As y'all know, I regularly turn to other blogs and news sites to find grist for my posts. But I rarely "borrow" stories as completely as I'm going to this morning. It's not that I'm lazy or uninspired today, on the contrary, I'm so inspired by my friends at Patagonia and their wholehearted commitment to bike to work week that I'm compelled to share their stories and stats with you.

For starters, if you aren't familiar with Patagonia's employee blog, The Cleanest Line, you should link on over and get acquainted. Here's yesterday's post, titled Riding Into The Sunset:

We just wrapped up Bike-to-Work Week here in Ventura with a groovy happy hour and raffle. A quick tally shows that Ventura employees rode 1,979 miles this week and Reno rode a whopping 2,789 miles! (Stay tuned for the Retail store totals.) According to Bike Metro and the EPA, by riding our bikes instead of driving this week Patagonia employees kept the following amounts of pollutants out of the environment:

Total Hydrocarbons = 29.406 Lbs
Total Carbon Monoxide = 219.496 Lbs
Total Carbon Dioxide = 4367.488 Lbs
Total Nitrous Oxide= 14.598 Lbs
Total Gas= 216.7 Gal

Those are pretty straightforward and impressive stats, and I could call it good on this post right now. But there's more to the tale, if you browse the week's posts on The Cleanest Line:

• don't miss the priceless video clip titled Bike to Childcare, featuring future Patagoniacs
• and if you wonder why Patagonia's Reno employees tallied so many more miles than their Ventura-based counterparts, check out 3 Counties, 2 States and No Excuses
• finally, while you anxiously await the final tally from Patagonia's retail stores, read through the Bike To Work Retail Challenge post, which tells the tale of the ongoing commitment to bicycle commuting by the Portland store's staff:

We're really committed to biking and using alternative transportation at our store and have actually been keeping track of our commute for over a year now. The last couple months have been especially strong with 68% biking in March and 72% in April. We have a bike rack in the store and share the previous months totals for all of our customers to see. This is our mission to inspire others.

(note: the folks in Portland started the week with 100% participation … they may be tough to beat)

Since I used to live across the street from Patagonia's Portland store, I'm particularly proud of their efforts. But everyone at Patagonia deserves kudos for their spirit and commitment to always taking the cleanest line.

By the way, here in Jackson we celebrate Bike to Work Week in mid-June. Wouldn't it be great for the folks who commute to work in Jackson from Alpine, Victor and Driggs to come up with their own "3 county, 2 states, no excuses" challenge?

Stay tuned for Jackson Hole's stats in about a month.

Carbon Neutral Journal's stats are brought to you by Blue Spruce Cleaners.

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