Walking the green mile

Kier Islington is calling all organisations to take responsibility for their actions and to go ‘green’ with the launch of its new initiative, the Green Mile.

According to the London Air Quality Network findings, London recorded dangerous levels of air pollutants for the 36th time this year. Under European Union rules, Britain is allowed no more than 35 ‘bad air’ days in the whole year, and now faces court cases and unlimited fines by Europe.

With this is mind, Kier Islington is upping its efforts to be more environmentally conscious with its latest ‘green’ scheme. The company has completed its first in-house Green Mile competition, a campaign designed to encourage its staff to use more sustainable means of travel, such as walking, cycling, public transport and car shares - which in turn reduced Kier Islington’s carbon footprint.

Within the London Borough of Islington the main source of pollutant is road traffic, which is estimated to be responsible for around 40 per cent of nitrogen dioxide in the air and 70 per cent of PM10 emissions, a major component of air pollution that threatens both health and the environment.

As a result the whole of Islington has been designated an air quality management area in a programme designed to tackle unacceptable levels of air pollution. Nationally, 125 local authorities have air quality management areas within their boundaries, and in London the high levels of air pollution throughout the city mean that nearly all boroughs have them.

Kier Islington employees, including dedicated volunteer ‘mascots’, have earned ‘Green Mile Merits’ by completing ‘green’ journeys, for example catching a bus instead of driving or walking instead of catching a train.

More staff are now choosing to make their ‘green’ journeys a permanent feature and Chris Shaw and Richard Mason have continued to cycle rather than drive since taking part in the scheme as they’ve noticed positive effects on their wallets and fitness.

Kier Building Maintenance regional director Rob Leitch said: “The Green Mile scheme is a great success which I hope to repeat again next year. It not only reduces our carbon footprint, but also has a positive effect on the health and well-being of our staff”.

“CO2 emissions in the London Borough of Islington have been calculated at just over 1 million tonnes per year, with the UK total per annum at 570 million tonnes it is now more important than ever for companies to take responsibility for the environmental impact they have.”

The campaign was officially launched by Kier Islington operations manager Eamon O’Donnell in May, following a survey about employee commuting and business travel trends. In total, for the three months that the scheme ran, the company collected over 7,000 merits. Merits were awarded for each journey an individual made using a ‘greener’ method of transport to the one normally taken.
The scheme drew to a close with a ceremony where Chris Shaw was hailed as the company’s winning ‘mascot’. Chris managed to beat his target, achieving over 1,500 merits, just six weeks into the 12-week competition.

The supporters who collected the most merits won prizes such as pedometers and Oyster cards.

Kier Building Maintenance national operations director Keith Watson added: “The Green Mile campaign was ideal for our office location in London due to excellent public transport services available allowing staff to have a greater choice in how to travel to work.”

Kier Islington was recently awarded a Green500 award in recognition of its continued efforts to reduce carbon emission in the area. Kier Islington and Kier Street Services prepared a joint submission on carbon reduction initiatives introduced across the London region. The submission took into consideration energy and water management, business travel, staff commuting, waste management and recycling. It also looked at innovative measures introduced across its vehicle fleet including its first-class safe driving to work strategy that was praised by the government-backed Driving for Better Business scheme.