This article was published in August 2023 and may be outdated.
From June 4-10, Hydro employees biked, bussed, carpooled, rolled, walked, and scootered to work as part of the 2023 Commuter Challenge. The annual challenge is a friendly competition between Canadian cities and workplaces that celebrates active and sustainable transportation.
Manitoba Hydro was the organization with the most participants in Canada and had the highest participation (provincially and nationally) of companies with over 3,000 employees.
Manitoba Hydro has a long history of winning gold in the Commuter Challenge, earning the top title in the 3,000+ category nearly every year since first participating.
“This year we had 848 participants and 15.86% participation across the company – 100 participants short of beating our record year of 2013,” said Jackie, who volunteers on Manitoba Hydro’s Commuting Options Committee.
| Mode of transport | Total trips | Total kilometres |
|---|---|---|
| Bike | 606 | 9,523 |
| Bus | 921 | 15,601 |
| Carpool | 512 | 22,857 |
| Telecommute | 1,334 | 37,564 |
| Roll (In-line Skate/Skateboard/Wheelchair) | 15 | 46 |
| Walk | 406 | 1,700 |
| Scooter/e-bike | 28 | 473 |
Many Manitoba Hydro executives and directors offered their parking spots for carpooling employees during the commuter challenge. Here, employees Vitali Zobel, Paul Loewen, and Paul Sawatzky, park in President & CEO Jay Grewal’s spot as winners of the carpool draw.
“I participate in the challenge every year,” said Sean Clegg, a Manitoba Hydro engineer based out of Brandon. “The challenge is important as it cuts down on the number of vehicles on the road, making for less traffic, noise, and pollution. It shows people that not using a car isn’t as hard as they might think, with the added benefit of some physical activity during the workday.”
Telecontrol technicians Jorgen Kaspick and Hunter McInnes riding to work in Gillam.
Enlarge image: Two men wearing hard hats pose on mountain bikes in front of a Manitoba Hydro truck.
Hydro employees Rolson Kwok, Ying Ying Liu, and Girlie Dumlao wait for the bus together during the 2023 Commuter Challenge.
Enlarge image: Three people pose for a selfie in front of a bus shelter.
Employees rallying employees
A large part of Manitoba Hydro’s success in the Commuter Challenge can be credited to the Commuting Options Committee, who coordinates Manitoba Hydro’s participation and motivates employees to participate. This year and last year, they created a live graph that shows how many commutes different offices and floors have logged, and organized prize draws for employees that participated in the challenge.
Roxanne Kaplan, in our gas supply department, stirred up competition between floors at our head office to beat the participation of her floor, offering a Tim’s treat to the other floor coordinators if they could encourage more participation on their floor.
Read more about how our employees care for the environment in our Environment, Social, and Governance Report.