Handful of Worcester-area Businesses Make EPA List
WASHINGTON. Oct. 19-With regular gasoline prices in the Worcester area above $2.50 a gallon and President Bush urging Americans to drive less, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized 130 Massachusetts businesses, four of them in the Worcester area, for making an effort to reduce drive-alone commuting.
The EPA’s “Best Workplaces for Commuters” program honored the Bay State companies this year, up from 33 two years ago. Businesses qualify by offering a variety of commuter benefits and incentives aimed at reducing the trips an employee makes alone. These programs range from “T” passes in Boston to shuttles and van carpools.
Lucy Edmondson, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said that even amenities workplaces provide such as an on-premises gym or drycleaner can help. “People choose to drive because they may need their cars later” to run errands, she said. Having services at or close to the workplace can eliminate trips and make carpooling more feasible.
Participating businesses are required to offer a guaranteed ride home to employees to eliminate carpoolers’ concern that they may be left behind or not be able to get home in the event of an emergency.
Erin Emblock, a spokeswoman for Genzyme Corporation, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company with a Westboro campus, said the program encouraged employees to join a carpool. “We don’t want them to be worried about getting home,” she said.
Patrick Ward, a spokesman for Intel, which has a site in Hudson, said that while the company offered transit subsidies for its employees in places like Portland, Ore., which has a light-rail system, it has to rely on other mechanisms in central Massachusetts. For example the company has a software program that matches employees with others from their areas who wish to carpool, he said.
Mr. Ward said every employee at Intel has a notebook computer, and many arrange to work one day a week at home, eliminating trips. “It’s also a life/work benefit,” he said, in cases when an employee needs to be at home for some reason, like to let the plumber in. Mr. Ward said it solves “how can I be in two places at once?” problems.
EMC, a Hopkinton-based tech company with a campus in Westboro shuttles 2,000 of its 7,700 employees to the commuter rails every day. Paul Fitzgerald, director of faculty services, said the shuttle program increases worker productivity. “While they’re in the van they’re talking on the phone, following up on meeting notes” and generally making better use of their time than by driving, he said.
EMC also has three electrical cars for employee carpooling. Mr. Fitzgerald said the company is weighing the purchase of additional vehicles for the purpose, including hybrids or natural gas-fueled cars.
The EPA’s Ms. Edmondson said there were fewer central Massachusetts companies on the list than Eastern or Western Massachusetts companies, perhaps because of a combination of fewer commuting alternatives and less traffic.
Mr. Ward and Mr. Fitzgerald both expressed some frustration with the commuter trains running west from Boston in the mornings, which are less frequent and convenient than those running the opposite way. Mr. Ward also suggested that perhaps higher property costs were to blame for a work force that is “spread thinly” and comes from all directions into work, making carpooling harder.
Ms. Edmondson said she hoped that next year there would be some Worcester businesses among the list of companies helping to combat the “twin problems of air pollution and traffic congestion” by offering their employees commuting alternatives.
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