IUPUI Among First to Join Clean Air Initiative
IUPUI is among the first group of organizations and businesses that have joined a City of Indianapolis initiative to improve the environment and air quality in Central Indiana.
The campus is listed 17th among 25 organizations and businesses who became charter members last year with the Central Indiana Clean Air Partnership (CICAP). As a partner, IUPUI is committed to environmentally friendly measures that increase employee awareness of air quality and reduce the amount of air pollution that people generate during their day-to-day personal and business activities.
University Place Conference Center and Hotel is also a charter member of CICAP.
Among measures IUPUI is taking:
• Providing pre-tax savings accounts for transit and vanpooling expenses
• Designating an Employee Transportation Coordinator who serves as a liaison between Central Indiana Commuter Services (CICS) and IUPUI employees.
• Hosting commuting fairs for employees to provide information about commuting options through IndyGo and CICS
• Encouraging carpooling by offering employee incentives like the Emergency Ride Home program and access to the CICS carpooling database
• Encouraging biking to work
• Offering flexible daily work scheduling options on a department-by-department basis
With civic engagement a hallmark of the campus, "we wanted to be among the first contingent of organizations and businesses to partner with the city to improve air quality," said Colleen McCormick, Compliance Facilitator, in IUPUI's Department of Environmental Health and Safety. Clean air benefits the whole community, lowers health care costs and makes Central Indiana a cleaner, healthier place to live, she added.
Other measures the campus takes to improve air quality include retrofitting old diesel powered vehicles with diesel oxidation catalysts, servicing fleet vehicles regularly and encouraging vehicles making deliveries to reduce vehicle idling by posting "Idle Free Zone" signs.
Under the CICAP partnership, working with the Central Indiana Commuter Services has been a major focus. Maggie Stimming (mstimmin@iupui.edu) , Work/Life Balance, in IUPUI's Human Resources Administration, has served as IUPUI's Central Indiana Commuter Services Employer Transportation Coordinator since fall of 2005.
To provide information about transportation options, the campus has sponsored a series of at least six information events, including faculty resource fair, IUPUI Health & Benefits Fair, and information tables, she noted.
"I also have done numerous articles in the Work/Life e-newsletter about CICS in general, and about specific topics such as Emergency Ride Home, pre-tax commuter benefit, and bike listserv," Stimming said. She also has hosted a "How to Ride the Bus" and "How to Use the BikePort" workshops and promoted IUPUI's participation in the Clean Air Pass (free bus pass) program that was held in the past in collaboration with CICS.
Last year, IUPUI won an award for highest number of new CICS enrollees at the CICS fall 2007 promotion and tied the State of Indiana for the most participants in Bike to Work Day in 2007. This year's Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 16., For more information, visit http://bicycleindiana.org/page.cfm?PageID=188.
Stimming works to make employees aware of pre-tax commuter benefits that are available. IU employees, excluding those with student status and most post-doctorate fellows, can reduce their income taxes by using the Pre-Tax Commuter Expense plan for costs related to using the bus or a van pool to get to work. Taking advantage of this pre-tax plan saves individuals money by lowering the amount of federal, state and local income taxes they pay. Under the plan, an employee earning an annual salary of $34,000, for example, could save $167 (more or less depending on tax bracket). Visit http://www.indiana.edu/~uhrs/benefits/commuting.html for details.
Looking forward, McCormick said additional measures may be considered by the campus to improve air quality and the environment, including performing a comprehensive energy audit of IUPUI to identify potential energy savings and drafting and implementing an energy conservation plan.
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