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What are other employers doing?

The information provided below is referenced by Human Resources Executive Online, February 2007. Please note that while the employers mentioned below have much larger scaled programs than many small to mid-sized employers, the act of providing incentives is the main theme here. All it takes is a simple incentive, subsidy or nudge in the right direction to make a difference. For employees to become 100% carbon neutral, employers can purchase carbon offsets here, even for their employees' hybrids!

• Hyperion

  Software maker Hyperion, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has committed $1 million toward its hybrid incentive program, which offers employees a $5,000 bonus toward the purchase of a vehicle that gets over 45 miles per gallon. The company estimates the $1 million is enough for more than 200 of its 2,700 worldwide employees to make the shift from a conventional gas-powered car to a gas-electric hybrid.

  Caroline Japic, the company's director of corporate communications, says the program has been well-received by employees; currently there are 150 participants in the program, doubled from the year before. "The employees feel really good about the program,"e she says.

  "We try to be open to new ideas that come along," she says. "We're not waiting around for the government to mandate this sort of thing."

  Hyperion CEO Godfrey Sullivan says he can easily justify the cost of the program he initiated: "We receive an enormous amount of good will around the globe for this, far beyond the cost of the program." A hybrid owner himself, Sullivan says the hybrid incentives help the software company effectively recruit and retain the best employees.

  While the price of the program may be in the seven digits, Sullivan says its benefit is much greater than that. "We know we're not necessarily going to change the world through this initiative, but it's our aim at Hyperion to get people thinking about change, about making a difference," he says.

• Google

  Not to be outdone, Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant Google has begun its own hybrid-incentive program. Its "Fuel-Efficient Vehicle Incentive Program" offers its full-time, U.S.-based employees a $5,000 subsidy towards the purchase of a vehicle with an EPA fuel-economy rating of 45 miles per gallon or higher. The company also contributes $2,500 toward leased vehicles with the same rating.

• Timberland

  Outdoor clothing manufacturer Timberland Co., based in Stratham, N.H., is also offering its 6,000 employees, including 700 to 800 employees at its corporate headquarters, $3,000 if they purchase a hybrid car. Clean Air-Cool Planet, a regional climate action group based in Portsmouth, N.H., helped Timberland launch the program in 2005.

  "You can buy a hybrid for the price of a non-hybrid through the program. So they're basically saying there's no excuse not to buy a hybrid," Adam Markham, the organizations' executive director told the Boston Globe.

  "I have a fairly short commute, and it would be wonderful not to be harming the environment," says Victoria Dimou, who is a marketing manager for Timberland, "because every day, as you're commuting, that's on your mind. It's really a wonderful program."

• Bank of America

  Bank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, N.C., has begun a pilot program that reimburses its associates $3,000 for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle. The program is now available to its 21,000 employees living within 90 miles of Boston, Charlotte and Los Angeles but may someday include all of the company's 175,000 employees.

  "Given the size of our commuting-associate base, the hybrid program expands our commitment to the environment and helps our associates participate in making a difference while cutting down on their commuting costs," says Anne Finucane, Bank of America global marketing and corporate affairs executive and head of the company's environmental council.

  A company's desire to lower its employees' transportation costs is only one reason organizations are beginning to see value in programs such as these.

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