Clear the Air Challenge 2018 Recap

We’re excited to let you know the winners of the SLC Corp 2018 Clear the Air Challenge. You may recall that this year we organized an internal bracket between SLC Corp departments to complement the statewide competition.  The internal winner of the most brackets would ultimately win the “Mayor’s Cup” for their efforts.

Without further ado . . . This year’s winner is IMS! Congratulations, IMS, and to the employees who stepped up their game and changed their commuting habits.  Special shout-out to Greg Daly who sent regular email missives to his staff from the Trax train, to keep them engaged and smiling.  They received the “Mayor’s Cup” for their efforts.

This year the challenge was a little tougher than usual. 2,539 participants had to battle the cold weather, unlike previous years, where the challenge took place during the summer.

The cold did not seem to slow any of the teams down, in fact, this year it brought out lots of competitive spirit… and a good amount of trash talking!

The coveted first place prize is not easily won. The bragging rights alone are enough to motivate employees to break their commute habits and find an alternative to a single occupant vehicle. The University of Utah enjoyed a strong lead with both staff and students participating in high numbers, however, they were followed closely all month by the Utah Transit Authority.

Salt Lake City Corp came out strong, but the 7-time Challenge winning team of Fidelity Investments made a mid-month comeback bumping us from third to fourth! *shakes fist*

Even though we didn’t win, Salt Lake City Corp made an outstanding effort as well as having some fun along the way. The City had an internal bracket that placed departments head-to-head each week. This resulted in even more trash talking and definitely motivated some extra action. Case in point:

All jokes aside, City employees did use this challenge as an opportunity to find alternative ways to commute. Whether it was carpooling, riding transit, walking, or biking these trips saved a lot of fuel and emissions and hopefully will translate into a decrease in SOV trips throughout the year.

Here are some of the photos City employees shared during the month. It turns out leaving the car behind can actually be a lot of fun!

We appreciate everyone who participated. With your help, Salt Lake City’s team came in FOURTH place on the overall leader board. Collectively, we saved 16.7 tons of CO2 from reducing how much we drive!