them to do so.
It gifted Hercules cycles to over 140 employees on its rolls on National Safety Day in March 2022. The management's request to its staff: pedal to work at least once a week. Incentives nudging employees to take the eco-friendly route followed.
And that 'route' is well-travelled. In addition, the company has been taking other routes to energy conservation and pollution control. All these efforts have resulted in a plethora of recognitions for Kothari Petrochemicals including the National Award for Excellence in Energy Management 2024 by the Confederation of Indian Industries. The biggest encouragement however comes from the fact that neighbouring companies in Manali emulate its example by gifting bicycles to their employees.
'Once a month, usually on the fourth Saturday, we observe 'No Bike Day' encouraging employees to pedal to work or use public transport,' says Premapiriyan P., vice-president, Kothari Petrochemicals.
Next, the company switched to vehicles running on liquefied natural gas (LNG) for employee transportation. Two electrical cars were added to the fleet, and a fork lift was converted from diesel to electrical.
Employees who bicycle to work the maximum number of days in a month are incentivised with cash awards and carbon offset certificates.
Carbon dioxide emission has been reduced by 650 kilos on account of employees commuting by bicycle, says data shared by the company.
With a good number of employees living within a five to seven km radius of the plant, the management had a solid reason to push for a bicycle commute.
Once an employee pedals to work for a minimum of 10 days, a carbon dioxide math is done and certificates and gifts are given accordingly.
M. Rajavel, whole time director, Kothari Petrochemicals, says currently 20-25% of employees bicycle to work on a regular basis and they want to raise this percentage by another 50% this year.
'It is also important to understand the bottlenecks that employees face while cycling, which could be due to bad roads or chaotic traffic in the city, so I have asked the team to study the reasons. If their concerns can be addressed by the company then we will take it up or we can represent it to the Corporation,' says Rajavel.
The management will be purchasing another round of bicycles to be given to employees who have joined the organisation in the recent years.
A feeder service between a Metro station and a college
When the new academic year kicks off at M.O.P. Vaishnav College in June, the students and staff will have the advantage of taking a feeder service from the closest Metro Rail station to the college campus on Nungambakkam.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited is offering this service to support the college's 'No Vehicle Day' launched in August 2024.
'CMRL authorities got in touch with us and wanted a schedule in advance for them to arrange a service for the benefit of students, which we plan to take up from June,' says Archna Prasad, principal, M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women.
Currently, DMS or Thousand Lights are the closest metro stations accessed by a majority of the students. The shuttle service, if implemented well, would encourage more students to ditch their vehicles on other days of the week as well to rely on public transport - which was also the larger goal of keeping vehicles off the campus every last Thursday of the month, later changed to any one day in the month, based on students' feedback .
The principal notes that students' comfort level had to take precedence: if No Vehicle Day fell on an exam day, students would be handicapped by not using their own vehicle. There could be delay in reaching the college. So, the date and day of No Vehicle Day have been kept flexible.
The initiative runs on the steam of flash mobs and messages on social media earlier on. No campaigns are needed today: just an announcement a day before No Vehicle Day.
Archna says the initial two months the departments tried not to schedule visitors on the campus on the D-Day but now guests are also asked to switch to public transport.
The agenda for the coming academic year is to encourage students to pedal to college and also to get students and staff to switch to e-vehicles, says the principal, adding 'on No Vehicle day, e-vehicles are allowed.'
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