To meet each goal, Intersection has been solidifying relationships across the board. For goal one, “We work with government agencies that help people do public mobility in cities,” he noted. Grosso estimates that Intersection prevented 1.2 billion pounds of CO2 emissions, according to the American Public Transit Association fact book. This was achieved by “getting people to take mass transit and micro mobility things like bike share and the like. We support those businesses by providing real time transit information, way finding, transit shelters, as well as generating revenue through advertising.”
In addition, according to Grosso, “We've provided more than a billion dollars in payments to municipalities over the last 10 years, most of which to support public mobility. So, by supporting public mobility and public transit that's a great way to drive sustainability and making cities more sustainable and help the environment.”
For goal two, reducing Intersection’s environmental footprint, “We put together a cross functional sustainability team to look at ways to reduce our carbon emissions and that includes things like reducing or transitioning our electric usage to clean sources as well as starting to test electric vehicles for our own vehicle fleets to support all of our infrastructure.”
With goal three, to increase brands and advertisers who want to align themselves with sustainable products, “We've identified a broad set of sustainable products for advertisers to sponsor. That can be things like electric and hybrid buses and clean electric power trains that our transit partners have in the streets, solar powered bus shelters that we deployed, bike share stations and even EV charging stations. Taking products that are clearly sustainable and environmentally friendly and giving advertisers and brands the opportunity to sponsor them and be associated with them,” he stated.
The main objective is to support public transit in cities, “which is a core piece of our mandate, getting our own house in order, by reducing our own environmental footprint and also helping brands align with sustainable products,” he stated.
With advertisers, Intersection seeks the right fit for each company and, as more companies and agencies are interested in sustainability, the time is right for action. Grosso explained that, “I was on the phone with one agency head yesterday who said that sustainability is a huge priority and they need these kinds of products in front of them. So it's actually being driven by the advertisers. We think it's the right thing to do, but the market is driving this and they're telling us that they want this.”
For Intersection, “This is a long term initiative for us. We're always going to be focused on public transit and I think you're going to increasingly see brands wanting to be associated with green and sustainable products. That's going to be a big growth area for us. With regards to our own footprint, over the next three to five years I'd like to see us mostly using EV vehicles, using mostly sustainable materials for our static business and mostly using green power,” he stated.
For Grosso personally, “I'd like to see us get to a much more sustainable place. It's an important long term initiative for us to get right because it's something that our employees are demanding, our city partners are demanding, our advertisers are demanding and honestly it's just the right thing to do.”
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
Artwork by Charlene Weisler
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