Running head: AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Automobile Idling Reduction Program Kristen Weston-Smith Arizona State University 1 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 2 Executive Summary Automobile Idling Reduction Program Description By avoiding vehicle idling for three minutes every day of the year can reduce 1.4 million metric tons annually, which is equivalent to taking 320,000 cars off the road for the entire year (Canada.ca, 2016). The Automobile Idle Reduction Program (AIRP) is an outreach initiative to prevent carbon emissions from being released into the air by automobiles idling in Maricopa County. The initiative establishes a campaign to promote behavioral changes that target high idling industries: freight and delivery, schools and drive- thru facilities. Background Globally, carbon emissions negatively alter the air we breathe and is a leading cause in climate change. These problems adversely affect the global environment and human health. Additionally, they have cancer causing agents in the particulate matter. Unfortunately, over the years, Maricopa County has failed to meet air quality standards for particulate matter pollution which effects the health of residents. By not meeting the air quality standards, Maricopa County can receive sanctions and the Environmental Protection Agency can reject Arizona’s State Implementation Plan. This looming threat can financially impinge the economy of Maricopa County, potentially costing taxpayers a substantial increase in taxes. Strategy and Solution To battle the creation of carbon emissions and particulate matter, AIRP has developed a strategy for each industry. In partnership with the Maricopa County Air Quality Department, AIRP will introduce the freight and delivery companies to the Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) Grant promotion to facilitate and fiscally assist with changing older diesel engines into higher efficiency engines that burn cleaner. Provide educators a fifth to eighth grade state approved education program to teach students the importance of vehicle idling reduction at no cost. And work with community organizations to offer a discount at their stores for those patrons who choose to turn their engine off and order inside, rather than idling in the drive-thru facilities. The campaign will market the interest of AIRP to the general public through purposefully placed billboards, light rail wraps, social media pushes, handouts and vinyl stickers. AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 3 Automobile Idling Reduction Program Imagine being a five year- old child watching your friends playing outside. The sun is shining, birds are chirping and all you want to do is join your friends outside. But, you are not allowed to unless you carry a breathing machine wherever you go because the pollution is too high. Imagine this is your life everyday for the rest of your life. Well, this is daily for my daughter. Watching her sitting at the window or having to stop playing every 30 minutes to do a breathing treatment for 20 minutes is the reason why improving the air quality is so important to me. Over the last two years, I have made it my mission to teach and promote behavioral changes to better the air quality in Maricopa County. While waiting to pick my daughter up from school, I noticed there was an extremely long line of vehicles parked and idling in the school’s pickup line. This made me think about how many pounds of carbon emissions were being generated as we all waited. After finding out that one vehicle idling for three minutes every day of the year can produce 1.4 million metric tons annually (Canada.ca, 2016), I decided to develop a campaign to reduce automobile idling in Maricopa County. Using the ABCD framework, I was able to create a vision to fight carbon emissions with the Automobile Idling Reduction Program (AIRP). Realizing there was a significant carbon emissions crisis in Maricopa County raised awareness of an automobile idling problem. I used backcasting to decide that within two years I wanted to execute a campaign to address automobile idling in the three high idling industries of freight and delivery, schools and drivethru facilities. I decided to prioritize the steps to implementation. First step was creating a communication plan to gain support and resource assistance by collaborating with the Maricopa County Air Quality Department (MCAQD). After a staff meeting, I proposed to the Maricopa County Air Quality Department Director (Director) my elevator pitch for AIRP and was able to set a meeting to discuss my vision and how it would affect MCAQD and our county constituents. The meeting with the Director, included MCAQD’s Outreach Program Manager who was directed to assist me with whatever was needed to put AIRP into action. The partnership allowed for resources and networks to create an educational program for 5th – 8th grade that is aligned with the Arizona State Standards. The support also created a general media campaign for public and focused idling industries. There were ups and downs throughout the development process. I was able to collaborate with environmental and educational groups to expand AIRP with media collateral and a AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 4 standardized educational curriculum. The largest issue that affected and postponed the campaign launch was the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 shutdown the entire state causing non-essential businesses to close organizations and restaurant dining rooms forcing patrons to idle in the drive-thru; and closed all schools for the foreseeable future. This process and journey of creating AIRP taught me to be adaptable, patient, open-minded and hone my leadership skills. I know that everyday that I continue to promote AIRP is one step closer to helping my daughter have a normal childhood free of breathing machines. Background Throughout the world, there is an undeniable need to become a more sustainable world. Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs; and is composed of three pillars: economic, environmental, and social (Grant and Kenton, 2019). One key factor that affects global sustainability and how the three pillars work together is carbon emissions. Carbon emissions, or sometimes known as carbon footprint, is the measurement of greenhouse gas emission emitted into the air causing climate change and the depletion of resources (Jaines, 2018). The United States, which makes 4 percent of the world’s population, alone creates 25% of the world’s carbon emissions (Jaines, 2018). Over half of the emissions are created by transportation related activities (Jaines, 2018) and, automobile idling, attributed by personal vehicles, creates around 30 million tons every year wasting three billion gallons of fuel (U.S. Department of Energy, 2015). Automobile idling occurs when the engine of a vehicle is running but not engaged with the transmission or is simply not in gear (Shancita, Masjuki, Kalam, Fattah, Rashed and Rashedul, 2014). Automobile idling has adverse effects on the global environment and human health, and has cancer causing agents in the particulate matter (Sentoff, Robinson and Holmen, 2010). Particulate matter (PM) are particles in the pollution emissions and makes up about one third to one half of what is federally regulated (Dominici, Greenstone and Sunstein, 2014). Furthermore, airborne particulate matter is detrimental to human health as it shortens lives and increases morbidity rates (Dominici, Greenstone and Sunstein, 2014). For nearly 30 years Maricopa County has failed to meet air quality standards for PM pollution, effecting the health of the community (Fominaya, 2017). By not making the air quality standards Maricopa County can receive sanctions and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can reject Arizona’s State Implementation Plan (SIP) (Cook, 2011). This looming threat can financially affect the economy of Maricopa County, potentially costing taxpayers substantial AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 5 increase in taxes. MCAQD has implemented various programs, rules and sanctions to reduce air pollutants and emissions. However, a concept that was not previously considered was an automobile idling reduction program. The mission for AIRP is to educate and create behavioral changes to reduce carbon emission After thorough research and consideration, the Automobile Idling Reduction Program (AIRP) was proposed to MCAQD. The proposal requested resource support for a community outreach program that would reduce automobile idling in high idling industries: freight and delivery, schools and drive- thru facilities. The program is designed to promote patrons to turn their vehicle engines off, if they were to idle longer than 30 seconds (this is not inclusive while driving in traffic). The vision and mission for AIRP is to prevent carbon emission from being released into the air by automobiles idling in Maricopa County. In turn, the reduction of carbon emissions will provide cleaner, healthier air to the community members of Maricopa County, inadvertently creating a positive global impact. Implementation of AIRP is met through strategic objectives that include an outreach campaign, educational training and program initiatives conducted in three phases. The phases were organized by consideration of public impact, information and resource availability. AIRP Strategic Objectives AIRP is developed as a campaign with initiatives to address the air quality issues within Maricopa County and surrounding communities. It promotes a behavioral change that reduces carbon emissions from polluting the air causing particulate matter and ozone. AIRP’s goals will be met through strategic marketing campaigns and programming. The campaign leverages the general public to turn their engines off if they will be idling longer than 30 seconds however, not while driving in traffic. The promotional collateral includes the use of purposefully placed billboards, light rail wraps, social media pushes, handouts and vinyl stickers. Promotional collateral items are used during events and during high polluting times of year, such as, summer ozone season and winter no burn days. Items are also made available to participating organizations for additional promotion. The initiatives are specifically addressed to the aforementioned high idling industries and were implemented in phases. The first phase was creating a fifth to eighth grade education program that teaches students the importance of vehicle idling reduction. The education program was assimilated with the current fifth to eighth grade air quality curriculum that is regulated to the Arizona Education Standards allowing it to be taught in Maricopa County schools. The fifth AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 6 to eighth grade education program is free to teachers and offers the necessary supplies to conduct each lesson. The second phase introduced a collaboration with community drive- thru facilities to offer a discount program. The community organizations with a drive- thru were requested to offer a discount at their store for those patrons who choose to turn their engine off and shop inside their store, rather than idling in the drive-thru. These organizations were offered “no idling” signage at no additional cost to the participating organizations. The third phase introduced financial assistance to freight and delivery trucks that changed their older diesel engines to higher efficiency engines that burn cleaner. Each participating organization was trained and informed on how they could participate in the Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) Grant. While the campaign and initiatives are simple in nature, they require substantial resources to implement and maintain AIRP. Because AIRP is provided as a public service, it does not create fiscal profitability for MCAQD. However, the benefits are intangible as they will promote healthier and wealthier living environments for the County constituents. The magnitude of AIRP required support from the internal stakeholders and collaboration efforts with external organizations. Gaining Support from Internal Stakeholders Internal stakeholders are instrumental to the success of any program. They will be the supporter, influencer, resource, facilitator and control many other facets of the program. Creating that buy- in from internal stakeholders can be difficult if not strategic in your approach. Buy- in happens when people are aware and aligned with key business issues and understand how these issues can positively affect them; and builds commitment and engages people in the achievement of goals (Thomson & Hecker, 2000). The higher the understanding, the higher the commitment, and the greater success the program will have (see Figure 1). Figure 1 (Thomson & Hecker, 2000, p.52) AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 7 The AIRP communication plan was targeted toward the Director and supporting organization, MCAQD. The first strategies developed and implemented were creating an elevator pitch, having a one- on- one conversation and describe how AIRP’s vision aligns with MCAQD’s vision, mission and purpose (Center for Creative Leadership, 2019). The elevator pitch was made to be quick and concise to get the attention of the Director. The pitch focused on the urgency needed to make air pollution emission reductions to make the EPA 2015 Ozone Attainment Standard, program summary and a call to action. Elevator pitches allow for a chance to get a “foot” in the door and make an appointment for a longer discussion and more structured meeting to make a formal proposal. A more structured meeting allocates time for a deeper conversation opening the Director to be more empathetic and receptive (Loehr, 2016) to AIRP’s vision. Additionally, an assertive but polite reminder stated that Maricopa County was dangerously close to not being in compliance with the 2015 EPA Ozone Attainment Standard. And by not making that standard, stricter regulations will be enacted possibly causing more of a burden on community organizations, stakeholders and creating a political predicament. Although, the Director substantially supported AIRP, there were additional resources needed to implement the program. Without those resources, AIRP would not have been executed properly resulting in the demise of the program. Development of external collaborations helped to alleviate the pressure on one entity and ensure a stronger outreach to the public. Developing External Collaborations AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 8 Because AIRP affects many companies within three different industries, it is not feasible for one organization to support such an audacious initiative. MCAQD benefited from collaborating with external organizations. Collaboration with external organizations are beneficial because they are helpful in managing large problems, dealing with suppliers, meeting customer requirements, facing costly regulation and developing inside/outside strategies for sustainability issues (Sarda, 2018). Collaborating with the external sources made it possible to cover costs, resources, audiences and support. Strategic collaborations were made with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG). It was beneficial to MCAQD and AIRP to form these partnerships to gain access to federal funding, grant money and technological resources. Additionally, because they are publicly managed and regulated organizations, they offer the support needed to motivate organizations to promote and assist with the idle reduction campaign. Also, MCAQD and AIRP found it valuable to collaborate with high idling industries, freight and delivery companies, schools and local drive thru facilities, as they are key audiences in which AIRP initiatives and programs are designed to address. These collaborations included: working with freight and delivery companies to access the DERA Grant promotion to facilitate and fiscally assist with changing older diesel engines into higher efficiency engines that burn cleaner; creating a fifth to eighth grade education program for schools to teach students the importance of vehicle idling reduction; and work with community organizations to offer a discounts at their stores for those patrons who choose to turn their engine off and order inside, rather than idling in the drive-thru facilities. Developing collaborative partnerships allowed for AIRP to have a further reach and create more sustainable programs. Regardless of the resources available, if risk management is not considered the program will not be efficient or successful. And a waste of everyone’s resources and time. Risk Management Any strategic program needs to include risk management into their plan. Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to AIRP better anticipated obstacles and challenges, and ways to manage those potential incidences. A SWOT analysis identified AIRP specific issues (see Table 1). Table 1. SWOT Analysis for AIRP AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 9 AIRP offers many strengths and opportunities for the business community and general public. It reduces air pollution from carbon emissions providing cleaner air to improve the health and wellness of Maricopa County residents and outlining communities. The improvement in air quality reduces missed days of work due to illness and increasing productivity. AIRP promotes behavioral changes that further collaborative efforts with other municipalities to encourage sustainability principles and develop carbon reducing policies. Although there are many strengths and opportunities within AIRP, there are weaknesses and threats that are harmful to the overall success of AIRP. