August 22, 2001

LOS ANGELES
Touting a Telecommuting Trade-Off Environment: The U.S. Transportation Department
will grant smog emissions credits to firms that let employees work at home.

By HUGO MARTIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Hoping to breathe new life into telecommuting efforts, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta kicked off a campaign in Los Angeles on Tuesday to offer smog emissions credits to businesses that get more of their employees to work from home.

Under the national pilot program, which is expected to begin by the end of the year, businesses that earn the credits can use them to meet air-quality requirements or sell them to other companies.

"By encouraging telecommuting, we mitigate traffic congestion, reduce fuel consumption, improve air quality and enhance your business," Mineta said at a news conference attended by dozens of local transportation and environmental officials. Details of the program have yet to be worked out but, if successful, the project could add a profitable new incentive for employers to keep their workers at home and off the overburdened freeways.

Telecommuting appears to have lost its steam in the last decade, primarily due to the resistance of employers who say that it breeds resentment among co-workers and that telecommuters are harder to monitor, according to experts.

In Southern California, only 8.6% of all employees have the opportunity to telecommute, according to a survey by the Southern California Assn. of Governments. That is down significantly from the 12.5% of employees who were allowed to telecommute in 1994.

Although other surveys show telecommuting is on the rise nationwide, local officials say there are no recent statistics that describe the telecommuting trend in Southern California.

The two-year pilot program, known as "eCommute," is also being set up in Denver, Washington, Houston and Philadelphia.

Businesses participating in the program will be able to use a special computer program to calculate how much smog they reduce each day by allowing employees to work at home. The program will take into consideration how many employees work at home, how far they typically drive and what type of vehicle they drive.

In Southern California, only those large companies that already meet their air-emissions requirements can qualify to earn extra smog emissions credits to sell.

"eCommute represents an innovative means in which employers can contribute to relieving traffic congestion and improving our air," said Ronald Bates, a Los Alamitos councilman and past president of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

In the next six months, the association, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and other agencies will try to recruit 40 to 50 companies for the program. Once they have been trained on how to use the software, officials at the AQMD will determine whether the firms qualify for smog credits.

Companies with extra smog credits can trade or sell them at the trading system known as RECLAIM, for Regional Clean Air Incentives Market. The price of a smog credit fluctuates based on supply and demand, but in recent years, the robust economy and better air quality in Southern California have sent the price of such credits soaring.

"We hope this type of incentive keeps on giving," said Mary Brooks Beatty of the National Environmental Policy Institute. "As long as you are continuing to telework, you continue to get credits."

Program will award air quality credits for telecommuting.

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jeff Lustgarten,
Cerrell Associates
323/466-3445

TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY NORMAN MINETA
BRINGS ECOMMUTE TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles , CA - August 1, 2001 - eCommute, a national pilot program to encourage the development of employer-based telework programs, was launched in Southern California today by a contingent of national and local transportation and environmental leaders, headed by United States Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta. More than 100 business and public sector leaders were in attendance at the launch event in downtown Los Angeles to learn how they can enroll in this unique program.

"Today, we face many serious transportation challenges, and we need to work together on solutions that are creative and that reflect the reality of future population growth and the corresponding traffic and air quality issues," said Secretary Mineta. "One of those solutions is eCommute, and I'm particularly excited to see how successful this program will be in Southern California."

eCommute is a new national pilot program launched earlier this spring after receiving congressional approval and funding. Its intent is to enroll businesses and encourage the establishment of employee telework programs. Participating companies will be provided with new software that will enable them to calculate the reduction in vehicle miles traveled that result from their individual employee telework programs. The companies may eventually be eligible to receive air quality emission credits as a financial incentive for establishing a telecommute program. Employers would also reap the benefits of increased morale, productivity and retention of employees. The city of Los Angeles has documented that two days of sick time per commuter are saved as a result of eCommuting.

According to Michael Antonovich, Los Angeles County mayor and chair of the Southern California eCommute policy steering committee, more than 5,000 county employees participate in eCommuting. These employees save more than $2 million in personal expenses and 335,000 hours in travel time each year. The county program also conserves approximately 583,000 gallons of gas and eliminates nearly 150 tons of air pollutants each year.

The local eCommute program will be jointly administered by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), and the Southern California Economic Partnership. In addition to Southern California, eCommute pilot programs are being implemented in Denver, the District of Columbia, Houston and Philadelphia.

