Fleming wins a Shifting Gears Travel Wise Award
Fleming College has scored a big win in Peterborough’s annual Shifting Gears Workplace Transportation Challenge. The college is the winner of the Large category (250-10,000 employees), beating out organizations such as Trent University, Siemens and PRHC.
Shifting Gears is a month-long event held in May that challenges employees to reduce their carbon footprint by telecommuting or cycling, walking, taking transit, or carpooling to work.
Fleming’s Shifting Gears coordinator, faculty member Peter Laurie, said participation rates at the college more than doubled in 2013 to 49.
Participants logged their trips to and from work online. The website then recorded and calculated how many kilograms of greenhouse gases employees saved. According to the Shifting Gears website, Fleming participants saved 1,586.63 kg of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.
“I’m very proud of our participants,” said Peter. “I’m particularly proud of the folks who decided to start getting here (to work) by bicycle.”
Peter highlighted that getting to the Sutherland Campus by bicycle is not always easy, as currently there are few dedicated bike lanes on roads near the college. Participants from Fleming cycled a combined total of 3,033 kilometres during the Challenge.
Some employees have permanently changed the way they are getting to work and more students are participating in the challenge, he added.
The college received a commemorative plaque for winning its category, which will be located in the Wellness display case at the Sutherland Campus.
For more information on Shifting Gears, visit: www.peterboroughmoves.ca.
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