Alternative Transportation = Ice Cream

9-18-08

In May of 2008, Counter Culture Coffee’s Sustainability Committee undertook the project of encouraging employees to use alternative transportation or carpool to and from our headquarters here in Durham. One-person-per-car commuting is, unfortunately, still the default for most of our local employees (reflecting the under-funded public transportation program in the area), but we recognize the inherent unsustainability of that model even for a small company like ours.

In addition to looking for ways to make our company’s footprint a little smaller, we also want to make sustainability appealing, and a project like this not only fits our environmental sustainability mission by reducing our staff’s fuel consumption, it also furthers our fiscal sustainability goals by saving commuters cash on fuel. We set a company-wide goal of achieving a 2000-mile reduction in commuter driving miles by riding the bus, biking, carpooling, and telecommuting, with the promise of a party when we reached the goal.

Three months later, we did it! We reached the 2000-mile mark during the last week in August and celebrated our achievement last Friday afternoon with ice cream purchased from our friends at Maple View Dairy in Hillsborough, NC. And because sustainability is about constant improvement, we set a new goal to improve upon our performance and make a 2000-mile reduction in miles driven in two months instead of three!

Thanks,
Kim Elena