The sustainability team rode together for the last prize delivery to our final participant winner Jackie!

This year, 296 workplaces and 2,868 people registered for the Commuter Challenge across Manitoba. At RRC, 80 staff and faculty participated to collectively reduce 1661 kgs of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. All told, this earned us a Silver medal finish in our workplace category!

While reflecting on the College’s strong participation in the Commuter Challenge throughout the years, we found this year’s results to be particularly interesting. Compared to last year, our percentage of participants decreased by 15%, yet the emissions avoided per person increased by 30%. So while the 15-step commute from your bedroom to your home office might have been a little less stressful and a lot less time consuming, it also brought a per-person reduction in CO2 emissions.

Because of COVID-19, staff, faculty and students have transitioned to online working and learning and remarkable speed. We’ve all experienced many adjustments to our routine, including replacing our regular commute with telecommuting. Since March 16th, we’ve tracked and calculated the impact of emissions from kilometers not traveled for student and staff parking pass holders at NDC, Stevenson, Bannister and LTC. Collectively, we haven’t travelled 3,939,637km. This amounts to greenhouse gas emissions avoidance of 797,382kg of CO2. That’s like (not) driving around the world 94 times!

In a 2017 College survey, 15% of staff and faculty cited telecommuting as their preferred commute mode. Now that we’ve settled into our work-from-home routines for the last 3+ months, we can’t help but wonder if attitudes and beliefs around telecommuting have shifted and wonder what (and where) the future of College work will look like.

Thanks to everyone who took on the challenge! We hope to greet you with warm cinnamon buns and Fairtrade coffee at the kickoff of Commuter Challenge 2021!