Can the GETF get the Federal telework pilot on track before time runs out?
In April I reported that the EPA had awarded the Global Environmental and Technology Foundation the new contract for managing the eCommute Program. Here’s an update on the program since GETF took over.
To review, eCommute is the two-year, five-city EPA-funded pilot that explores a way to compensate businesses for by adopting telework and thereby cut pollution. The participating cities — Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Denver — are among the nation’s smoggiest and congested, places that could benefit greatly from fewer cars on the roads.
Teleworkers in the eCommute program track the number of miles spent not commuting, post the data on Teletrips portal site, and Teletrips converts the miles to “mobile emissions credits” that the businesses can trade on the open market.
Launched in June 2002, the program was bungled early on by its coordinator, the National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI). The EPA fired NEPI, some say for mismanagement of eCommute’s $1.5 million grant. The EPA then spent several months looking for a replacement, during which time no grant money went to the cities’ local groups charged with the program’s marketing, implementation and management.
Now, the GETF must make the best of a bad situation.
“Our task is to help the cities continue or get back up and running depending on where they left off,” says Anna Garcia, eCommute’s new program manager. “Some organizations found the means to continue promoting the program on some basic level during the hiatus, while others had to take a bit of a break.”
The GETF took control of eCommute around May, but Garcia says its marketing and implementation efforts have really just begun. The group says it needs about 200 participants in each city to compile a useful research sample, with users enrolled for at least several months. But today, only about 80 companies and some 250 employees are enrolled in the program. The program is set to end June 2004, but the GETF will begin collecting data in April 2004, only eight months away. The EPA is considering extending the pilot until September 2004.
Something else to consider: Emissions credits don’t have value in all five cities because the cities’ pollution sources vary. In Houston, for instance, there are manufacturing and power plants, so the credits have value. But in Washingto,n D.C., most pollution comes from cars, or is “imported” from the Ohio Valley via the jet stream, says Chuck Wilsker, head of the Telework Coalition. For more on how emissions credits work, head here.
At the very least, eCommute’s findings will help determine whether emissions credits are a viable incentive for businesses to adopt telework in any U.S. region. That is, if the group has time to convince enough companies to join the pilot.
Regardless, the GETF and D.C.-area think tank Resources for the Future will compile the final report, and Garcia is optimistic about the results.
“The report will help inform legislators about what kinds of approaches there might be going forward,” she says. “I could see the results of the study could help shape future legislation, and it will add to the body of work that’s out there.”
