Proposal for Innovative Project to Improve Air Quality
A Joint Venture of the North Texas Commission,
North Texas Clean Air Coalition, POCKETS,
and Tele-Commuter Resources, Inc.
Submitted: March 2, 2006
Project Name - Pilot Program to Assess, Plan and Implement a Telework and Distributed Workplace Program in North Texas
Project Location - The project is regional in nature and will involve employers and employees from throughout the nine-county nonattainment area of North Texas.
Project Justification - The need for a pilot program to address telework and distributed workplace issues in North Texas is justified by the following:
· Increased traffic congestion and air pollution,
· Urban sprawl that contributes to increases in miles traveled by each driver,
· Community need to understand potential pollution/congestion impacts of telework programs,
· Need to document trip reduction activities for increasingly rigorous State Implementation Plan,
· Need for more sustainable approaches to growth,
· Community need for security, emergency preparedness, and continuity of operations planning,
· Federal government need to meet standards of Federal Telework Law mandating 100 percent of eligible teleworkers should be supported by 2004,
· Economic need to develop employment opportunities for knowledge-based workers, and
· Need of workers to obtain better work/life balance.
Project Description and Project Phases
Phase 1: Assessment – The North Texas Commission (with oversight and direction from the North Texas Clean Air Coalition) will recruit up to 45 employers to participate in an Internet-based survey designed to determine the feasibility of introducing a telework and/or distributed workplace program to a subset of its employees. The employers will be chosen to represent a variety of industrial sectors and “occupational categories” present in North Texas. Each employer participating in the Pilot Program will be encouraged to assign one member from each of its occupational categories (as defined by Tele-Commuter Resources, Inc.) to complete an online survey (developed by Tele-Commuter Resources, Inc.)
The joint venture team will analyze results of the survey and generate a profile by industry and occupation of North Texas’ remote work potential. Individual employer profiles will be provided to each participating employer, and a regional profile will be presented to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The Profile will provide insight on the following subjects:
· The number of daily work trips that might be offset by remote work,
· Potential emissions reductions,
· The number of square feet requiring conversion to support remote workers at the work place,
· The amount of overhead that might be saved through space reductions,
· Travel behavior and work site preferences based upon individual commuter profiles,
· Geographic hiring patterns with a GIS/Transportation Overlay,
· The level of technology required to support each occupation,
· Continuity planning awareness by industry, hierarchy, occupation,
· Attitudes about the role of remote work in society, the role the employer and region should play in remote work, how prepared the various employee/manager groups are to accept remote work and to support it with technology.
The joint venture team is also prepared to work with the North Central Texas Council of Governments to add features to the online assessment process that will help the region establish a suitable baseline of employer/employee commuting behaviors. This assessment may later be a critical component of our region’s ability to claim credit for new trip reduction programs implemented as part of the State Implementation Plan.
Phase 1 Schedule and Budget – The joint venture team will commit to begin the project within 30 days of receiving a Notice to Proceed and approved Scope of Work. The joint venture team assumes the project will be implemented no later than January 2007.
Phase 2: Planning – The joint venture team will establish an Ad Hoc Community Planning Group to determine the best strategies for implementing telework and distributed workplace projects in North Texas. The planning group will review the profiles produced for each participating employer and occupational category to develop a Regional Telework Deployment Target. The group will also develop a Travel Demand Management (TDM) Plan to document the trip savings resulting from remote work and other TDM programs.
Elements the planning group will consider include potential distributed workplace locations, real estate needs, technology implementation, state and federal legislative initiatives, best practices, and other potential sources of funding for telework initiatives.
Based on the professional analysis of the joint venture team and the decisions made by the community planning group, participating employers and regional partners will receive the following guidance:
· Deployment Plan to determine the number and order of remote worker deployments.Modeling tools are used to develop an optimal deployment target (taking into consideration finance, HR factors, provisioning, space, deployment and TDM programs.) Policy review and development workshops assist this process. Once the plan is adopted, additional tools are provided to evaluate both the individual remote worker candidates (based on their home environment, personal characteristics and job compatibility) and their ongoing performance.
· Space Conversion Plan to schedule the adaptation of existing space to better support the needs of remote workers when they return to the office and the “recovery” of space that is no longer needed. Construction scheduling and other tools comprehensively support this detail-rich task.Remote workers are provided Remote Workplace manuals and the software provides an Inspections module to ensure compliance with regulatory and employer policies.
· Training Plan to schedule applicable classes for the remote worker, the supervisor/manager, and non-primary location co-workers based upon the deployment schedule of the Telework Deployment Plan.
· Purchasing Plan for the logical acquisition and installation of products to support the space conversion and remote work deployment processes. The purchasing plan also includes a component to track the assignment of products to specific remote workers.
Phase 2 Schedule and Budget – The joint venture team estimates Phase 2 will take 12 months to complete, and will be implemented no later than July 2007.
Phase 3: Implementation – The joint venture team will work to implement the goals established by the community planning group in Phase 2.
Objectives of this phase will include:
· Obtaining commitments from North Texas employers to implement telework and/or distributed workplace pilot programs, based on the Telework Deployment Plans they have previously received.
· Seeking partnerships with commercial real estate owners to establish pilot remote work locations at reduced costs. (i.e. Hillwood Development has expressed interest in becoming a partner in the pilot program.)
· Establishing three remote work locations.
