PHOTO STORY: Kane County Employees Bike 300+ Miles
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Extremely hot weather didn’t keep Kane County staff from participating in the Chicagoland Bike Week this summer. Employees representing eight county departments collectively biked 323 miles during the week-long “Bike to Work Challenge” organized by the Kane County Division of Environmental & Water Resources.
For the second year in a row, the internal event was held for county staff in order to promote employee wellness and fuel reduction — both of which are key strategies in the Kane County Operational Sustainability Plan that was adopted by the Kane County Board in 2013.
Past surveys have found that more than 90 percent of Kane County staff drive to work. For a workforce of around 1,300 people, that’s a lot of vehicle emissions from commuting that impact local air quality. In fact, a sustainability audit conducted for Kane County government in 2012 determined that the emissions from county staff commuting—categorized as Scope 3 Emissions—exceeded 2,300 metric tons of CO2 per year.
“To put it in perspective, it would take nearly 60,000 trees almost a decade to naturally remove that amount of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere,” explains Cecilia Govrik, Resource Management coordinator for the Kane County Division of Environmental & Water Resources. “That’s why Kane County is promoting commuting alternatives, along with taking many other steps to reduce emissions from county government operations.”
These recent actions have included adopting an internal idling reduction policy, installing “no idling” signage at several government buildings, exploring options for a greener county fleet, and making numerous energy efficiency upgrades to county facilities.
All of these sustainability initiatives will collectively result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions from County government operations—which the County pledged to decrease through its endorsement of the Sierra Club Cool Counties Program back in July 2013.
“It will take a lot of planning and effort across all departments in order to reach Kane County’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10% before 2020,” Govrik stated. “But this commitment is important to the County because it’s directly linked to air quality in the surrounding community. The notifications of several Air Pollution Action Days in our area over this past month are a reminder of why we all need to work together to protect air quality.”
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a color-coded system that classifies air quality from Good to Hazardous. Air Pollution Action Day Alerts are issued when air quality levels over a large area are expected to reach the category Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, or Orange on the AQI, for multiple days.
Sign up to receive air quality alerts at www.enviroflash.info/
About the Kane County Division of Environmental & Water Resources
The Kane County Division of Environmental & Water Resources develops, evaluates, and implements programs to protect the health, safety and welfare of our residents and the environment. These programs include the countywide Stormwater Management program, the Kane County Recycles recycling and waste recovery programs, the electric aggregation program, the Sustain Kane program, and other resource conservation and environmental projects.
