City of Salida Carbon Challenge. Logo courtesy TerraQuest
The City of Salida Sustainability Committee is launching a Clean Commuting Challenge on Earth Day, Friday, April 22 to incentivize citizens to replace passenger vehicle trips with human-powered trips (e.g., walking, bicycling, eBiking, horseback, etc.).
The goal is to reach 22,050 miles of Clean Commuting in 2022. When the goal is reached participants will be rewarded $0.50 per mile for every mile they contributed to the goal. The Challenge will be powered by TerraQuest, a mobile app created by Aaron Blondeau, a Salida local, and the rest of their team.
Jane Templeton, Salida City Council Member and Chair of the Salida Sustainability Committee, believes the challenge will be a powerful way to raise awareness about how people can take urgent climate action now by changing their behavior.
“We were looking for a fun and innovative way to promote sustainability, and the opportunity to partner with TerraQuest kind of fell into our lap,” said Templeton. “We got the inside scoop and jumped on the chance to be the first city in the U.S. to seed climate action through a community carbon challenge.”
Blondeau is a low-key guy who appears to have a powerful drive to make the world a little bit better.
“The bottom line is that human-powered commuting reduces carbon and gets people exercising more and connecting with each other more. It’s a win, win, win. TerraQuest is new and we’re grateful to grow it in a grassroots way starting with my hometown.”, he said.
The Sustainability Committee will be attending the Earth Day event sponsored by the Central Colorado Climate Coalition on April 22 – sharing a booth with Chaffee County Environmental Health Manager, Wano Urbonas and Energy Smart Colorado at Riverside Park.
The Salida Clean Commute Challenge starts Friday, April 22. To participate, simply download the TerraQuest app, register an account, join by entering “SalidaCCC” in the join code field, and record your human-powered commutes that replace passenger vehicle commutes.
Participants can track their mileage, the amount of carbon they have offset, and have a little friendly competition via the challenge leaderboard.
For more information on the Salida Clean Commuting Challenge visit https://www.cityofsalida.com/administration/page/clean-commute-challenge.
Featured image: Salida Clean Commuting Carbon Challenge. Image courtesy TerraQuest
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