· Seeking technology partners to support remote work locations at reduced costs. (i.e. AT&T has expressed interest in becoming a partner in the pilot program.)
· Purchasing and implementing technology to support remote work locations.
· Implementing training programs for employers and remote workers.
· Tracking use of remote work locations, telework from home and other TDM activities by employer/employee groups.
Phase 3 Schedule and Budget – The joint venture team estimates Phase 3 will take 18 months to complete, and will be implemented no later than July 2008 with a goal to complete the project by December 2009.
Expected Outcomes – The joint venture team has established a goal of deploying 1,000 remote workers in three locations by the conclusion of Phase 3. Even more importantly, the region will have a strategic plan for implementing additional distributed work sites beyond the scope of the pilot program and a set of tools to evaluate the impact of telework and distributed workplace programs in the future.
Local Match – The joint venture team will commit to provide a 20 percent Local Match for Phase 1 of the project, or $70,000. The team is optimistic that additional local funding can be raised for Phases 2 and 3, upon the successful completion of Phase 1.
Project Contact – Shannon Morris will serve as the primary local contact for this project in her role as executive director of the North Texas Clean Air Coalition. P.O. Box 610246, DFW Airport, Texas 75261. 972.621.0400.
Additional contacts include:
Michael B. Shear
President & CEO
POCKETS Distributed Workplace Alternatives, Inc.
P.O. Box 16774
Golden, Colorado 80401
7220.253.3700
John F. Sanger
President
Tele-Commuter Resources, Inc.
4315 Virginia Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota 55126
651.486.8408
Dan S. Petty
President
North Texas Commission
P.O. Box 610246
DFW Airport, Texas 75261
972.621.0400
Mark S. Burroughs
Chairman, North Texas Clean Air Coalition
Sawko and Burroughs, L.L.P.
1100 Dallas Drive, Suite 100
Denton, Texas 75205
940.382.4357
Partnership Program Workshop Certification – While none of the members of the joint venture team were informed of the Certification Workshop, the North Texas Commission is familiar with the administrative functions associated with receiving federal funding for air quality programs. Additionally, Shannon Morris has reviewed the workshop materials posted online at nctcog.org.
Qualifications of Joint Venture Team
The North Texas Commission works to improve and promote the economic prosperity and quality of life of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex by seeking solutions to regional issues and identifying key opportunities that will enhance the North Texas Region. NTC leads and coordinates the building of regional alliances to support these key initiatives. As such, NTC’s knowledge of the North Texas region is extensive and may be unparalleled.
The North Texas Commission was chartered in 1971 as a non-profit, membership-supported organization. It is now supported by about 400 cities, chambers, universities and businesses in the 12-county Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Its board of directors is made up of 72 key leaders in the region.
For the past nine years, the NTC has successfully administered federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality grants totaling nearly $2,600,000 in cooperation with the North Texas Clean Air Coalition. Under these grants, NTC introduced the state’s first Ozone Action Day program, which was later adopted throughout the state, has launched an air quality website, has developed award-winning ads and outstanding videos and educational materials that have been distributed to thousands of Metroplex citizens. NTC, in cooperation with NTCAC, has also conducted numerous events to raise awareness of the air quality issue and has helped place hundreds of stories through the media. NTC, in cooperation with NTCAC, has also successful raised several hundred thousand dollars from the North Texas corporate community to match the program grants over the years.
In a similar vein, NTC also successfully administered federal grants for the US Department of Energy in relation to the Superconducting Supercollider in the early Nineties.
The North Texas Commission is a leader in many activities relating to air quality and was a founder of the North Texas Clean Air Coalition and the D/FW Area Emissions Reduction Credit Organization. Some of NTC’s current air quality activities include:
North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee
· NTC participates in the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee, a regional advocacy coalition of business and civic leaders formed in 1999, to reduce emissions that pollute the air, cause health problems and jeopardize the region’s mobility and economic vitality.
Texas Clean Air Working Group
· NTC actively participates in the Texas Clean Air Working Group, a coalition of Texas non-attainment and near non-attainment areas. The purpose is to exchange information and to formulate and advocate consensus regulatory, administrative and legislative policy positions related to federal Clean Air Act compliance. NTC actively encourages the 78th Texas Legislature to provide replacement funding for the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (SB5, 77th Legislature) and to approve “fine tuning” amendments for SB5 and HB2134 (77th Legislature). NTC encourages congressional passage of an amendment to the Clean Air Act that enables the EPA to consider the effect of air transport in determining the date required for compliance with the ozone standards of the Clean Air Act.
Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Clean Cities Program
· NTC participates with the North Central Texas Council of Governments in the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional “Clean Cities” Program to support the conversion of public and private fleets and transit vehicles to alternative fuels to help reduce air pollution. This is a nationwide federal program.
AERCO
· The North Texas Commission, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Dallas Chamber are founders of an Area Emissions Reduction Credit Organization (AERCO) for the four-county Dallas/Fort Worth non-attainment area through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. This program allows businesses which voluntarily reduce their emissions (VOCs and NOx) to certify these reductions through TCEQ, to receive emission reduction credits (ERCs) equal to the amount of the reduction and to sell or trade these ERCs to other firms. As a serious non-attainment area, this process is important to the region because new and expanding businesses must offset any new emissions through reductions in the emissions of existing firms.