"Southern California has long been known for its traffic woes, and given what we know about how our region will evolve over the next 20 years, we still have considerable work to do as a region to get a better handle on our ever-present congestion problems," said Ronald Bates, Los Alamitos mayor pro tem and immediate past president of SCAG. "eCommute represents an innovative means in which employers can contribute to relieving traffic congestion and improving our air."

For more information about the eCommute program, call 909/396-5757 and ask to speak to an eCommute representative, or visit the eCommute Website at www.the-partnership.org/ecommute.

 

E-Commuting Pilot Project Launched in L.A.

(KFWB) 8.21.01, 1:40p -- Los Angeles is among five cities chosen to test "eCommute," a national pilot project designed to provide businesses with incentives to develop employee telecommute programs. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation came to the Southland to help launch the program. Secretary Norman Mineta says the program to allow more employees to work at home instead of the office has a number of benefits.
"Help reduce traffic congestion and improve fuel conservation and air quality in the Los Angeles basin. And those three elements fit right into President Bush's energy conservation plan," said Mineta.

Mineta says he understands not all jobs can be done at home by computer. However, he says businesses encouraging eCommuting will see productivity rise as stress levels and tardiness decreases for participating employees. The two-year pilot program will also offer other incentives. It will also give businesses a chance to earn clean-air credits for employees who take part in the eCommute program.

By Gary Gentile
The Associated Press
Posted August 22 2001

LOS ANGELES -- Businesses were offered a powerful incentive Tuesday to allow workers to telecommute -- pollution credits that can be used to reduce taxes or sold to other companies for cash.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta told more than 100 business and government representatives that the pilot program is designed to reduce traffic and auto emissions by encouraging workers to "eCommute."

But just as important, it includes strong economic rewards for doing so.

"eCommuting is a tool that can help make your employees more productive workers," Mineta said during an appearance in downtown Los Angeles. "It could be the best thing you do for your bottom line this year."

Los Angeles is one of five cities chosen for the pilot project. The cities, which include Houston, Denver, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., were chosen because of their poor air quality.

The program is being administered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. It rewards companies that allow employees to work from home, which presumably reduces the number of cars on the road as well as their emissions.

Air quality credits will be issued based on an Internet-based survey that companies submit for each employee. The credits can be used to offset fines for pollution caused by such activities as operating a power plant or refinery.

The program also establishes an exchange where companies that have no use for the credits can sell them.

The city of Anaheim is interested in the program for its 5,000 workers in part so its municipal utility can use the credits to offset emissions from future power plants.

"We have an ongoing rideshare program and would see this as very complementary to that," said John Lower, traffic and transportation manager for the city of Anaheim. "As part of our rideshare annual survey, we're going to ask our employees if their typical work would be conducive to working at home. I could do some of my work, at least half a day or one day every couple of weeks at home."

The state requires power plants to offset 100 percent of the expected emissions, either by installing special equipment or acquiring air quality credits. Often companies sell excess credits to others who need them.

The eCommuting program is the first time credits generated from mobile sources are being allowed to offset emissions from stationary sources, according to the National Environmental Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization helping coordinate the program.

It will be months before local officials determine if there is sufficient interest in the program and design a system to award and exchange the credits.

The program stems from federal legislation passed in 1999, when allowing employees the option to work at home was an important retention tool in a booming economy.

Tuesday, officials said companies should be even more interested in telecommuting, given the challenges of the current economic downturn.

"For a company working on the margins, any productivity gains are an advantage," Mineta said.
Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

 

CONTACT: Mary Ellen Grant (202) 225-6676
RELEASE: April 24, 2001
Horn Joins Launch of eCommute Project
Encourages More Telecommuting in Los Angeles Area 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - (April 24, 2001) - U.S. Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif./38th) today joined fellow Members of Congress and U.S. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to kick off a new national eCommute program, the National Telework & Air Quality Pilot Project.

"This new effort will help business contribute to our environmental quality through the eCommute pilot projects," Horn said. "Like Northern Virginia, traffic congestion is one of the major quality of life issues facing residents of Southern California. According to the Southern California Association of Governments, Southern Californians waste nearly 1.8 million vehicle hours each day to traffic congestion.

