Action Plans for Businesses
There are many actions your business can take to significantly reduce air pollution in the Kansas City area. The following proactive steps can help you promote air quality, save money and demonstrate good business practices.
By educating employees and implementing the air quality strategies that make the most sense for your business, you will play an important role in keeping the region’s air healthful, now and in the future.
Employee education and awareness
- Notify employees if an Ozone Alert is predicted for the next day.
- Develop and implement procedures for Ozone Alert days. (see ideas below)
- Promote employee education and awareness.
- Display AirQ posters, fliers and lobby cards.
- Include AirQ messages in staff emails, newsletters and on your intranet.
- Conduct AirQ training sessions and seminars.
Reduce driving on Ozone Alert Days
- Encourage employees to avoid driving to lunch on Ozone Alert Days. Subsidize or provide lunch, or encourage brown-bagging.
- Encourage employees to carpool or shuttle to common destinations.
- Encourage telecommuting and videoconferencing.
- Provide incentives for employees who take action on Ozone Alert days.
- Recognition
- Prizes
- Meals and beverages
- Flextime
Commuter choices
- Offer flexible hours so employees can drive when traffic congestion is reduced.
- Subsidize or partially subsidize bus passes.
- Install bike racks and provide changing areas for those who bike to work.
- Encourage carpooling and vanpooling. Suggest that employees register with RideShare to find carpool and vanpool partners.
- Offer extended-hour, four-day workweeks during ozone season.
Company vehicles
- Avoid vehicle refueling on Ozone Alert days.
- Refuel in the evenings during ozone season.
- Don’t top off the tank.
- Replace vehicle gas caps that are damaged or have broken seals.
- Check all company vehicles for leaks.
- Consider alternative fuels for company vehicles.
- Keep all vehicles tuned up and emissions compliant.
- Promote fuel-efficient driving techniques.
- Start an idle-reduction program.
Facility maintenance
- Reschedule lawn mowing and insecticide spraying on Ozone Alert days. Lawn mowers are leading emissions producers.
- Use native landscaping, which requires less mowing, fewer chemical applications, and less watering.
- Avoid painting and use of other solvents on Ozone Alert days. Solvents release harmful fumes that take a long time to dissipate.
- Use low-VOC products when choosing solvents and paints.
- Plant trees. The right trees in the right places will provide shade and windbreaks, reducing heating and cooling costs. Trees also remove pollutants from the air.
Energy consumption
- Turn the air conditioner temperature up three degrees. Reducing peak energy demand means less power plant emissions during the hottest period of the day.
- Use Energy Star equipment and appliances.
- Turn off unnecessary equipment and use power-saving features.
Contractor relationships
- Request or require that contractors use pollution-prevention practices, such as
- low-VOC printing processes, which also result in sharper copy
- no-idling practices, which result in reduced fuel costs
- low-VOC painting products
- recycling, which results in less energy-generation pollution
Sound like a good idea?
- Join the AirQ Workplace Partnership
You can also e-mail AirQ or call 816/474-4240.