Community Regional Medical Center is offering employees with electric cars a way to charge them at work to encourage employees to do their part to help clean the Valley’s air. The two electric charging stations are located in the employee-only section of the downtown hospital’s largest parking garage. Employees can plug in for free on a first come, first serve basis.

After being approached by a local company that makes the car chargers, Kevin Weaver, Community Regional’s director of security, polled employees about ideas for promoting “greener commuting” habits. Nearly a quarter responded saying they had all-electric cars or would seriously consider buying an electric car if they had a place to plug in at work. “Enough people were interested that we thought it was worth trying,” said Weaver. “If we see that the charging stations are continually full and people are waiting in line to plug in, we’ll add more.”
 

Community Regional employees formed a green team several years ago and have worked to improve recycling habits on the campus, install more bike racks, encourage carpooling and created an organic urban garden on campus. “This is just another way our employees are living our mission of improving the health of our greater community,” Weaver said.
 

Erin Kennedy reported this story. She can be reached at MedWatchToday@CommunityMedical.org.