*wild applause*
New Dominion Bank and the recruiting firm Sherpa don't have much in common, but the two Charlotte companies have been in a heated competition since June 1.The winner will have added the least pollution to the city's air this summer.
The competition began when two Sherpa employees - Kori Renn and Heather Tatum - decided they wanted to step up the company's involvement in Clean Air Works!, a Charlotte-based program helping 116 businesses improve air quality.
Employees gain points for carpooling to work and to lunch, using public transit, swapping old light bulbs for energy-efficient ones, refueling cars after 6 p.m. and using reusable grocery bags.
Combined, the companies' actions have saved 2,985 miles in vehicle usage - by carpooling to work or walking to lunch - and 1,941 grams of nitrogen dioxide, a chemical that adds to the formation of ground-level ozone and can have adverse affects on the respiratory system, Dory said.
An average commute for a Charlotte resident - about 24 miles round-trip - creates 15 grams of nitrogen, according to Mecklenburg County air quality emissions.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article, by Danielle Kucera, here.
Here are some easy ways you, too, can go green: