Month: February 2024

The St. Louis regional commuter rideshare program – RideFinders – has been connecting commuters with reliable, affordable, sustainable and fun transportation to and from work since 1994. Operated by Madison County Transit, the program is driven to improve air quality in our nine-county, bi-state region by reducing traffic congestion through its carpooling and vanpooling services. This month, the Clean Air Partnership is pleased to shine a spotlight on RideFinders and acknowledge the shared desire of its riders, drivers, clients and staff to make a big difference for our planet and community.

RideFinders provides free, online ride-matching services for commuters interested in sharing the ride in their personal vehicles or by joining or forming a vanpool using RideFinders’ vans. These carpools and vanpools are paving the way to a sustainable future by taking more than 3,100 vehicles off the road, cutting 25 million driving miles and eliminating 1,710,865 pounds of air pollution each year. RideFinders’ air quality-friendly efforts earned them the title of St. Louis Green Business Challenge Leader last year for completing work with a categorized, point-based scorecard enumerating a range of fundamental sustainability measures for business operations.

“RideFinders is a longtime sponsor of the St. Louis Green Business Challenge,” said Kym Brown, Outreach Manager for RideFinders. “Our small team connects commuters to help reduce single-occupancy vehicles on our roadways. This year, our agency Madison County Transit supported us to jump on board as participants—a positive experience! Working with the Challenge staff, our Green Team learned that with a few minor practice modifications, we could significantly improve our environmental impact.”

Over the course of the 2023 Challenge, RideFinders developed its own Green Team made up of staff from several departments and participated in events like the St. Louis Earth Day Festival, where they advertised their vanpool program and handed out more than 500 vegetable plants to festival goers. Green Team members also volunteered for the St. Louis Cardinals “4 A Greener Game” to collect plastic and aluminum cans for recycling. Taking green one step further in-house, RideFinders upgraded to LED lighting in its facilities and parking lots, as well as redesigned and installed signage at all recycling bins to divert waste away from landfills and incinerators, helping to reduce the harmful effects of air pollution.

Another noteworthy initiative that helped RideFinders earn recognition in the Challenge was the continued support of regional employers through its “Do The Ride Thing” campaign. This operation helps resolve region-wide transportation challenges by getting employees to work on time and ready to go, in addition to informing them about the importance of improving air quality by carpooling or vanpooling.

For more information on RideFinders and how your company can get involved in the St. Louis Green Business Challenge, subscribe to their bi-monthly E-Newsletter or visit stlouisgreenchallenge.com. To learn more about the link between sustainability and air quality, explore the Clean Air Partnership’s website, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @gatewaycleanair.

Advertisers Printing, a St. Louis Printing Company, offers quality custom print and direct mail solutions with a focus on sustainability. As a proud participant in the 2023 St. Louis Green Business Challenge and one of only 50 U.S. printing companies to have earned SGP (Sustainability Green Partner) Certification – the industry standard for sustainability performance – the Clean Air Partnership is thrilled to highlight the company’s commitment to eco-friendly printing solutions across all its services and processes that is having a huge impact on regional air quality.

“The Green Business Challenge gives us a forum to talk about the 20-year environmental journey at The Advertisers Printing Company,” said John Heaney, SVP, Sustainability Director at Advertisers Printing Company. “More importantly, the Challenge supports our region’s businesses to gather and bond around common environmental goals of making life better for all members of our community. Committing to a cleaner and greener region is ultimately a shared value as well as a goal.”

Over the course of the 2023 Challenge, Advertisers Printing Company developed and reported on their Champion Innovation Project of Addition by Subtraction: Replacing and Updating Legacy Hardware. The purchase of a Javelin 86000NII plate-setter, which is used for burning metal plates essential to the printing process, reduced energy use by 60% and sped up throughput time to burn a plate by 30%. Similarly, retiring the company’s 30+ year-old full-size, two-color offset press also resulted in a substantial boost in energy savings and efficiency.

To further reduce environmental impact, Advertisers Printing installed a new water bottle filling station for employees’ reusable bottles. So far, it has eliminated the use of over 3,600 single-use bottles since installation. Additionally, the company purchased a plug-in hybrid Ford Fusion that runs the first 22 miles on battery power and averages 39-49 mpg. It joins their existing fleet of five hybrids and one electric vehicle used for sales and delivery to help reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gases emitted. Moreover, Advertisers Printing worked to educate all their stakeholders by producing a sustainability video series that highlighted potentials from decreasing their print production footprint.

These improvements not only made a positive difference for the environment, but also enhanced operational capabilities and employee satisfaction. More efficient equipment has led to lower production times and higher volumes produced using the same number of workers. As a result, employee overtime has been reduced, creating a happier and more satisfied workforce with decreased absenteeism. Last but not least, innovation curated a feeling of achievement and confidence among team members that the company is taking responsible action in terms of the environment.

For more information about Advertisers Printing’s continued efforts around sustainability and how your company can get involved in the St. Louis Green Business Challenge, subscribe to their bi-monthly E-Newsletter or visit stlouisgreenchallenge.com. To learn more about the link between sustainability and air quality, explore our website, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @gatewaycleanair.

The crown jewel of the Soulard Mardi Gras season is just days away, and while green is one of the three prominent colors you’re guaranteed to see all day Saturday, the event is notoriously known for being anything but. In line with the parade theme – “Mardi Gras By the Numbers” – merrymakers by the tens of thousands will gather from far and wide to watch krewes ride more than 70 floats during the Grand Parade, which begins at Busch Stadium and East of Ballpark Village and proceeds through the streets of Downtown South and Soulard to the place where the King of Beers was born: Anheuser-Busch Brewery.  

On an individual level, there are plenty of ways to go green during one of the largest Mardi Pardis outside of New Orleans. You might even be surprised at how simple it can be to adopt just one of many possible eco-friendly actions to have a significant impact on improving the region’s air quality and helping people all over St. Louis breathe easier. That’s something everyone can celebrate! 

For starters, you can reduce your carbon footprint by opting to take public transportation, a shuttle, taxi or ride-share service to get to the parade and avoid the hassles of parking. While Metro will not operate a special shuttle this year, there are several transit options available to help you enjoy all the fun and festivities of this treasured St. Louis tradition. Area residents can hop on MetroLink and ride to the Stadium MetroLink Station, which is just a short walk away from the action in Soulard and Ballpark Village. MetroBus is another great way to enjoy the celebration, with the #10 Gravois-Lindell, #30 Arsenal and #73 Carondelet MetroBus routes serving stops near Soulard. Many local restaurants will also operate shuttles to and from Soulard. For real-time traffic updates to avoid delays and congestion on parade day, be sure to also check out MoDOT’s Gateway Guide at GatewayGuide.com.   

An estimated 17,000,000 beads will come into play Saturday, and even though they make for a great souvenir, these popular accessories made up of cheap plastic strings and other toxic materials like polystyrene and lead also pose an unnecessary threat to the environment. Instead of littering the streets or tossing them into trash cans, consider dropping them off at a local business or organization that offers a bead recycling program or channel your crafty side and try reusing them in your next art project. To further reduce your environmental impact, keep an eye out for recycling containers along the parade route to properly dispose of waste such as non-biodegradable Styrofoam cups, aluminum cans, glass bottles and more that typically get left behind and eventually wind up in landfills.  

We encourage you to incorporate sustainability into your Mardi Gras plans this year to do your share for cleaner air to help protect the planet. To learn more about the link between living greener and our air quality, visit the Clean Air Partnership’s website at CleanAir-StLouis.com, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @gatewaycleanair. Laissez les bon temps rouler!