Green Living
STS is taking 56 cars off the road - one bus at a time
Traveling by bus makes sense!
Think about it! When your attendees travel by motor coach instead of rental car or personal car to an event or conference up to 56 cars are being taken off the road! Remind your attendees to travel by bus whenever and wherever they can. To illustrate this point, let’s do a little math:
More cars on the road – whether they are hybrid or not still adds up to congestion – “traffic jams cost $78 billion in lost hours and wasted fuel in 2005” according to the 2007 Urban Mobility Report of the Texas Transportation Institute. Let’s take 56,000 Toyota Priuses and put them in a lane next to 1,000 motor coaches and see which lane has the most congestion and the most CO2 emissions into the air.
A bus by its very nature is green! Encourage your attendees to travel by bus from their hotel to the conference center and events.
What else is green about the transportation industry?
Going green in the transportation industry means a lot of different things. Technology is advancing and green initiatives are being rolled out in all segments of the industry. In the fall of 2007, STS surveyed many of its vendor partners around the country to find out what green efforts each company was undertaking. What we found out was pretty cool. Here are some of the results:
- 100% of STS vendors surveyed recycled engine oil
- 25% were using a bio-diesel blend for fuel
- 58% were buying or had bought 2007 model EPA mandated motor coaches with the low emission engines
- 66% had instituted a low or no idle policy
- 100% met EPA standards
In addition to some of the above statistics many vendors were researching ways to make their company green. The best part about the survey results is that it illustrated that people were doing something – they were thinking about ways to lessen their imprint on the environment!
Here are the vendor partner cities that STS surveyed in 2007.
- Orlando
- San Diego
- Las Vegas
- Seattle
- Los Angeles
- Denver
- Atlanta
- Nashville
- New York City
- St Louis
- Philadelphia
- Dallas
- Denver
- Chicago
How We Give Back
For over 10 years, STS has been recycling in the office. We recycle paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, aluminum, cell phones, toner cartridges, printer and fax ink cartridges. STS uses 100% recycled paper, low wattage bulbs and we re-use cardboard boxes and packing materials, file folders and we print on scrap paper all necessary documents.
STS is also:
Training our employees, independents and subcontractors to go green – every training session we hold in each city highlights our initiatives as well as the initiatives of our clients and partners.
Highlighting employees in the STS newsletter to find out about their green efforts at home and to encourage a green thumbprint on the environment – the more we train our employees and contractors about what’s green in the transportation industry the more they take on the initiative as their own!
We request all drivers go to low/no idle whenever they are able.
We provide all core staff with 100% re-usable and recyclable water containers.
STS team members are responsible environmental citizens. We don’t know everything there is to know about what it means to be green but we are finding out and reaching out to our vendor partners to learn everything we can about the industry. Here are few things we have learned along the way.
Bio Fuel – Biodiesel is all the rage and what we’re learning is that biodiesel is still a long way away from being readily available. Research is continuing in this area and food based biodiesel (mostly corn based) could be more harmful to produce than regular fuel. Plus, food prices are skyrocketing. Research into using algae based bio fuel is exciting and could be the answer we’re all looking for.
Low Emission Engines – the EPA has mandated for 2007 and 2010 new engine technology that will reduce carbon emissions by 90 percent. One of the leading manufacturers of motor coaches to the industry, MCI, is installing this technology on all of its new models. This is a great advance in engine technology.
So, if STS vendor partners don’t have access to bio diesel nor can afford to update their fleet with 2007 model coaches how can they be considered green?
Remember – if you hire buses for your conference or events you are taking up to 56 cars off the road per motor coach you hire! That’s how you save on fuel and congestion!
Having your attendees travel by bus makes sense!
And finally, our commitment to the environment and our clients and partners includes this initiative:
STS is committed to lessening its impact on the environment responsibly.
This means: we won’t try to green wash our clients or our company by telling you we are doing nothing different but buying carbon offsets to limit our impact on the environment. We are committed to doing the right thing not because it sounds right but because it is right. We are committed to learning about our industry and teaching what we’ve learned to our employees and vendor partners. We will buy green wherever and whenever it is fiscally responsible and when the green partner has met excellent customer service standards as well. We pledge to learn more about what it means to go green in our industry.
