Northern Westchester Hospital Honored for Helping to Improve
Local Air Quality
Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) in Mt. Kisco, NY, was honored recently by MetroPool, Inc., the area's leading commuting solutions company, at an awards ceremony recognizing organizations that are helping to improve the region's air quality by successfully participated in an Earth Day Challenge to reduce drive-alone commuting.
Since 1980, MetroPool, Inc., a not-for-profit organization which serves the New York State and Connecticut Departments of Transportation, has provided employers and commuters with free services to encourage a variety of transportation options, including car and vanpooling. The company recently concluded a five million mile Tri-State Challenge that took place from April 1, 2007, to April 30, 2008, in the greater New York/Connecticut metro region. The Earth Day Race to the Finish was the conclusion to the year-long Challenge during which organizations encouraged their employees to carpool to work using NuRide.com, an online ridesharing community.
NWH, which garnered recognition in two of four awards categories, was one of 30 New York employers honored at a ceremony held in June. The Hospital was awarded first place in the total enrollments category for having 126 staff members enrolled in NuRide, the nation's largest online ridesharing community, over the past year. Second and third place for total enrollment went to IBM Corp., and Consumers Union, respectively. In addition, NWH had the second highest percentage of employees who took ridesharing trips during April, the Challenge month, with a 35 percent participation rate.
"We are pleased to be recognized by MetroPool and we salute our employees who are doing their part to help reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality through ridesharing," said Kerry Flynn Barrett, Vice President of Human Resources at Northern Westchester Hospital. "Over the past few years, we've actively promoted different commutation options. Nearly 12 percent of our have tried ridesharing and we expect that number to rise significantly in the coming years."
According to MetroPool, more than 10,000 commuters participated in the Challenge and shared 138,800 rides, resulting in 5,040,000 fewer miles driven and the prevention of 2,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
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