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Maricopa County has an estimated 4,410,824 population (U.S. Department of Commerce, n.d.). Having this large of a population makes it difficult to address all constituents and is quite challenging to regulate. AIRP is also a controversial topic as it contradicts shared political opinions and the desert environment causes heat related illnesses. The most challenging obstacles have been gaining additional assistance from decision makers within external organizations to continue supporting and allocating resources for AIRP. These weaknesses and threats are being mitigated through active planning and flexibility to accommodate change. These plans and changes are considered through the Gantt Chart (see Appendix A. Figure A1). Conclusion AIRP was developed to address the looming particulate matter and ozone problem within Maricopa County, all of which affects the global problem of climate change. Additionally, AIRP address health, wellness and fiscal issues associated with air pollution. As the vision for AIRP is to prevent carbon emission from being released into the air by automobile idling in Maricopa AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 10 County. This vision has been successfully implemented due to strategic objectives and planning of an idle reduction campaign and initiatives. The campaign and initiatives focus on high idling industries to create informative promotional collateral, educational training and assistance. As with any successful program, internal and external partnership were leveraged to help alleviate any potential obstacles that would distract from accomplishing AIRP’s vision. References Canada.ca. (2016, September 20). Emission impacts resulting from vehicle idling. Retrieved from https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/communitiesinfrastructure/transportation/cars-light-trucks/idling/4415 Center for Creative Leadership. (2019). The Best Ways to Communicate Your Organizations Vision. Retrieved from https://www.ccl.org/multimedia/podcast/communicating-the-vision/. Cook, H. (2011). Maricopa County particulate matter source study. Dominici, F., Greenstone, M., & Sunstein, C. (2014). Particulate Matter Matters. Science, 344(6181), 257-259. Fominaya, T. (2017). Suitability modeling using rescale by function in ArcGIS: Predicting health impacts from PM0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT4101RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT4 pollution in maricopa county, arizona (Order No. 10599261). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1926761619). Retrieved from http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquestcom.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/1926761619?accountid=4485 Grant, M., & Kenton, W. (2019, November 18). Understanding Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sustainability.asp. AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM 11 Jaines, Kira. (2019, December 2). Effects of Carbon Footprint. sciencing.com. Retrieved from https://sciencing.com/effects-of-carbon-footprint-4984464.html Loehr, A. (2016, May 6). 7 practical tips for increasing empathy [Huffington Post Blog]. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-loehr/seven-practical-tips-for_b_9854350.html Sarda, B. (2018). Global Lecture 2: Why Collaborate? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://asu.instructure.com/courses/24063/pages/module-2viewings?module_item_id=1390637 Sentoff, K., Robinson, M., & Holmen, B. (2010). Second-by-Second Characterization of ColdStart Gas-Phase and Air Toxic Emissions from a Light-Duty Vehicle. Transportation Research Record, 2158(1), 95-104. Shancita, I., Masjuki, H., Kalam, M., Fattah, I. R., Rashed, M., & Rashedul, H. (2014). A review on idling reduction strategies to improve fuel economy and reduce exhaust emissions of transport vehicles. Energy Conversion and Management, 88, 794-807. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2014.09.036 Thomson, K., & Hecker, L. (2000). Value-adding communication: Innovation in employee communication and internal marketing. Journal of Communication Management, 5(1), 48-58. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1108/13632540110806668 U.S. Department of Commerce. (n.d.). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Maricopa County, Arizona. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/maricopacountyarizona U.S. Department of Energy. (2015). Idling Reduction for Personal Vehicles. Idling Reduction for Personal Vehicles (pp. 1–2). Argonne National Laboritories. Valenzuela, H. (n.d.). Development of Maricopa County’s Emission Reduction Credit Program. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/201711/documents/emission_reduction_program.pdf AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Appendix A Figure A1. Gantt Chart 12 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Notes: Appendix B Figure B1. Maricopa County Non-Attainment Area A (Valenzuela, n.d.) 13 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Notes: Appendix C Figure C1. Program Logo for Media Collateral 14 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Notes: Appendix D Figure D1-6. Sample 5th – 8th Grade Lesson Plan 15 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Notes: Appendix D (continued) D7-10. Sample 5th – 8th Grade Lesson Plan 16 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Notes: Appendix E Figure E1. Idle Free Pledge – Public Pledge 17 AUTOMOBILE IDLING REDUCTION PROGRAM Notes: 18