"Nearly 78.5 percent of Southern California commuters drive alone-contributing to increasingly poor air quality as a result of vehicle emissions. Commuting times are also on the rise in Southern California. In 1998, for example, it took an average of 32 minutes for a resident to get to work and another 37 minutes to commute home at night. In 1999, these times increased to 34 minutes to get to work, and 41 minutes to get home at night. And, general perceptions about traffic are growing more egative.

"These statistics prove that traffic congestion is creating major quality of life concerns, such as time away from family and poor air quality. We must address these concerns to keep our environment healthy. This is one of those instances in which helping our environment clearly shows economic benefits. The same report suggests that less than 10 percent of employees believed that telecommuting was an option available to them. The good news is that 82 percent of those who had the option of telecommuting,  chose to work at home.

Los Angeles County is a natural for this type of program given its severe traffic congestion problems. Since the fastest growing industry sector in Los Angeles County in the past year was the technology sector, this is a natural fit to encouraging telecommuting. "Clearly, we need ideas like the Commute pilot project to encourage employers to make telecommuting a viable option. This will increase productivity and, at the same time protect our environment and improve the quality of life in our communities." 

 CONTACT: Mary Ellen Grant (202) 225-6676

 

RELEASE: May 2, 2001
COMMENTARY FOR THE LONG BEACH BUSINESS JOURNAL
eCOMMUTE: UNLOCKING THE TRAFFIC GRIDLOCK

Nearly every morning, some member of my Washington staff recounts a horror story about the difficulty commuting to work. One morning, I listened as one of my staff members griped in frustration as her seven-mile commute to the office took one and half hours from Northern Virginia. Normally, this is a journey that takes 20 minutes in non-rush hour. Local news, and in particular, the morning traffic report, have become an essential piece of news to help my staff plan their trips to the office.

The traffic congestion problem in the Washington metropolitan area is the second worst in the country, second, of course, to Los Angeles and Southern California. And, it is a problem that is only growing worse for Southern Californians. A recent survey released by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) reveals several interesting facts. First, commute times in the region are growing longer for the average commuter. Second, nearly 80 percent of commuters in Southern California are single passenger vehicles. And third, Southern Californians waste about 1.8 million vehicle hours each day while sitting in traffic.

In short, increasing congestion on our roads impacts our productivity by decreasing the amount of time we have to spend at our places of employment. Even when we finally arrive at the office, most of us require some time to de-stress from the frustration and aggravation that results from fighting traffic. From an environmental standpoint, the longer our cars idle on the freeways, the more pollutants we emit into the atmosphere, causing a bad situation in Los Angeles to deteriorate even further.

Solving the problems of traffic congestion will require multiple strategies. In the mix, however, we need to consider how to encourage greater acceptance of telecommuting. Through telecommuting, individuals can connect to their employers from their residences via fax, computer, and telephone. It eliminates the need to build time into the schedule to commute to and from work. A round-trip commute that now takes an average of 69 minutes each day is time that individuals can spend pursuing activities that they enjoy. By some estimates, if 10 percent of the workforce telecommuted just one day each week, the annual pollution savings would be the weight equivalent of three U.S. Capitol domes–12,963 tons of pollutants no longer would be sent into the atmosphere. And, with the ever increasing energy prices, it will allow each of us to conserve precious natural resources.

Unfortunately, telecommuting as a commuter option has not been widely accepted. According to the same SCAG report, less than 10 percent of employees believed that telecommuting was an option available to them. On the other hand, 82 percent of employees who had the option to telecommute elected to do so.

A new program was launched last month in five cities, including Los Angeles, to encourage employers to offer telecommuting incentives. This program, called the National Telework Pilot Project, Don't Pollute/eCommute, was authorized by Congress last year. Organized by the National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI), the pilot program gives companies pollution credits if they let their employees work from home. The companies are free to buy and sell the credits on the commodities exchange. The program is patterned after a national credit trading program established in 1995 to cut acid rain emissions. That effort has helped cut such pollution by coal burning utility plants in the nation's midwest and east by 40 percent.

In Los Angeles County, the pilot project is already underway with a newly formed steering committee led by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich. The committee is currently developing a plan to communicate the benefits of the voluntary program to Southern California's business community and to generate more teleworking by employees.

Telecommuting offers real benefits to employers, employees, and the community at large. For more information about this program, or to learn how you may participate in the Los Angeles pilot project, I encourage you to visit the National Environmental Policy Institute's (NEPI) web page as the site lists a number of participating organizations and affiliations within the Los Angeles area.